Between Jihad and Facebook: Middle Eastern Youth Caught in the Crossroads of Cyberspace

Internet Jihad. A term the Prophet Mohammed never could have fathomed in 7th century Arabia. But today it has become synonymous with the global Jihadist movement thanks to Al-Qa'ida's technological sophistication. As a New York Times op-ed piece professed in June, Al-Qa'ida "made its name in blood and pixels." With online video messages and websites aimed at spreading ideology and global recruitment, technology in the Middle East has largely been regarded solely as the tool of terrorists by Western policy-makers and mainstream media, thereby virtually ignoring the majority of more moderate Middle Easterners. This bias promotes the image of Islam as primitive, except for its most violent elements that will stop at nothing to use technology for their evil purposes; however, while convenient in promoting such a worldview, the above-mentioned paradigm is one-sided. In fact, like any multidimensional society the Muslim world is experimenting with many positive uses of technology, and again the rising generation is at the forefront of such innovation. Last fall I spent a semester in the Muslim community of Mombasa, Kenya, where the stereotypes of Islam that I subconsciously held were first confronted and very quickly conquered. Since returning to the US, I have often thought that if my fellow Americans were also able to appreciate the diversity within the Muslim community, we could get a better sense of important currents within modern Islam. This is crucial in order to see how the center of that ancient culture, under great stress, is adapting modern technology, and even using it to promote more widespread communication and interchange.

Censorship in the Middle East may be a key factor in the rise of religious extremism, particularly amongst youth. In countries such as Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak has largely repressed the freedom of political expression, many marginalized Muslims have given up on politics and resorted to a more fundamental Islam. Due to decades of corruption, inequality, and foreign intervention, violence became the only forum for dissent in the region. But there are signs that the rising generation, who has only known injustice, may be searching for alternatives to violent opposition. As youth struggle between violence and submission, they seem to have adapted the tool of the internet to their local milieu. 

Facebook, a social networking site used by nearly every American college and high school student, has recently exploded throughout the world and has begun to reflect the debates going on in classrooms and coffee shops in the Middle Eastern world. In September, a Voice of America article wrote about the impact of Facebook on Turkish politics. Turkey is historically a secular state, but Islamism is rising due to the religious roots of the ruling government. According to the article, fundamentalism has been on the rise since the 1980s, when Turkey's military rule began a zero-tolerance response to the traditional platforms of civil society. Today, marginalized youth are turning to the internet as an agent for dialogue and free association. As one young Facebook user put it in reference to the internet, "we don't have assets we don't have capital, but we have a tool for free." This lack of capital and power has also been used as causation for suicide bombers, but Turkish youth have found another outlet via networking sites. In September, The Los Angeles Times continued the conversation on the Islamic use of Facebook. Author Jeffrey Fleisman focused on the struggle between secularists and Islamists, as played out on Facebook. With millions of users on the site, many individuals have started groups that represent their views as Muslims or Middle Easterners. Groups have titles that vary from "Brave Bold Liberal Muslim Girls," which has over 1,000 members, to "Against Any People who Insult Prophet Mohammed and Islam" with over 3,000. While some groups are forums for disagreement between secularists and Islamists, others open communication with their Western counterparts. As the Egyptian leader of the group "We the Muslim Youth Can Change this World" illustrates: "I now have a relationship with an American guy on Facebook. He first contacted me by calling me a terrorist...Now he and I discuss Islam and Buddhism." This is a perfect example of the possibilities for the modernity of globalization to work in synch with the traditions of religion. It is also a wonderful illustration of how a tool that we in the West universally use (and nearly as universally take for advantage) can be adapted to localized conditions around the world to create positive change.

Connecting through bits and bytes on the internet rather than flesh and blood has been criticized for its dehumanizing effect, which could bolster the image of Muslim youth as isolated and desperate connected soullessly through the internet with terrorist leaders. In fact, the emergence of social-networking and the interactive web--known as Web 2.0--is providing opportunities for social and human contact. As a young Bahraini blogged in June, Web 2.0 has given the moderate majority of Muslims such a voice that it has overtaken the effectiveness of terrorist organizations' propaganda proliferated through the more basic Web 1.0 (see the New York Times article which calls Al-Oa'ida "behind the curve"). Al-Qa'ida has been targeting millions of Middle Eastern internet users with its online campaigns, but those same users can be empowered with the creativity provided through the interactive tools of the internet. MidEast Youth, a site I featured in my most recent post, has capitalized on the social-networking capabilities of Web 2.0 to give a human element to the news coming out of the Middle East through online video-conferences with their American peers. This month they conducted their third teleconference with American high schoolers, which can be heard online. Questions ranged from the popularity of Senator Obama abroad to the similarities and differences of health care in each region. The participants from the Middle East featured three females, one Jew, and one Palestinian calling in from a refugee camp. 

The benefits of cross-cultural communication have not gone completely unnoticed, and the international NGO community has taken cues from such homegrown initiatives. Mercy Corps, an international development and relief organization, has created Why Not, a youth internet exchange program using Skype's online video chat. With the goal of building cross-cultural connections between regions defined by stereotypes, the initiative seeks to reduce isolation in the Middle East, create more accurate perceptions and deepen each group's understanding of the other's political and social realities. Mercy Corps, while doing development projects in war-torn and drought-stricken countries around the world, has found that living through everyday violence often leads to feelings of abandonment by the international community, and these human-to-human chats separate the average American, or Muslim, from what each side sees in mainstream media. In this instance technology has become a tool for the humanization of conflicts, war and politics starting at the roots.

There are many reasons why it is important to recognize and validate these positive uses of the internet. The Middle East is currently experiencing what is known as a "youth bulge," a high proportion of 15-29 year olds relative to the adult population that is considered a causal factor for political violence. Indeed, 60% of the region's population is under 25 and their rate of unemployment has reached dangerous levels (see interactive demographic map above). As a marginalized constituency, the likelihood of violence is high, but can be countered with the creation of opportunities to choose another, non-violent path. In addition, the cross-cultural connections which are facilitated by technology is giving a human face to the war and suffering that many Americans do not yet understand. To think of Islam's youth as not using technology in familiar ways, but only to promote violence and terrorism is the opposite of humanizing, it is demonizing. For American students to be able to talk with their Muslim peers about topics like dating, parents and music has a very enlightening effect. Globalization is often criticized for making the world smaller. Yet it is a force that cannot be stopped, and therefore must be molded for the betterment of humanity. Apparently the world's youth are one step ahead of those pessimists by accepting, contextualizing, and adapting what they have to their generational realities.