Traveling with a Presidential Candidate

I took the same flight as Justice (r) Wahijuddin Ahmad to Islamabad on the 26th of September when he traveled to file his nomination papers for President.

I was on assignment covering the judge's movement for the news organization I work for.

I had the pleasure of sitting with the candidate on the flight and he drew my attention to this article.

If the journalist's sources are correct...well...just read it.

Of Technology and Faith

The information age is also a fervently religious age. This is only natural when one considers that beliefs are, in essence, information in which trust or confidence is placed. Beliefs and technology are of course nothing new, both have existed at least as long as humanity has.

The relationship between technology and beliefs is a symbiotic one. One the one hand, beliefs and myth have always been a kind of fuel in our intellectual furnace. They have driven technology forward, wither one considers the impact of solar and lunar worship on calenders and astronomy, or our intrepid quest for immortality via cryogenic freezing, cloning and genetic engineering.

While studying the relationship between technology and religious beliefs, it helps to think of the evolution of cultural in terms of “selection of the fittest”. That is to say, that the ideas that are the most fit to replicate themselves are, very obviously, the most likely to survive. In such a study, the intellectual counterpart of a gene is known as a “meme”.

Consider the Wheel, one of the oldest and most significant technologies of human civilization. Aside from its very obvious socio-economic, cultural and military impact upon human civilization, the wheel also facilitated the dissemination of religious beliefs from one group to another. A group of humans that had mastered this advancement would dominate other groups in battle and trade. The afore mentioned group would carry with it's own religious “memes” with it and would inculcate the dominated group with them. Once the technology and “memes” had been successfully transferred, both groups would replicate the process.

It should come to us then, as no surprise that the ancients attached a spiritual significance to the Wheel. This is evident in their languages; for example the Proto-Indo-European word for wheel “kwekwlo”, found its way into Sanskrit as both “Cakram” for Wheel and “Chakra” as in nexus of metaphysical energy within a human body.

Jump forward a few millennia and humanity is awed by a new technology, the printing press. To an even greater extent than the writing system, the printing press facilitated the transfer of religious “memes” between groups. It also allowed groups with their own Holy Scripture to be more resistant to change. Befittingly,the first book to be published using a printing press was the Bible, while the first book to be published via the printing press in the Ottoman Empire was the Q'uran. Martin Luther, born 36 years after the invention of the printing press, made extensive use of this technology in establishing the Protestant movement. New technology often aids the “memetic” success of new religious movements.

The advent of broadcast technology, namely Radio and Television, made an impact on the religious landscape of the world. A 1991 found that 260 countries of the world received Christan religious broadcasts, 120 countries received Muslim religious broadcasts while 30 countries received broadcasts from New Religious Groups. The nature of broadcast medium lent it's self to organized religions rather naturally, a virtual pulpit with an outbound message for the faithful. Wither it iss an off-beat Televangelist from Missisippi or Junaid Jamsheed, the Television lends an omnipresent mystique to your otherwise average religious personality.

Fast forward a few more years and the population of the Earth (and in particular the kind of people that read Spider) has had it's Zietgiest experience a dramatic shift. The Internet heralded a brave new world, where the boundaries of time and space collapsed into the click of a mouse. The unusual aspect of the religiosity of this age, is the sheer number of ideas and beliefs available for adoption.

Because of the Internet, in the Information Age the relationship between religion and technology is incomparable in its dynamics. Each user can disseminate their own religious “memes” without the need of an expensive assets such as a printing press or a broadcast station. Instead of an organized model, with a pulpit and an audience, the interaction of religious “memes” on the Internet more closely resembles the chatter of a lively coffee house argument.

For religion this makes the Internet even more significant than the printing press, with new ideas finding a deeper resonance than before. To take one example, a popular “Islamic” website (I don't know if Spider wants to include the URL www.submission.org, my suggestion is to omit it) promotes ideas which Muslims would, almost universally, recognize as unislamic.

The website in question opposes the use of Hadith, even for contextualizing verses of the Q'uran. Furthermore it advocates the removal to two verses from the Q'uran, and the founder of this organization claims to be a Messenger of God. All this, while claiming to be “The Best Source for Islam on the Internet”. Based out of Arizona in the United States, the group has followers across the globe, most of whom had never heard of the organization before stumbling upon its website. One such convert even moved to Arizona from another State to be closer to the heart of this new found faith.

In addition to facilitating the promotion of heterodox ideas, the web also reinforces orthodoxy. A group of scholars, geographically located in and around Jordon manage a website known as Sunnipath.com. Their Internet savvy methodology for reaching an audience notwithstanding, they are a rather traditional bunch. Each one of these scholars has “received” their knowledge by very traditional means, spending years upon years under the tutelage of the preceding generation of scholars. They are proponents of “Taqlid”, i.e. Blind following, of the four schools of Sunni law. Their website has made a major impact, particularly for traditionalist Muslims living in parts of the world where traditional Islamic education is not available.

Other parties competing for the hearts and minds of the faithful have also entrenched their presence in cyberspace. Two related groups, the Salafi and the Wahhabi are particularly apt at using the Internet to forward their ideas. In addition to hosting sites like freequran.org, where one can request a free Q'uran delivered to one's door, there are a number of Salafi/Wahhabi sites where one can order free copies of their literature.

