In August of 2006, a group of young Middle Eastern bloggers and activists came together at a seminar in Cairo to discuss the possibility of working within the new space of blogs to strengthen interfaith understanding. While interfaith and intra-faith tensions continue to hold back the region, the group of young activists and writers met to explore what they could do as a team to enhance positive dialogue and to move online discussion into real world action. Within a few months, a core group of participants officially launched the Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network (MEIBN), with blog aggregators in English, French, and Arabic and with members of diverse religious outlooks.

This brief report summarizes the possibilities and obstacles to harnessing the power of blogs to promote interfaith dialogue in the Middle East. Much of the content comes out of discussions during the Cairo seminar that helped launch our network, as well as from the online discussion we had via the network itself.

Interfaith Dialogue in Crisis

As we met in August of 2006, religious tensions were accentuated across the region, with the most prominent example being passions generated by military conflict between Israelis, Palestinians, and Lebanese. In addition, Sunni-Shi’ite conflict in Iraq, Bahrain, and elsewhere in the Gulf illustrated intra-religious friction.

At the Cairo seminar, we discussed these hot topics as well as the larger issues underlying interfaith disharmony in the Middle East. One critical factor was the general lack of awareness and knowledge about other faiths, on the popular level and even among highly-educated bloggers. Minority religious groups, and the religious practices of the region’s ethnic minorities, remain largely unknown. Another critical factor was the difficulty – and necessity – of separating politics and religion. We also discussed the growth of atheism and secularism among a significant cohort of Middle Eastern youth. Blogs were providing a new platform for these voices to insert themselves into the already-charged arena of interfaith dialogue.

The New Possibility of Dialogue through Blogging

In the face of these challenges, blogging can be an instrument of public education and a spur to action on the grassroots level. While not a solution in and of itself, the blogopshere provides a platform to strengthen communication and unite young Middle Easterners who – despite their differences – share an underlying commitment to tolerance and free expression. Because blogs have largely stayed beyond the reach of government censors, they also offer us the space to break through barriers: both social taboos and political boundaries.

The first thing we did as a group was to invite in as diverse a set of bloggers as possible. This included Baha’i bloggers, Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) Jewish bloggers, Coptic bloggers, Kurdish bloggers, atheist bloggers, and beyond. We were not so much interested in labels (after all, bloggers are much more than their individual sectarian identity) than in discovering what our unprecedented mix would generate. It is too soon to know for sure, but having a blog aggregator that puts posts by these seemingly disparate voices side by side actually begins to create a sense of commonality.

The second thing we resolved to do was provide an educational resource for bloggers on the Middle East’s religious diversity. Our members, as volunteers, collected information (including descriptions of holidays and customs) on over a dozen different religious groups rooted in the region. We hope to add some depth to the interfaith discussion in the region, to move beyond stereotypes and appreciate differences as a source of wealth for our region.

Learning, discussing, and reading different perspectives all provide a nurturing online climate for interfaith encounters. But we realize our efforts need to generate real world results, in our communities and neighborhoods. We do not see an immediate, magic-bullet solution. But we have assembled a guide encouraging bbloggers to take the energy of our network offline.

At the same time, we have implemented an online campaign infrastructure that lets our members and readers sign petitions on issues of hate speech, religious intolerance, and government stifling of free expression. Our initial goal was to eventually mobilize our network in cases of intolerance and repression. What we didn’t realize was how soon we would need to put this technology into action.

Confronting the Obstacles

The arrest of network member Kareem Amer by Egyptian authorities in November threw our network into turmoil. It also served as reminder of the serious risks we face as bloggers. For several years, as blogging gained popularity in the Middle East, bloggers remained largely beyond the attention of internal security forces and censors. We could say what we wanted and breathe freely, at least online.

Kareem was one of the most extreme examples of this new openness. Unlike some bloggers, he wrote under his real name (he even listed his phone number on his blog). And he wrote exactly what he thought, including harsh critiques of Christian-Muslim relations in his native Alexandria and religious discrimination at his university, Al-Azhar. When Egyptian prosecutors learned about his blog, they decided they did not like his criticisms of the religious establishment or the President of Egypt. He had accused both of intolerance – and, seemingly fulfilling his critique, the authorities promptly threw him in jail because they disagreed with his opinions.

Aside from the shock of a fellow blogger going to jail for four years simply for posts on his small website, we have also come to see the limits of interfaith dialogue in the blogosphere. Many bloggers are simply not interested. Reflecting attitudes in the general public, they do not want to engage people perceived as the “other.” They are not particularly curious about other faiths or about how they can use their blog to bridge religious differences. So we have to struggle to get attention and to prove our relevance.

We also learned that everything takes an enormous amount of effort. As volunteers, the members of the network have to invest a lot of energy to get any major project done. We are glad to see that many people have been inspired to contribute. But we have also learned that any substantial project needs a lot of time and a lot of manpower.

Moving Forward

Despite some setbacks, we believe the MEIBN represents a historic development. Never before have so many diverse and distinct “religious” voices been brought together for sustained dialogue. We are all learning and drawing on each other’s energy. We hope that this energy can push us forward to protect bloggers who dare to speak out and challenge taboos. We hope this energy can attract once-reluctant bloggers to join in. And we hope we can make it cool to stand up for interfaith understanding in the Middle East.

As we move forward, we need to have structure. The next stage will involve creating team of at least three members who will be responsible for organizing particular projects. Members will take a few months to organize their projects and find as many contacts as possible in the geographic area in which they would choose to carry out their project. We hope in addition to have regular seminars and conferences, sponsored by the network and other relevant non-profits, where members can share their ideas and collaborate n person on moving our online projects into “real life.”

To create a financial incentive to explore interfaith understanding, we intend to soon launch the “Interfaith Blogger Awards” – to recognize outstanding blog writing on interfaith relations in the Middle East and to hopefully inspire new bloggers to explore this space.

Finally, we will continue our campaign to free network member Kareem Amer. His principled stand for free speech, interfaith tolerance, and individual liberty inspires us. We cannot abandon him, and we intend to see him released from jail soon.