When I first heard of this phrase - the virtual mosque – I thought it must have something to do with cyber tour of the inside of a mosque. This is what your real estate agent will do – conduct a cyber tour of the building to interest you, if you are too busy to make a site visit.
But when Thomas L Friedman of the New York Times used this phrase – the virtual mosque – he had in mind something totally different. He was thinking in terms of a virtual community in cyberspace, one that is inter-connected through what is now known as new media – Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc.
Apparently in many Islamic countries, the mosques play an important role during election times, simply because they have the masses with them. Fast forward to the present time, and the situation has changed somewhat. New media is able to carry the virtual masses with them as well. Hence, the reference to the virtual mosque.
This ability of the new media to galvanize people for a cause is a challenge not just to the Islamic countries, but to many others too. China for one is trying hard to cope, and it recently ordered all new computers sold in that country to have pre-installed a specified content filtering software, before (apparently) giving up the idea due to netizens’ protests.
But in today’s global interconnected world, can countries succeed in keeping or controlling the new media? Can the virtual mosque be controlled? It is going to be very difficult – a virtual impossibility – to succeed in doing so.
The virtual community – or the virtual mosque in this case – will continue as long as there is a demand for alternative news, and for alternative platform to express oneself.
But like all communities, the long term success of the virtual community lies in voluntary restraints. If it degenerates into a platform for hatred, or for unrestrained speeches and writeups, that virtual community will quickly be recognized as an extremist group to be avoided by most people.
So back to Thomas L Friedman’s virtual mosque. The impact of this virtual mosque is already seen in some recent national elections in the Islamic world.
President Barack Obama is said to have won the American election, due largely to his extensive use of Twitter and other new media. Will the virtual mosque grow to a stage where the next President of an Islamic nation is elected because of new media usage? Only time will tell, but the writing may already be on the wall.
the new media is dangerous but can’t be ignored!