Abstract
‘Islam Online Guides Spouses towards Marital Bliss: Arabic Vs. English Counselling Perspectives on Marital Communication’ documents and discusses the case of www.islamonline.net, which was one of the most influential Islamic, and indeed religious websites worldwide for more than a decade. More specifically, Mona Abdel-Fadil explores what types of counselling perspectives and advice Islam Online employs when addressing marital communication problems. The focus is on the characteristics, recurring themes, and underpinning gender perspectives of the counselling. Moreover, the chapter examines how ‘Islam’ fits into the Islam Online counselling mix. Last and not least, this contribution discusses how advice provided on Islam Online Arabic and Islam Online English compare to one another, an exercise that provides some perhaps surprising results, contrary to previous scholarly assumptions that Arabic webpages would entail a more religiously conservative outlook.
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Notes
- 1.
When I refer to the IOL employees, I am referring to the pre IOL-crisis employees, who were IOL employees when I interviewed them. However, due to the IOL-crisis these individuals are formally no longer part of IOL. Upon the conclusion of my fieldwork at the end of June in 2010, many former IOL employees joined in the creation of a new Islamic website called www.onislam.net where they hoped to continue doing similar counselling work.
- 2.
I follow IJMES standards for transliteration, with certain adaptations to Egyptian oral dialect.
- 3.
I conducted all interviews. The interviews conducted with Kawther Alkholy and Samar Abduh were conducted in Arabic, and translations into English are my own. The interview with Hwaa Irfan was conducted in English (She is not Egyptian). All the interviewees quoted in this chapter, have given their consent to be cited in my academic writings.
- 4.
The emic term for counselling essays is ‘protocols’. Protocols are heavily influenced by the counselling perspectives prevalent on IOL. In this sense, protocols are a product of the producers of IOL and are non-interactive in that they appear to be produced primarily for reader-consumption. Yet, protocols also suggest topics members of the IOL-audience often write in about. In addition to protocols, two types of interactive online counselling have been available to married couples on IOL: ‘cyber-counselling’ (an asynchronous exchange between questioner and online counsellor) and ‘live-dialogue’ (a synchronous exchange resembling a chat). Also under the heading ‘Husbands and Wives’ there are a number of journalistic articles: covering a regional or local event.
- 5.
IOL has been known to differ from other popular Islamic websites such as Islamway.com and Amrkhaled.net in that it offered a range of other services such as online fatwa and counselling services, in addition to digitalized scripture. Whereas admittedly other Islamic websites provide fatwa services, IOL’s degree of interactivity with the users has been characterized as superior by far (Sisler 2009: 9).
- 6.
Bunt (2003: 147–155) has divulged some interesting, albeit general reflections about IOL English’s counselling services.
- 7.
In March 2010, the IOL Crisis broke out, souring relations between the owners of IOL (the Al-Balagh Society in Qatar) and the IOL staff in Cairo. The IOL-crisis eventually led to a total breakdown in communications between the parties and the withdrawal of the Cairo staff’s password-access to the IOL server. The end result was the abrupt shutting down of the Cairo offices with some 350 employees, and a shift of production operations to Qatar. In the immediate wake of the crisis, the predominant interpretation among my informants was to see the IOL-crisis as a struggle between Salafism (Doha) and wasaṭiyya Islam (Cairo). The new Qatari board of directors maintain that the reason for the dispute is what they see as poor administration of IOL, rather than ideological differences (Elawady2010, March 27). See Abdel-Fadil (2011) for an analysis of the crisis.
- 8.
I updated the final version of this chapter with post-2010 observations shortly before preparing the manuscript for the publication of this book. Still, the post-2010 period is not the main focus of this chapter.
- 9.
This is how the two social section leaders describe their audiences. This is not to say that there are no Muslims in Muslim-majority contexts who use IOL English nor that no Arabic speaking audiences in minority contexts use IOL Arabic. However, as expressed by the two social section leaders, this is not the main trend.
- 10.
In addition to preliminary interviews with IOL Arabic and English in May 2009, I conducted longitudinal fieldwork with the IOL Arabic social team from December 2009 to June 2010. One possible limitation of my study, is that I have more in depth data about IOL Arabic than IOL English. This is not an intentional bias. Rather, fieldwork plans with IOL English had to be shelved since I was informed that they did not have the capacity (due to workload) to receive me.
- 11.
They have not explored the postulate further, as they do not possess the necessary Arabic skills.
- 12.
I worked with multicultural counselling at a refugee office for 7 years, although not specifically as a marital counsellor.
- 13.
I have delimited my online data by two criteria, in that the data is to: (1) constitute online essays of the protocol genre, and (2) deal with the topic marital communication. The protocols were selected by theme, and not production date. In effect, this chapter documents an important form of marital counselling available on IOL English and Arabic for over a decade (from 1999 until the Islam Online crisis 2010) which eventually led to a refashioning of the website.
- 14.
The selection of the category ‘Communication’ for further analysis is based on statements by the Arabic IOL team about ‘unhealthy communication’ being a prevalent problem that married individuals write to IOL about. Moreover, I presuppose that protocols under this heading may deal with both ideal and less than ideal patterns of marital communication. Furthermore, protocols target providing remedies and solutions, and are likely to contain counselling elements. And, last but not least, I assume that it is one of the most likely chains of protocols consulted by visitors who are in unhappy marriages and are seeking comfort and advice on IOL.
- 15.
