Rita J. King recently spoke about the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project at the 2010 Business Innovation Factory (BIF-6). Here’s the video:

(Rita J. King also presented the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project at the 2009 O’Reilly Media Gov2.0 Summit and Expo, for which she was recognized with the first-ever Gov2.0 Award. You can view that presentation here.)

Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds

“With this report, Josh and Rita have illuminated a new path–a definite intelligible plan–for practical public diplomacy in an area of supreme urgency. Furthermore, they have done so by elevating humanity’s most distinguishing feature: the imagination.“ – Joel Rosenthal, President, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

Cover page of the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds policy recommendations.

On January 29, 2009, Dancing Ink Productions Rita J. King and Joshua S. Fouts released the findings from the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. The project was funded by a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. The findings included a trilogy of actionable items available in digital format here.  By releasing three types of reports — policy recommendations, documentary video and graphic book — we hope to make what is still a very new medium as accessible as possible.

The idea for Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project was hatched with a very specific idea in mind: How could people learn about other cultures in an authentic, experiential space — specifically, how could we learn about cultures that self-identified as Muslim? We chose the virtual world of Second Life for many reasons, among them that it is the best international platform — more than 70% of its users are from outside the United States. Our goal was to to see what we could learn about Islam — not by inviting particular people with particular perspectives into Second Life, but rather to follow the trail of what was already happening culturally in the space that might yield new insight about Islam.

Read the Press Release announcing the project findings here and here.

Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project findings:

• “Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds” a series of actionable policy recommendations assessing the potential value virtual worlds for digital diplomacy. (Download PDF.) Mirror version on the Carnegie Council website here.
• “Collaboration, Community and Culture” is a mini-documentary produced in collaboration with Ill Clan Animation studios highlighting some of the findings.  You can view this at YouTube or download a broadcast quality high-res version here (warning: 1gb file). Mirror version on Carnegie Council website here.
• Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds graphic book, which chronicles the yearlong quest in the style of a graphic novel.  You can view the graphic book on Flickr here or download a PDF of the graphic book.  It also looks good through this viewer.  Hard copies can beordered at cost from Blurb.com (Dancing Ink Productions will not profit from the sale of this book, the posted cost is Blurb’s print-on-demand cost). Mirror version on Carnegie Council website here.

Watch the short documentary (low-res version) on YouTube:

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Comments on the project:

“With this report, Josh and Rita have illuminated a new path–a definite intelligible plan–for practical public diplomacy in an area of supreme urgency. Furthermore, they have done so by elevating humanity’s most distinguishing feature: the imagination.”
– Joel Rosenthal, President, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs

“The project’s use of Second Life virtual experiences, where internet users can interact with each other through avatars to engage in intercultural dialogue, is indeed a pioneering initiative.”  “A ‘second life’ for public diplomacy in the Middle East,” by Prof. Muhammad Ayish, Abu Dhabi’s “The National”

“Joshua and Rita are THE great explorers of new possibilities and media for public diplomacy.”
– Tish Shute, propietor of UgoTrade.com and TishShute.com

“A fascinating clash of best intentions and actual spiritual desires, transplanted into the virtual realm.”Wagner James Au in New World Notes.

Pictured: Eureka Dejavu, avatar of Rita J. King in hijab before the virtual hajj.

Read Rita J. King’s remarks from the January 29, 2009 release of the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project, delivered at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

Read Joshua S. Fouts’ remarks from the January 29, 2009 release of the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project, delivered at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

In case you missed the event, you can watch the complete video on the Carnegie Council website. Carnegie Council has also uploaded the complete event transcript.

Evan M. O’Neil, managing editor of PolicyInnovations.org at the January 29 event.

The Carnegie Council has uploaded edited excerpts from the January 29, 2009 release Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project. Each video is about a minute and a half long.

Non-Violence in Virtual Worlds — Rita J. King

Creativity in Virtual Worlds — Rita J. King

Online Diplomacy — Joshua S. Fouts

Chinese Muslims worship in Indonesia. Image credit: Anne Dickson

By Joshua S. Fouts
During the course of our work exploring Islam worldwide and its Internet and virtual world manifestations, we periodically found ourselves in conversations with Chinese nationals or government authorities from China or China experts who posed the question: Why would Islam and the Internet matter to China?

