New media, new Muslim voices

I was just re-reading this article that I posted on my facebook account earlier, published on cnn.com by author and film maker, Michael Wolfe:

"The soaring dominance of new media is an extremely important moment in the history of relations between Muslims and their neighbors. For the first time, ordinary Muslims can speak directly to their non-Muslim neighbors -- and share their views on just about anything -- without the mainstream media as intermediaries selecting their talking heads, pundits and experts.

Muslims should seize this golden opportunity to communicate their stories and views directly to the world."

I was looking at a book called "Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World" by Hugh Hewitt and reflecting on Richard Bulliet's point in the second chapter of his book where he writes under "Print Culture and New Authorities" about "figures who gained wide audiences for their writings" (p. 85) through the new media.

Websites, blogs, even facebook and twitter is a major place where the "battle for hearts and minds" and the crisis of authority in Islam in America and around the world I'd say too is playing out today..

(For more on the crisis of authority in Islam in America see Zareena Grewal's thesis - a brief introduction to which is available here)

5/10/09: Also I want to check out this paper by Hussein Rashid 

MOSLEMS AND THE INTERNETS: THE EMERGING MUSLIM BLOGOSPHERE, MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION 2006
A survey to describe some of the more popular blogs produced in the US, and the types of issues they discuss. As topical portals to the thought of Muslims of the internet age, I suggest that blogs are the new coffeehouses and bellwethers of Muslim thought.