Muslim world atwitter over Twitter

Queen Rania, Syria's Asma Assad gather Facebook fans as clerics vow to battle social networking

Roee Nahmias|Published: 10.02.10 , 11:58

Jordan's Queen Rania hasn't been tweeting on her Twitter account in the past week, disappointing her 1.3 million followers. But anxious fans learned the reason through her Facebook account – on Monday the queen underwent heart treatment in New York.

Rania, Syrian first lady Asma Assad, and other leaders of the Arab world have discovered social networks lately, sooner event than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who only recently joined.

But Facebook and Twitter are fast becoming a chronic headache to many extollers of Islam, who value control over their public. Security issues arise, clerics worry over the corruption of youth, and extreme rightists fear foreign influence.

Queen Rania's Facebook page

Thus, a number of concerned parties have begun to campaign against social networks, among them Hamas and Hezbollah, who warn that foreign agents could use the sites to recruit spies from their ranks or learn valuable information from posts.

"Facebook has become an arena for espionage using questionable recruitment methods, and even the Jewish state has begun using it to gather intelligence on some of the Arab states and sensitive private information," says Sheikh Mohammed al-Munajjid, a Saudi cleric who decides religious issues on a question and answer website.

'Facebook leads to fornication'

In Syria web-surfers face a rather snail-paced Facebook. "It was open to all in the beginning, but we discovered attempts by Israeli groups to begin chats with Syrians, and this is something we can not allow," President Bashar Assad's advisor explained to a visiting British delegation.

But in addition to Facebook and Twitter, Arab regimes also have YouTube, blogs, Skype, various chats, and the Blackberry to contend with, all harbingers of adultery, fornication, and the end of the proper familial lifestyle, according to Muslim clerics.

"There is online dating in Facebook, prohibited dating, exchange of photos, an obsession with pictures, and the disease of 'hearts finding each other'," al-Munajjid explains. "Where is the impediment to temptation? Where is the abstinence from calls that could lead to relationships of fornication?"

One Egyptian user of social networking told Ynet the sites were threatening ancient social values. "Girls meet guys through Facebook a lot more than they do through regular online dating sites. Some tell their families, and some do it secretly," he said.

"If you walk on an Alexandria beach some morning you'll see guys and girls sitting close to one another, holding hands and touching. No tradition or religion can overcome these human urges." Indeed, anti-Facebook campaigns and fatwas have yielded no perceivable results.

Muslim Brotherhood-book provides alternative

In August, Arabic-language users of Facebook increased by 18%, the highest of any language in the world. It was Ramadan, the month-long fast in which people mainly stay at home, but in general Muslim users represent 11% of all social network surfers.

So far all attempts at quelling use of the site have nose-dived, but there may be an answer in the form of alternatives. Muslim social networking has been seen to catch on lately, with such sites as that belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and one for women only, both of which mimic Facebook's look.

Facebook and Twitter have not, however, suffered a loss of subscribers as a result, and for good reason. Queen Rania keeps her Twitter account interesting by discussing issues of social importance such as education, support for youth, tolerance, and hope for peace. "Terror affects us all, only together can we end it," she posted on August 3.

Recently, while she was hospitalized in New York, she tweeted information on the UN General Assembly taking place there simultaneously. She has also celebrated her fortieth birthday recently, and posted various age-induced epiphanies online.

On her Facebook account, Asma Assad posts photos of her tours of Syria. She participates in pro-women and pro-youth events, as well as rare pictures of her husband, Bashar Assad.

And despite religious criticism, Assad himself also has an account, as does Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. It remains to be seen whether Islam will catch up.