And so it was with great interest that, I discovered a series of websites dedicated to Islam in China and Islam among Chinese. Inside Indonesia has an interesting article about ethnic Chinese practicing Islam, called “Chinese Muslim — and proud of it” by Anne Dickson. The article has some excellent images by the author and a some interesting insight:

[The] Chinese New Year Gala Dinner in Surabaya was an impressive event. Thousands of people, mainly Indonesians of Chinese descent, packed into a beautifully decorated convention hall to enjoy a banquet and entertainment. Each item was introduced in Mandarin and Indonesian, and the mayor and the American and Chinese consuls-general were present to wish the revellers well.

Just a few years ago, public displays of Chinese culture were forbidden, and a celebration like this would have been unimaginable. But even in reformasi Indonesia, this was a Chinese New Year celebration with a difference. The Gala Dinner was hosted by the Chinese Muslim Association of Indonesia (PITI). An Islamic song or two featured alongside Chinese items. In a brief address, a leader of PITI wished everyone a happy Chinese New Year and thanked those who had donated to flood victims through the organisation. Later in the proceedings, another Chinese Muslim leader led a prayer for the few Muslims present before the singing and dancing extravaganza resumed.

Also of interest are two relatively new related websites, the blog, “Islam in China” and its new companion site, Islam in China Webzine, which includes as its ethos:

The subject of Islam in China is an oft neglected one. In the West most people conceive of Muslims as being Arabs despite the fact that majority of the Arabs in America are Christians. Outside of China there are also many misconceptions that Muslims have about Muslims in China. Many Muslims are even surprised to learn that there are more Muslims in China than there are in Saudi Arabia.

The webzine, while in need of a good copy edit, had a number of intriguing articles including one discussing the hadith, (a hadith is an oral tradition relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), “Seek Knowledge as far as China.” and another recounting the experience an American Muslim in China:

I had found that mosque in Shanghai and was warmly welcomed as if it were my own Friday haunt. In spite of this and the many conversations of which I’ve just spoken, some bit of cynicism wasn’t letting me accept the possibility of people really being that accepting of an early traveler just because the Tangerine knew the right words to say as the light would begin to fade on a Ramadan evening. These thoughts began to fade as I took off my shoes one Friday and found a place to sit between a middle-aged Uyghur man and a teenaged Hui, the room filled with whispers in a half-dozen tongues only to be silenced by an all-to-familiar call.

Both publications are very useful reads on the subject of Islam in China. They left me wondering what Islam was really like in China for the individual Chinese citizen. When I was in China recently, I found the culture to be still very much secular, especially and ardently so for people under 30, for whom Mao Zedong is very much revered.

Hat tip to the ever-useful Inside Islam blog, that opened up the rabbit hole to these discoveries!

Eureka Dejavu and Schmilsson Nilsson at Eureka's new lair at The Imagination Age in front of a Global Handshake Fair poster. The pair will be speaking at the festival on Saturday at noon Second Life Time, live from the Second Life Community Convention.

Dancing Ink Productions will be speaking this Saturday, September 5 in the virtual world of Second Life at the Al Andalus Caliphate’s Global Handshake Fair.  For more information on Al Andalus, see this recent post on DIP’s Dispatches from the Imagination Age.  For more information about times and location of the fair see our recent post about the fair.  Or just click on the picture above.

A view from the foot of the virtual Mount Arafat in the virtual world of Second Life.

August 25, 2008 — Today Dancing Ink Productions participated in a virtual Hajj to Mecca as part of our Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project, which we are conducting in partnership with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Please visit our blog, EurekaDejavu.com for updates and pictures.

Dead Sea Shore, Amman, Jordan

The Aspen Institute has just released their report from the March 2008 Arab-U.S. Media Forum in Amman, Jordan that I participated in. I blogged about it earlier.

The report, “Dead Sea Scrolling” features an essay by Rita J. King and me entitled, “Virtual Pilgrimage to Mecca: Building Dialogue with Avatars.” You can download a PDF of the document here. It includes a number of interesting contributions about blogging and media in the Arab world including essays by Princess Rym Ali and Samih Toukan the CEO of Maktoob.com, one of the Arab world’s largest social networks.

It’s well worth a read.

Eureka Dejavu in hijab

We invite you to participate in our Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project by joining our Ning community.  We welcome your ideas, thoughts, suggestions, comments.  Visit: dancingink.ning.com and join.