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| The net or the mosque? where do you go;-) |
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| lala |
| 11/10/04 at 11:59:32 |
| Salaam, Check this out!!! btw, if you go to the link you can leave 'comments' etc oh Jannah, are those your logos???????????????? peace ----------------- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3997701.stm An online war for hearts and minds By Dominic Casciani Community affairs, BBC News Hundreds of websites advocate radical forms of Islam The battle for Muslim minds is not being fought by radicals in Falluja or in the mosques. It is being fought on the net. And one of Europe's experts on Islam in the West says governments must rethink how they are going to win this war. This week a British Muslim website discussed how worried they were about how disenchanted young men can turn into "Wahaboys", a term derived from Wahabism, the strict Saudi Arabian interpretation of Islam. That came days after the killing of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected Islamist radical. The events are entirely unrelated - but both point to a continental struggle for the direction of Muslim identity. And, says Professor Gilles Kepel, the internet is playing an increasingly central part, if not the most important part, in this battle for hearts and minds. Dutch views on Van Gogh's death In pictures Gilles Kepel is one of Europe's top thinkers on Islam. He was a member of the French commission which recommended banning religious symbols from schools - a decision essentially seen as targeting Islamic headscarves. This does not mean he sees a "clash of civilisations", far from it. But in his new book, The War for Muslim Minds, he argues that the West is the battlefield where the struggle to modernise and democratise Islamic societies will be fought. If governments ensure the success of young European Muslims, then they will export their positive experiences eastwards, he argues. But if governments do not act, then the disenfranchised extremes will confirm the suspicions of those who oppose Western society. Role of the net There are hundreds of websites, blogs or e-groups which loosely count as being radical in nature, many aligned to the fundamentalist worldview known as Salafist preaching. There are of course many others propagating more mainstream visions of Islam. Between them, they compete for young European Muslims looking for signposts to their identity. ONLINE, IN POWER? If you are a cybernaut, you now have much more influence over young Muslim minds than a scholar who has spent 40 years studying the traditions Gilles Kepel "The websites have created a new way to recruit anywhere, anyone of Muslim descent but they also reorganise the frontiers of groups and communities," says Prof Kepel. "What has been very striking with the rise of Salafists in the West is the way they were linked to websites in the Arabian peninsula from where they were directly receiving their guidance." In one case highlighted by Prof Kepel, a French Muslim woman sought online theological guidance on taking the Pill and the advice she was given amounted to a rejection of the surrounding world. "That's very scary because allegiances, attitudes and behaviour are being defined by instructions on the web." Admittedly, it is difficult to gauge the impact of these websites on behaviour, although Prof Kepel says they played a key part in the campaign against France's headscarf ban. 'The database' But the bigger picture is their role in the "war on terror". The word al-Qaeda means "the base" - but metaphorically it means something closer to "database" or repository. That simple idea has launched a thousand websites, says Prof Kepel. "The problem is when you have kids like those in Spain responsible for the train attacks in Madrid; they haven't trained in Afghanistan - but they have learned what they need through the net. It's a web mobilisation to a cause. "If you are a cybernaut, you now have much more influence over young Muslim minds than a scholar who has spent 40 years studying the traditions. "With its smart weapons the US can quite easily destroy the 'base' in the caves of Tora Bora - but those bombs do nothing to deal with the 'database' itself," he says. Identity battle: Icons for men and women in one chatroom If this influence is to be combated, then states need to rethink their integration strategies, warns Prof Kepel. "I think things are changing hare and in Holland. There is anxiety that multiculturalism has given leeway to radical groups to build enclosed citadels, totally contrary to what the multiculturalists wanted." Prof Kepel argues multiculturalism allows "village strongmen" to dominate and reinforces a narrow world view which disenfranchises the young. Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, has publicly declared multiculturalism to be past its sell-by date. The net and not the mosque is the market where the young are turning to buy into allegiances which can be completely at odds with reality, says the professor. Social fragmentation On an internet forum this week, a woman with a depressed boyfriend was advised by one respondent her relationship is forbidden (haram) and will only lead to misery. Another said his wife could help her "revert" to her true Islamic self. Neither addressed the pressing issue. "Multiculturalism has been a catastrophe. It leads to the balkanisation of society and ultimately to civil war," says Prof Kepel. "It 'clans' people within an identity from which they can't escape. You have to define yourself as gay, Black, Muslim or whatever. "What I fear is fragmentation of society along these lines. You are born with an identity but what is important is what you become." |
