Scene from a the virtual hajj to Mecca as chronicled in DIP's 2009 report, Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds.Ramadan is approaching and the media is reporting on new efforts to reach out to young Muslims in a contemporary, technologically current way. "Sheikh to Deliver Ramadan Sermons in Virtual World," an August 17 article in The MidEast News Source highlights how a Saudi Sheikh is going to appear in Second Life:
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, the Mecca director of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, will deliver a sermon entitled "Ramadan, oh youth!" on Tuesday evening from a virtual mosque on Middle East Island, a fictional island in Second Life, an Internet-based virtual world imagined by its users.Of note in the article, the Sheikh describes communication tools like Second Life as part of "God's gift to mankind." It's refreshing to see high level political figures candidly recognizing the transformation of our culture and the importance of engaging people where they are. Where they are might well be an island in Second Life or a community room in Muxlim Pal.
The virtual Ramadan sermon is the first attempt by the commission, effectively Saudi Arabia’s vice police, to reach out through a less conventional communication platform.
MediaOriente reports on August 18 that "Virtual Islam is Ramadan’s next 'big thing'" and quotes the website "Muslimness" (which appears to be no longer available):
Young generations of Muslisms around the world – like the fashionable bloggers’ avatars on Muslimness.com – are welcoming those kind of experiments, adding some interesting “remixes” like this picture of a virtual Muslim Darth Vader and a sexy young Muslim girl in a mosque “well, sometimes you tend to take that lightly, since it is a *virtual*world” says Madiha M.K.The Diva one of the hosts of Muslimness.
Read: "Sheikh to Deliver Ramadan Sermons in Virtual World,"
Read: "Virtual Islam is Ramadan’s next 'big thing'"
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