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Virtually Islamic
Research and News about Islam in the Digital Age
About Gary R. Bunt's books:
VirtuallyIslamic.com contains a broad range of regularly updated materials associated with Gary R. Bunt's research on Islam and Muslims in cyberspace. The Virtually Islamic Blog contains the very latest headlines and commentary on Islam and the net, and is designed to augment the content of Gary R. Bunt's publications.
Gary R. Bunt - iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam
The internet has profoundly shaped how Muslims perceive Islam, and how Islamic societies and networks are evolving and shifting within the twenty-first century. While these electronic interfaces appear new and innovative in terms of how the media is applied, much of their content has a basis in classical Islamic concepts, with an historical resonance that can be traced back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
iMuslims explores how these transformations and influences play out in diverse cyber Islamic environments, and how they are responding to shifts in technology and society. The book discusses how, in some contexts, the application of the internet has had an overarching transformational effect on how Muslims practice Islam, how forms of Islam are represented to the wider world, and how Muslim societies perceive themselves and their peers. On one level, this may be in terms of practical performance of Islamic duties and rituals, or on the interpretation and understanding of the Qur'an. On another level, cyber Islamic environments have exposed Muslims to radical and new influences outside of traditional spheres of knowledge and authority, causing long-standing paradigmatic shifts at a grassroots level within societies. iMuslims looks at how these changes are taking place, including through social networking sites and the blogosphere.
Resources: iMuslims
The book is backed up by an Online Bibliography (Version 1.0), which is also available as a PDF.
The main diagram of the book can be found here as a webpage: A diagrammatic representation of Cyber Islamic Environments (CIES). It is also available as a PDF: A diagrammatic representation of Cyber Islamic Environments (PDF)
The slideshow of screengrabs used in the book can be found here: iMuslims Slideshow This is also available as a QuickTime Movie: iMuslims QuickTime Movie
Reviews & Comments: iMuslims
"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
"With this eclectic monograph, Gary R. Bunt, a senior lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Wales, cements his reputation as the most prominent and prolific scholar of today’s “cyber-Islamic landscape.” Robert Rozehnal, Middle East Journal, Winter 2010
‘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
""iMuslims is the best overview of the Muslim Internet to date. It is up-to-date, comprehensive, and should be compulsory reading for students and scholars of Islam, media, and politics in the Middle East." Sune Haugbolle (Copenhagen University), H-Net
"Pick up Gary Bunt’s “iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam” and learn that for every online al-Qaeda recruiter there are thousands more Muslims reforming Islam online." Mona Eltahawy, Time.com, Muslims Online Encourage Debate, Not Hate
"Gary Bunt's perceptive study" Dominic Casciani, Times Literary Supplement
"... this superb study of Islam online..." Daniel Martin Varisco, Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life
"iMuslims is an excellent guide to the emergence of "specific forms of online Islam"" Ziauddin Sardar, The Independent
"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 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
"A near-encyclopedia of Islam online." Publishers Weekly
"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
"iMuslims in an excellent guide to the emergence of 'specific forms of online Islam'. What is really new, as Bunt shows so powerfully, is the contribution of concerned and thinking Muslims, with no background in traditional education..." Adnan Farooqi, The Book Review (India)
" ... [And as] Gary Bunt, a scholar who has studied Muslims’ use of the Internet extensively, writes in his excellent book i-Muslims..." Bruce Etling, Internet & Democracy Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (comment in article)
"Bunt is well-informed..."'Blogging Towards Utopia' (hivos.net review)
iMuslims Editions
Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks series.
ISBN 978-0-8078-5966-7 (paper: $24.99)
ISBN 978-0-8078-3258-5 (cloth: $65.00)
North America edition
Available though bookshops and online bookstores, includings: Amazon.com (paperback), Amazon.com (hardcover), Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.ca
Note: this edition is not for sale in the British Commonwealth (except Canada) or in Europe or South Asia. See below for details of sales in those territories.
Hardback 9781850659518 £45.00
Paperback 9781850659501 £12.99
320 pp.
International edition (with exceptions above and below)
Available though bookshops and online bookstores, such as: Amazon.co.uk, Blackwells, Tesco.com
Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust/The Other Press
South East Asia edition
Malaysia RM 45.00
Singapore/Brunei $/ B$ 25.00
All Others US$ 20.00
Cambridge University Press, New Delhi, (Hurst/Foundation Books imprint)
South Asia edition
Available internationally through all usual book shops and online stores. Check your local book supplier for details.
Return to this site for updates. Details on this site subject to change and alteration.
Regular
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Islamic
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MA
Islamic Studies, University of Wales, Lampeter [Programme Director:
Gary R. Bunt]