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Islam meets cyberspace: Geographies of the Muslim Internet

Arab World Geographer, volume 13, issue 3-4 (2010), pp. 217-233
"About 200 million people in Muslim-majority countries used the Internet in 2010, forming oneninth of the world’s population of netizens. Literature on the Muslim Internet tends to focus disproportionately on radical fundamentalism, overlooking the large numbers of ordinary Muslims for whom the Internet is an increasingly important instrument of daily life. This article explores the spatiality of the Internet in 41 Muslim-majority countries in several steps. First, it outlines the important roles of telecommunications policies and infrastructure in structuring patterns of usage in the Muslim ecumene. Next, it depicts the distribution and growth of users. Third, it summarizes the contours of Muslim ecommerce and e-government, which, while still in their infancy, are nonetheless having substantial impacts on lives and communities. Finally, it illustrates the types and levels of Internet censorship that are found unevenly across the Muslim realm." (Abstract)