Washington Post, Hasan on Islam "Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the Army psychiatrist believed to have killed 13 people at Fort Hood, was supposed to discuss a medical topic during a presentation to senior Army doctors in June 2007. Instead, he lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting wars in Muslim countries."
AFP, Iran creates Internet crime unit, 13 Nov 09 "The Iranian police have created a special unit to monitor Internet crime, particularly political offences, a senior police officer was quoted by the ILNA news agency as saying on Friday."
Nadeem F. Paracha,Dawn, A nation of sleepwalkers, 12 Nov 09 "Recently, we also heard about a hijab-clad female student at the prestigious and ‘liberal’ Lahore University of Management Sciences, who bagged her 15 minutes of fame by capturing images through her mobile phone of students indulging in ‘immoral activities’ on campus. Of course, the same lady’s ‘concern’ and righteousness ends at becoming a self-appointed paparazzi for the reactionaries, whereas it was young women (in hijabs) and men with beards who died so senselessly at the Islamabad Islamic University campus.
"Taking action against an employee because their Facebook page or Twitter posts suggest they have emotional difficulties or mental health problems may itself be a violation of anti-discrimination laws. If a Web site reveals that an employee is a believer in Islamic fundamentalism, this is not by itself information that can justify an employer's adverse action."
kansascity.com, Muslim Mafia' author ordered to remove documents from Web, 9 Nov 09 "A federal judge has taken the rare step of ordering self-described anti-terrorism investigator Paul David Gaubatz to remove from his Web site some of the 12,000 documents that his son allegedly stole from the Council on American-Islamic Relations."
""They live in the 7th century but they're technologically savvy," Fowler told the Star. "They were following the Internet, and one even showed me a cellphone picture of me at the UN that I'd never seen before.""
Times Online, 'Angel of Freedom' Neda Agha Soltan Oxford scholarship will be her most important legacy, 12 Nov 09 "Four months on, Neda has become a defining symbol of the protest movement in Iran. So the decision by Queen’s College, Oxford, to establish a scholarship in her name is more than commendable. The “Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship” for philosophy students of Iranian descent could prove to be a galvanising tool for the protesters – especially in their fight to counter academic censorship in Iran. As a British-Iranian student myself, Oxford’s move is as striking as it is heartening."
BBC News, Wrecks tell tale of growing violence, 12 Nov 09, "The bombers were Islamist radicals. In a chilling video posted on the internet, a Russian-born Muslim convert called Said Buryatsky makes it clear the bomb was intended to kill as many people as possible."
"Counter-terrorism sources said last night that Mr Awlaki was barred from entering Britain on security grounds, while the anti-extremist Quilliam Foundation said that he was “perhaps the most influential pro-jihadist ideologue preaching in English today”."
alarabiya.net, Saudi newspaper al-Watan website hacked, 7 Nov 09 "The website of the Saudi based newspaper al-Watan was hacked early Saturday by suspected supporters of a leading cleric who was recently sacked from the kingdom’s Council of Senior Clerics board.
"After the newspaper’s website was compromised, the hackers placed a picture of Sheikh Saad bin Nasser al-Shithri on its front page along with a statement denouncing the defamation of Muslim scholars."
alarabiya.net, Saudi religious police launch Facebook group "A group of Saudi's launched a group on a popular social networking website called The Facebook Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and have so far to attracted more than 500 members.
"The group, named after the kingdom's Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice also known as the religious police, aims to introduce people to the religious police, the London-based al-Hayat reported Friday."
"The move is to give Malaysian ICT (information and communications technology) companies a chance to flourish in the local market and strengthen their products before pushing into global markets."
"Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, chief executive officer of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), said the new locations are to provide more variety and choice to companies and organisations looking to be part of the MSC Malaysia initiative.
The Sun, Brit spies foil 9/11 New York raid No2, 9 Nov 09 "Thousands of New Yorkers could have been at risk from a US subway blitz. Zazi, of Denver, Colorado, is alleged to have been given instructions through the internet by a senior al-Qaeda figure in Pakistan.
"But the Yard's counter-terrorism branch was monitoring an email address uncovered in April's abortive Operation Pathway probe into an alleged UK terror cell."
"In the clip, Ali Jaleel (Mus’ab Sayyid), 30, from H. Moscowge in the capital Male’ says he wants to wage Jihad and die a martyr.
"“I want my blood to be the bit of carpet which the Mujahideen are taking from their blood. The red carpet which would take the Ummah to its glory...So I want to be among that caravan so that I can be a brick upon which Islam will stand,”"
Commentary on Islam Q&A - Muhammad Salih Al-Munajjid
Tarek Fatah, National Post, Spreading intolerance, one fatwa at a time, 9 Nov 09 "Muhammad Salih Al-Munajjid is a well-known Saudi cleric who has a large following in Canada and the West. Like other so-called Islamic scholars, he maintains an active presence on the Internet, which he uses as a platform to tell young Muslim men and women how to lead proper Islamic lives. His Saudi-based Islamic web portal, Islam Q& A, caters to Muslim youth not just in English, but Mandarin, Cantonese, Turkish, Urdu, French, Spanish, Russian, Uyghur and of course Arabic."
Refers to the Islam Q&A site, which I have discussed in iMuslims and other work.
"They hope that by tracing Hasan's internet activities, including postings and conversations that may have been erased before the killing spree, they can gain some insight into his actions."
"iMuslims will be welcomed by all who want to understand the impact of the Internet on Islam and the Muslim world today. Gary Bunt, leading expert on Islam, provides a fascinating picture of the Internet as a vehicle for transformation of mainstream Islam as well as a propaganda and recruitment tool for militants." John L. Esposito, Georgetown University, co-author of Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think
"Many scholars have commented on online Islam, and a few have undertaken research, but only Bunt has developed a comprehensive approach to chronicling Muslims' uptake of the full range of cyber-technologies. iMuslims is a significant book for both religious studies and policy studies." Jon W. Anderson, coeditor of Reformatting Politics: Information Technology and Global Civic Society
"Bunt demonstrates an unparalleled command of the many and diverse manifestations of Islam on the Internet. Thoroughly comprehensive and up-to-date, iMuslims offers a wealth of examples throughout, allowing the reader to come away with a firm sense of the rich world of 'cyber-Islamic environments.'" Peter Mandaville, author of Global Political Islam
"Bunt confirms his pre-eminence in the study of Islam and new information technologies with this incisive and timely i-Muslims. This work expertly examines how Muslim digitisation and “wiring” are likely producing new transformations in the understanding and practice of Islam, and importantly in the religious authority to interpret it, which go to the heart of the current critical debate over who speaks for Islam." James Piscatori, Australian National University
"Bunt redirects our attention from the web to the Muslims who make use of it. The study of Islam on the internet has come of age." Jakob Skovgaard- Petersen, Director of the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute in Cairo
"This book provides a refreshing report on the world’s contemporary Muslim community, and raises stimulating
questions that will contribute to the ongoing discussion on the adaptability of religion in the computer age." Clifton Martin, MEI Bulletin [links to pdf]
Other Recent Publications
'The Digital Umma' chapter in A Companion to The Muslim World, edited by Amyn B. Sajoo, (London: IB Tauris/Institue of Islamili Studies, 2009)
A version of this listing can be found on the Islamic Blogosphere page. This is a 'work in progress' listing of blogs with an Islamic angle. Listing does not imply recommendation. Some of these and other blogs are discussed in iMuslims. Owners of blogs relevant to Virtually Islamic readers are welcome to submit requests for inclusion.