Somewhat schematically the concept ‘egalitarian gender relations’ can be defined as women and men being equal without any reservations. More importantly, an egalitarian perspective presupposes that gender differences are socially constructed.
Ideally, gender egalitarianism is a perspective that transcends religious affiliation. Proponents of this perspective are often classified as feminists. The concept ‘complimentary gender relations’, on the other hand, is founded on the idea that women and men are in fact created different (not only biologically). Advocates of complimentary gender relations may argue along the lines of ‘men are women are equal, but not identical’. At times this is understood as being equal before God, but having been allocated different roles in this life. Within a complementary gender perspective, women are often considered well-suited for child-rearing and home-making, while men are envisioned as suited for labour outside the home. Another typical example of a perceived difference is that women are more emotional, and men are more rational. The egalitarian and complementary approaches to gender are often considered mutually exclusive perspectives. A complementary approach to gender is most often associated with Islam, and indeed most religions.
- 16.
This research question develops out of the theoretical postulate: ‘The internet transforms the content of Islam’. Several scholars argue that the renewal of ideas and concepts of ‘Islam’ and ‘being Muslim’ is intrinsically linked to Islam going online (Anderson 2003: 46, Eickelman and Anderson 2003: 12, Mandaville 2002: 156). Moreover, according to Anderson (1996: 7–9) a renewal of concepts intertwine with the merging of different or dissimilar perspectives in new constellations.
- 17.
This query develops out of a wish to test the postulate ‘Islam going online facilitates the plurality of religious opinions’ (Anderson 2003: 57, Mandaville 2002: 156–157). The is postulate builds on the assumption that the internet enables traditional gatekeepers of religious authority to be bypassed. And this in turn leads to a plurality of religious interpretations, i.e. that Islamic website-users are exposed to assorted views on the same topic.
- 18.
This question relates to the postulate: ‘The internet leads to individualization and privatization of Islam’. According to Sisler (2007: 3, 2009: 4), a plurality of religious interpretations online enables each individual to search for and select suitable Islamic perspectives. Similar arguments have been put forward about the internet and religion in general (Dawson and Cowan 2004).
- 19.
Apart from providing an empirical case study of online Islamic counselling, this chapter can also be seen as contributing to two bodies of academic literature, namely: (1) new media and moderate Islam, which may serve as an important enterprise in itself against the backdrop of extensively studied Jihadist sites (Bunt 2009; Halldén 2006), and (2) gender relations and Islam, providing a relevant alternative understanding of gender roles in contemporary Islam.
- 20.
In March 2010, there were 28 protocols pre-organized into the category ‘communication’ under the category ‘Husbands and Wives’ on IOL English. On IOL Arabic, I had to select ‘communication protocols’ from 204 posts of various from the category ‘Husbands and Wives’. Of these, I considered 62 protocols as dealing with communication problems. The current analysis is based on logging tendencies in these protocols.
- 21.
According to Hough, there was a slightly different theoretical development in Europe (Hough 2006). Further reference to humanistic counselling theory is to American humanistic counselling theory, in line with Hough’s argument. Still, the key concepts that are employed in this chapter are, to my knowledge, also imperative in European humanistic counselling theories.
- 22.
Here I use the term ‘clients’ in line with counselling theory. In this context, the ‘client’ is the ‘reader’ of the online protocols.
- 23.
MMWV is an easy read (if exasperating to some readers). It employs simple language, frequent repetition and excels in the use of contrasts and examples. Women and men are divided into two typologies with regards to standardized ‘female’ and ‘male’ needs, reactions and communication patterns. Gray does not appear to be advocating that gender roles are socially constructed. Rather, MMWV provides sweeping generalizations about gender.
- 24.
The three themes were identified and logged prior to conducting fieldwork, i.e. prior to learning the IOL Arabic team’s definitions of protocols. The present analysis is a further development of ideas presented in a paper at The Centre for Arab and Muslim Media Research (CAMMRO), April 2009.
- 25.
The sign ‘ is without the sign ’ in the original. Also, the text is divided into separate lines per sentence in original.
- 26.
This particular analogy is used in several protocols on IOL Arabic.
- 27.
Jins (sex) is pronounced gins in Egyptian dialect.
- 28.
Over the last decade, Arabic satellite channels have been following suite. The MBC program Kalām Naʿim, which translates as ‘Sweet Talk’ is a hit. Likewise, the program Kalām Kibīr (Big Talk) with Dr. Heba Kotb. Dr. Kotb explicitly deals with sexual relations and Islam, and at times in a most graphic fashion.
- 29.
See Abdel-Fadil (2012) for a discussion of similarities with counselling trends in the US fused with other religions.
- 30.
This is especially interesting in the wake of the IOL-Crisis. This together with ‘old-school content’ suggests that the local Arab audience is considered the prime target for the website, and that the IOL-crisis may well have been fused by a plan to refashion the website in a more religiously conservative direction. Up until 2012, the changes to the website were at best evidence of a website in transition, and it was difficult to determine which way IOL would go.
- 31.
At present, the Arabic version of On Islam is running on strained funds, while the English version of the portal has more long-term funding. It provides much of the same type of content as the old IOL, and many of those who work there used to be IOL’ers.
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Abdel-Fadil, M. (2013). Islam Online Guides Spouses Towards Marital Bliss: Arabic vs. English Counselling Perspectives on Marital Communication. In: Hoffmann, T., Larsson, G. (eds) Muslims and the New Information and Communication Technologies. Muslims in Global Societies Series, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7247-2_4
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