The propagators of religion use the Internet to in much the same way as they used the printing press, radio and television. The main difference between this technology and those that preceded it, is the sheer multiplicity of voices. They also use it to supplement and aid older models of “memetic” transfer.

Sheikh Nuh Ha Meem Keller is a scholar of “tassaswuf”, the practice of inner purification in Islam. As a traditional Sheikh he is charged with providing personal guidance to all those who take an oath and become his “Murids” (i.e disciples) . Sheikh Nuh happens to live in Jordon, while most of his Murids are spread across Pakistan, Jordon, North Africa, Europe, North America and the UK. They download regular lectures from his website (www.vasuhba.com) to supplement their weekly Murid meetings.

Traditionally the Murid would leave near his Sheikh, so as to be able to seek answers their mystical inquires. If not then one would travel to see their Sheikh when they had questions. Sheikh Nuh however receives the majority of his questions from distant “Murids”via email. He takes care to reply to each email personally using recorded audio files. Which does not mean in anyway that Sheikh Nuh should be classified as anything other than a traditionalist, merely because of the technology he choses to use. He uses the technology to augment the older methods of “memetic” transfer.

The propagators of religious “memes” have adapted well to new technology, but what exactly are the end-users of the information revolution doing? In other words, what impact is the Internet having on he religious lives on individuals?

A thirteen year old girl posted a short entry into the guest book on freequran.com. She is delighted about becoming a Muslim. This is her second day as a Muslim, but she plans to wait a few years before letting her “big big Christan” parents know about her conversion. She was exposed to Islam by visiting a website (muslimyouth.net) which put her in touch with young Muslims living around her. Her story is not atypical of converts to any religion in the information age.

If the thirteen year old girl continues down this path, she is likely to be looking for guidance about her new found faith on line as well. There are a number of websites, across the sectarian divide, which provide advice regarding religious questions such as worship and marriage. Even if she were living in a Muslim household, she would be likely to turn to the Internet to find answers for questions that would be too embarrassing to ask.

She would also be likely to make strong ties with other individuals in the same situation as her on the Internet. While Internet relationships may cause most of us to chuckle, epically in Pakistan where one often gets requests to “make friendship” on the Internet, for an individual who may feel isolated because of her views, online ties with kindred spirits would be very meaningful.

In her study into the subject (note to spider: see sources) , Elena Larsen, found that it is not at all unusual for 'religious surfers' to satisfy their divine curiosities on line. She found that of all the people she interviewed, those that were both religious and users of the web, 67% used the Internet to find information about their own religion. This group tended to be most religiously active offline as well. A somewhat surprising 50% used the Internet to educated themselves about other religions.

If one of these intrepid souls was to stumble upon www.godweb.org a few months ago, they would have found a rather peculiar Christan denomination; The First Church of Cyberspace, founded in 1994. The founder of the “Church” decided to give the website an overhaul, complete with colorful Googlesque logo and a non-denominational tag line (“Finding God on the Web).

The website is now dedicated to building interfaith harmony. For those who doubt that a website could achieve such a lofty aim, the founder Charles Henderson has a lot to say. He believes that “Not only is God found on the Web, God is the Web: the web of connections that ties all things together, things "in heaven and on the earth.”One wonders if in the generations to come, references to the world wide web would be common in humanity's spiritual lexicon.

One view point that Charles Henderson is opposed to, however, is Atheism. That viewpoint too has its champions on the Internet. Ranging from websites which offer refutations of theistic beliefs to those that offer support to Atheists in 'hostile environments', atheism too is alive and kicking on the Internet.

Atheists seem particularly well organized in releasing videos on the Internet, with one particular documentary by a British biologist garnering a lot of attention.

Atheism has been a suppressed viewpoint thought history. In most societies an Atheist would face social ostracism at best and death at worst. As with other marginalized groups Atheists have found a safe haven on the Internet, often networking with others on email and chat groups.

Chat groups are often used for reasons other than networking. Some users self identify as “full time proselytizers”. They have been whiteness to and the inspiration for the conversion of a number of individuals. Just as early technology promoted the easy transfer of “memes” between groups, the Internet facilitates the easy transfer of “memes” between individuals. In cyberspace, a preacher no longer needs to travel distances in order to propagate their beliefs.

The Internet is a groundbreaking technology and it is important to recognize the different ways in which it is making an impact on our religious behavior. Firstly the Internet breaks down time and space barriers to transfer of religious beliefs. Secondly the Internet allows a greater number of ideas to canonize, thus encouraging groups adopting such ideas to be more resistant to change. Thirdly it serves as an avenue for “meme carriers” to gather more information and sophistication, and last but not lest; it provides a platform for socializing for “meme carriers” which may be geographically disconnected.

Sources:

1.http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=53

This article was first publish in Spider a few months ago.

I'm back!

I'm back! I was going to explain my long absence, but then...I don't think anyone ever reads this blog anyway...so whats the point?

I stopped writing blogs because I have resolving, what I thought was, a contridiction between my profession and my blogging. As a reporter I have to stay objective. But before getting a job at DawnNews, I created this very opinionated blog.

But now, I'm going to edit out all the slant and angle.

I will from now on use this blog as an avenue to report what I have not been able to report on DawnNews. Television reporters leave out a lot of detail. You have to when you get forty seconds to deliver the news or a minute thirty to tell a story.