چكيده فارسي :
Globalization and improved modes of communications have led to the spread of religious education in different parts of the world. Due to the Internet and easier access to other modes of communication, religious leadership has been able to permeate the lives of Muslims more effectively. Traditional legal scholarship has accommodated matters that are important in the world.
This paper will examine the diverse ways that cyberspace has enabled religious scholars extend their influence and reach an audience far larger than the madaris in which they teach. It will demonstrate that the rise of the Internet as a communicative tool and cyberspace have changed the face of Islamic education. In the world of a dispersed Muslim population, cyberspace has become an important tool for the dissemination of various beliefs, prejudices, networking, religious instruction and advice, as well for the creation of virtual communities of faith.
The paper will also caution that religious education has, in some cases by-passed and replaced traditional forms of learning and that education has become horizontal rather than vertical in nature. Due to the availability of the Internet, religious scholarship or opinions are disseminated by means of a virtual space in which all people, rather than simply scholars, have access to a variety of ideas or interpretations of religious text. Anyone using the Internet is able to pick and choose what fits their concept of orthopraxy or orthodoxy. Since there is no censorship on cyberspace, ideas that are inaccurate or grossly exaggerated are circulated or propagated with ease. Thus, it is very easy to disseminate prejudices and to impose a particular understanding of Islam. Being connected on the Internet is taking the place of actual communities of believers and ideas are being circulated by selfproclaimed religious authorities. Charismatic preaching has often replaced knowledge that is based on depth and breadth. Stated differently, the Internet has provided a medium in which a plethora of voices may be heard, accessed, and proliferated.
The paper will argue and demonstrate that there is a need for a more responsible form of religious education. It will outline the forms these may take and explain how knowledge can reach out to both believers and non-believers and act as a form of inter-faith connectivity to a group of non-Muslims who wish to engage in purposeful dialogue.
