Is blogging forbidden by Sharia? Un-Islamic? If not, then why the restrictions in a culture that supposedly so highly values the free exchange of ideas? From William Fisher in the Lebanese Daily Star, via AINA, with thanks to Nicolei:
In democratic countries, personal Web sites known as Weblogs have grown exponentially over the past few years. In the United States, for example, there are literally millions of "blogs."Not yet in the Middle East, even though there are many parallels in the region with what has made the phenomenon explode in the United States. For example, blogging technology is available to anyone with access to the Internet, it is cheap, indeed free, and content can easily be created in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and other languages. While home-computer ownership is still embryonic, the deep suspicion of government-owned mainstream media has almost certainly helped spur the growth in the region's Weblogs.
But there is at least one critical difference. In most of the countries of the Middle East, using a personal Weblog to express political dissent can land someone in jail as easily as taking part in an unauthorized political protest in a public square. For example, recently in Iran - one of the worst anti-blogger offenders - a blogger was jailed for 14 years for "spying and aiding foreign counterrevolutionaries," after using his site to criticize the arrest of other online journalists. Despite the risks, an estimated 75,000 Iranians among the country's five million Internet users maintain online blogs. Especially among middle class youth, they have become an important way of expressing dissatisfaction.
Mona al-Tahawy, a columnist at the London-based Saudi daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, writes that bloggers in Iran and Iraq "have inspired others in the Arab world." She also adds: "Despite working in an elite medium, requiring a computer and literacy, bloggers are the voice of the true Arab Street, especially the young."
Like Iran, most countries of the region impose varying degrees of
restriction on Weblogs. Saudi Arabia, where authorities block some 400,000 Web sites, is among the most restrictive. It is unclear how many blogsites there are in the kingdom, but those that are accessible focus largely on political dissent.Typical is a site called "The Religious Policeman." One recent posting
asked:"What reforms? There aren't any reforms! The government promised to set up a higher commission on women's affairs, guaranteed women participation in the recent National Dialogue Forum and in the National Human Rights Commission."
It adds: "The National Dialogue Forum agreed to change nothing, the 'team photo' had no women in it, anyone with any sense left in
tears."...
We know the feeling.
"...personal Web sites known as Weblogs have grown exponentially..."
Why in god's name must everything "grow exponentially"? Why not just have it "grow enormously"? Why "exponentially"? This is inexact. Napier would not approve, nor Barzun. Kindly stop claiming that everything under the sun "grows exponentially." It irks.
"there are literally millions of 'blogs.'" Why "literally"? Why not "there are millions of blogs"? Was anyone saying that, and meaning it figuratively?
"What are you reading, my lord?"
"Words, words, words."
"...personal Web sites known as Weblogs have grown exponentially..."
Why in god's name must everything "grow exponentially"? Why not just have it "grow enormously"? Why "exponentially"? This is inexact. Napier would not approve, nor Barzun. Kindly stop claiming that everything under the sun "grows exponentially." It irks.
"there are literally millions of 'blogs.'" Why "literally"? Why not "there are millions of blogs"? Was anyone saying that, and meaning it figuratively?
"What are you reading, my lord?"
"Words, words, words."
Hugh-
I know the same frustration with the 'State of the Speak'. There is a linguistic trend that annoys me almost daily, going on the past several years, where everyone seems to feel the need to add a three word meaningless phrase to almost any declarative sentence.
For what, I wonder? I hear it in every English speaking country.
The offending tri-fluff fiilers include:
A) "as it were";
B) "if you will";
C) "dare I say";
D) "so to speak";
and the grand-daddy of them all:
E) "in terms of".
As annoying as Cheez-Whiz. And as indigestible.
Concerning the Iranian bloggers, I wish they would encourage the return of the Zoroastrian deities of Mazda and Ahriman to help in the traditionalist call for the overthrow the interloper Islamic ayatollahs.
At least online, until it has a chance to come true in reality.
Blog on!
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH - from wikipedia
"In mathematics, a quantity that grows exponentially is one that grows at a rate proportional to its size. Anything that grows by the same percentage every year (or every month, day, hour etc.) is growing exponentially. For example, if the average number of offspring of each individual (or couple) in a population remains constant, the rate of growth is proportional to the number of individuals. Such an exponentially growing population grows three times as fast in individuals per year when there are six million individuals, as it does when there are two million. Bank accounts with fixed-rate compound interest grow exponentially provided there are no deposits, withdrawals or service charges.
Misusing the term.
The phrase exponential growth is incorrectly used by persons not versed in quantitative matters to mean merely surprisingly fast growth (a potential malapropism). Exponential here means something only in relative terms and it merely implies a proportionality of rate of growth to size (and certainly not that the proportion is large).
In fact, a population can grow exponentially but at a very slow absolute rate (while the population is small, for instance), and can grow surprisingly fast without growing exponentially."
I still would have thoughts blogs might be, or at least might have been, growing exponentially - as new bloggers are more likely to appear when they hear of blogs, and they are more likely to hear of them the more bloggers there are