| 11/10/04 at 12:03:53 |
| lala |
| Re: The net or the mosque? where do you go;-) |
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| jannah |
| 11/10/04 at 13:44:03 |
| [wlm] wow yes they are... they call it "identity battle"??? it's unbelievable what kind of garbage they publish nowadays under the guise of yellow journalism! this article is completely unfounded. it's like they can't even think of ways to attack islam anymore so they go on the web and make crap up. now "salafists" are the new bad muslims next to "wahabists".. i mean how many ists are they going to go through before essentially saying all islam is bad except if you're a muslim but don't practice or have any idealogy of it. al qaeda means database? i mean come on... what kind of crack was this writer on and i can't believe the BBC published it to boot, don't they have any kind of guidelines "Multiculturalism has been a catastrophe. " they quote people with PhDs saying stuff like this?? here's what i left "Those are the icons for men and women I made for my forum. That is considered "radical"?? Unbelievable. The problem at heart is here is complete misunderstanding of Islam and what it is. Unless the "government" and "powers that be" understand what that is, they will continue to alienate moderate normal Muslims and push them to become so called "radicals". " |
| 11/10/04 at 13:46:45 |
| jannah |
| Re: The net or the mosque? where do you go;-) |
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| jannah |
| 11/10/04 at 14:18:50 |
| The scariest thing is that he took this thread http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/madina/YaBB.pl?board=madrasa;action=display;num=1093353733 and twisted it into this: On an internet forum this week, a woman with a depressed boyfriend was advised by one respondent her relationship is forbidden (haram) and will only lead to misery. Another said his wife could help her "revert" to her true Islamic self. Neither addressed the pressing issue. |
| Re: The net or the mosque? where do you go;-) |
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| Stephanie |
| 11/10/04 at 20:39:25 |
| [slm] WHAT??? What kind of crap is this? I'm shocked. . . I'm going to post a comment immediately. Please everyone I urge you to do the same. Is there anyway we can contact the BBC seperately from this article. I will look inshallah. While I've watched a resurgence of Christian evangelism in this country, there is also a strong segment of people who hate and consistanly bash all religious people. Both are equally unsettling ot me. It sounds like the author fits into the latter cateqory. [wlm] :-) |
| Re: The net or the mosque? where do you go;-) |
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| timbuktu |
| 11/10/04 at 21:49:22 |
| [slm] although there are gross inaccuracies, this is an attempt by the West to understand what is going on, and to try to mould it their way. It is necessary for us also to to take note and analyse. I think, yes, the part about the net being a battleground has become true. The kafir civilisation has almost a monopoly on other media sources. It is so perverse that our newspapers which pick up the stories from Reuters etc., routinely refer to the Mujahideen as terrorists. Here , at least, we can let the world what we know know and what we see. The net is our tool. :) We must be properly armed to fight these battles. It is a war-front for hearts and minds, and souls. It is perhaps the only way for many to understand the Truth. There are Muslims scattered in hosile on non-Muslim surroundings, and they need to keep in touch. So, I wouldn't feel apologetic or angry. I am amused, and I would look for the disinformation that the learned professor was sending out. Don't worry. Make you niyyah for Jihad, and insh`Allah you will get the reward for it. No matter what the detractors say, the beauty of Islam shines through to those who genuinely want to understand, and then they come to Islam. :) |
| Re: The net or the mosque? where do you go;-) |
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| se7en |
| 12/10/04 at 12:46:12 |
as salaamu alaykum, btw, for those of you who are not familiar with the controversy surrounding Theo van Gogh.. he was a Dutch film maker (he's the nephew of the famous Van Gogh) known for his virulently hateful views towards Islam. For example, he made a short film entitled 'Submission', that was seeking to 'expose' the horrible lives of oppressed Muslim women in the world.. it was made with an 'ex-Muslim' woman, has a lot of very graphic and explicit scenes, descriptions of incest, etc.. One particularly disturbing scene in the film shows four abused women, nude, with verses from the Qur'an painted on their bodies. He also wrote a book entitled "Allah knows best" which was equally hateful towards Islam. He was recently killed by a 'suspected Islamic radical' in Amsterdam. |
| Re: The net or the mosque? where do you go;-) |
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| Bangachi |
| 12/11/04 at 01:31:55 |
| I was repulsed to discover an article in USA today regarding muslim bashing. A class action suit has been taken out against those responsible for indecent name calling muslims such as terrorists and sand niggers. I went on an chat room discussing the war and I asked the people chating what about our Qu'ran. A man replied it makes good toilet paper. I was repulsed. The constitution of the United States declares all men are created equal...if what he says of the Qu'ran is accepted,and muslim hatred is tolerated by the so called free nations.. than to me the US constitution would make far better toilet paper than my holy book. Allahu Akbar. |
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