The Internet provides religious authorities with yet another medium in order to connect and attract new adherents. At the same time, and perhaps more importantly, the Internet provides a space for new interpretations and deliberations concerning religious practices without the direct supervision and interference of religious authorities. The intention of this paper is to highlight one specific aspect where this development is clearly seen, i.e. the Muslim hip-hop music video clips distributed and published online. Hip-hop has become a vernacular for youth involvement and protest worldwide and is used by young people demanding to be heard whether they are at Maydan al-Tahrir in Cairo, among the Algerian immigrants in the French suburb Clichy-sous-Bois, or at the public housing project Queensbridge in New York. Through hip-hop these youngsters are given an opportunity to unite against perceived injustices both on a local and a global level alike. Most protesting youth with a Muslim family background use a secular, political language to protest but far more than only the deeply devout Muslims make references to Islam. By fusing Islam with the African American aesthetics of hip-hop, they have created a monumental fusion of resistance. The empirical material studied in this paper reflects this development and on top of the on-going internal religious debates on the legitimacy of music and the usage of images and depictions music clips are a fascinating topic for content analysis in several ways. The visual aesthetics, the choices of pictures (or no pictures), themes and storylines supplementing the musical message can be used to mobilize and promote different traditions of interpretation of Islam. They also convey interesting insights in the negotiations and compromises of Muslim identities in the consumer culture logic of the modern society. Lastly, they can provide a route to analyze the articulations of alternative interpretations of Islam often, but not always, rooted in a deep social-justice activism that connects marginalized communities within and beyond the Middle East. The paper analyses music video clips from Muslim hip-hop acts based in Denmark, Egypt and the United States. It stems from a larger research project that explores the complex relationship between Islam and the hip-hop culture in the intersection of the global religious consumer market and the development of a social-justice activism rooted in Islam. Islam has not only changed hip-hop, more importantly; hip-hop has and is changing Islam.

This paper analyzes mainstream video games produced in the United States, Europe, and the Arab world and explores the ways these games deal with the representation of Islam and Muslim identity. It is based on a content analysis of more than 80 games developed between the years 2005-2011, alongside interviews with 8 different game producers. It analyzes audiovisual signifiers, narrative structures, and rule systems utilized by these games in order to construct the “virtual representation” of Islam. The research methodology encompasses recent trends in Islamic studies, cultural studies, and game studies. Substantive portions of the materials considered in this paper were gathered during fieldwork trips to Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. Video games represent a mainstream media and popular leisure time activity. They exhibit strong popular appeal and economic relevance, contrasted by a lack of culture prestige and scientific coverage. Today we are in crucial need of critically understanding the symbolic and ideological dimensions of in-game representational politics. This paper analyzes how various genres of mainstream European and American video games have portrayed Islam and Muslim identity. It then compares these representations with portrayals of Islam found in existing Arab games of similar genres. Capitalizing on the Bogost’s notion of “procedural rhetoric,” this paper specifically discusses how Islam is embedded into the rule systems governing the player’s interaction with the game. Essentially, this paper argues that whereas Western games oftentimes present Islam as a threat, flatten out the diverse Muslim identities and reconstruct them into a series of social stereotypes, the Arab games use distinctive Islamic narrative to frame their game play and communicate Islamic principles and moral values to the youth. Nevertheless, the way Islam and its values are integrated into a game is fundamentally determined by the game’s genre and the “procedural forms” it enables. Since most of the Arab games utilize genres established by their successful Western counterparts, their authors have to appropriate the existing procedural forms and refashion them along the lines of Islamic principles. In other words, although the contemporary Arab games vary significantly in their background, aims, and design, and on a symbolic level offer multifaceted concepts of Islam and Muslim identity, on a structural level they remain “Western” and do not transcend the patterns established by the global video game industry. Therefore, from a broader perspective, this paper discusses the connections between global consumer culture, consumption of religion, and Islamization of commerce.

This paper presents a discourse and content analysis of how the Islam-critical webpage WikiIslam presents and discusses the issue of apostasy from Islam. Capitalizing on the Fairclough’s discourse critical theories the paper explores articles and texts posted on WikiIslam under the thread “Islam and Apostasy”. In particular, the rhetoric employed in the webpage and the examples chosen for inclusion – e.g. threads such as “helpful hints for ex-Muslims” and “Help Others to Leave Islam” – are analysed and related to how Islam and Muslims are discussed as a “threat” for the West. Essentially, the paper argues that the examples and general talks about Islam and apostasy as found on WikiIslam are closely related to anti-Muslim discourses in Europe. Moreover, the way of presenting Islam as something different and dangerous is an essential part of a growing anti-Muslim tendency in cyberspace. Hence we are in a crucial need to document and analyse how this discourse is related to the public discussion about Islam in Western societies. By the help of a critical discourse and content analysis this paper aims to evaluate if and to what extent the postings on WikiIslam leave out alternative interpretations of apostasy that are to be found among Muslim theologians in historic and contemporary debates. The paper is situated in a theoretical discussion about conversion, apostasy and freedom of religion/religious critique. By analysing the content and the rhetoric employed in the webpage WikiIslam the paper tries to develop a new way of analysing public discussions about Islam and Muslims in the West as well as a new way of analysing the relationship between religion and media in general. By doing this, it aims to analyse if and to what extent the online discussions found on WikiIslam are different from offline discussions about apostasy, religious freedom, and public discussions about religion in the Western world. Finally, on a broader theoretical level, the paper addresses the highly problematic, yet fundamentally important questions of religious critique. Indeed, in an open and democratic society it should be legal and lawful to hold a critical opinion of a religious tradition, but how does a nuanced but critical discussion differ from a blunt, hostile or closed opinion? To gain trust in the public discussion about religion it is important to be able to differ between legal and fair critique and Islamophobic opinions about Islam and Muslims.

The politics of the Middle East is not just about past grievances and present frustrations, but also about future allusions. Christians have long targeted Israel as the prophetic space for the second coming of Christ, at least seven years of prophecied tribulation for Israel and a cataclysmic battle at Armageddon with Satan himself. Muslims likewise have evolved yawm al-qiyâma scenarios in which Dajjâl is an avatar of the Antichrist, the Mahdi is about to be revealed and Gog and Magog will cause unprecedented mayhem in the Middle East. For both eschatologically inclined Christians and Muslims the Internet has opened up a forum for projections involving current world leaders and regimes in the Middle East. This paper will discuss the range of online apocalyptic scenarios that incorporate the current political turmoil in the Middle East into the traditional framework of end-time predictions. The focus will be on the application of exegetical rhetoric about apocalypse to current political events in the Middle East. Both Christians and Muslims make space for a final good vs. evil battle at the site of (or symbolized by) Armageddon in modern Israel. Both religions also portray Jerusalem, the current focus of deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, as the eventual entry point for Jesus/’Issa. In what ways do the Christian and Muslim scenarios, which at times draw on the same biblical source material, differ or offer similar projections? What are the criteria used in these scenarios for identifying existing Middle Eastern leaders and regimes as targets for prophetic interpretation? Apocalyptic scenarios, in which Christians and Muslims often target each other as opponents, have existed throughout the history of both religions. Now with the ease of access of the Internet, a wide variety of idiosyncratic views and reinterpretations of classic prophetic texts is available. To what extent do the current cyberexegetes reflect the shifting political rhetoric in the region? Is the extent of prophetic pronouncements having any impact on current political debates? This paper will analyze the potential of the spread of apocalyptic scenarios in cyberspace to influence politics on the ground.