Hashtag Islam: How Cyber-Islamic Environments are Transforming Religious Authority

Abstract

Gary Bunt’s Hashtag Islam presents a survey of how diverse communities of Muslims around the world are using internet-based technologies to “fulfill spiritual, mystical, and legalistic agendas” (3). Through an investigation of what he defines as “cyber-Islamic environments (CIEs)” - a broad category of analysis encompassing everything from social media posts, online fatwa (Islamic legal opinion) services, transnational media conglomerates, and digitally-published magazines, to name a few examples - Bunt argues that the internet has played a critical role in transforming the ways in which Muslims engage with religious authorities, allowing greater access to religious knowledge beyond the bounds of traditional Islamic scholarship and providing a platform for alternative or minoritarian approaches to Islamic practice. Hashtag Islam is Bunt’s fourth book on digital media in Islamic contexts, focusing on recent developments in the spread of internet communication technologies between 2009- 2017 in the Muslim-majority world.

Keywords

• internet
• islam
• authority
• internet
• islam
• authority