@book {248,
	title = {IMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam},
	year = {2009},
	publisher = {UNC Press},
	organization = {UNC Press},
	address = {Chapel Hill, NC},
	abstract = {Exploring the increasing impact of the Internet on Muslims around the world, this book sheds new light on the nature of contemporary Islamic discourse, identity, and community. The Internet has profoundly shaped how both Muslims and non-Muslims perceive Islam and how Islamic societies and networks are evolving and shifting in the twenty-first century, says Gary Bunt. While Islamic society has deep historical patterns of global exchange, the Internet has transformed how many Muslims practice the duties and rituals of Islam. A place of religious instruction may exist solely in the virtual world, for example, or a community may gather only online. Drawing on more than a decade of online research, Bunt shows how social-networking sites, blogs, and other "cyber-Islamic environments" have exposed Muslims to new influences outside the traditional spheres of Islamic knowledge and authority. Furthermore, the Internet has dramatically influenced forms of Islamic activism and radicalization, including jihad-oriented campaigns by networks such as al-Qaeda. By surveying the broad spectrum of approaches used to present dimensions of Islamic social, spiritual, and political life on the Internet, iMuslimsencourages diverse understandings of online Islam and of Islam generally.},
	keywords = {information and communication technology, Islam, social networks, study of religion},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=qIbwHwTYqqcC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false},
	author = {Gary Bunt}
}
@article {330,
	title = {Exploring the religious frameworks of the digital realm: Offline-Online-Offline transfers of ritual performance},
	journal = {Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology},
	volume = {1},
	year = {2007},
	abstract = {Looking at the constantly growing field of religion online, the shifts in and the new definition of religious frameworks become an increasingly important topic. In the field of religious rituals, it is not only the participant, location and conduction of the ritual that is affected by this shift; also the researchers have to overthrow their former theologically resp. systemic based definition of religiousness and spirituality due to the fact that on the Internet, religion is defined and realized in a completely different way by its participants. This is true even in the field of Christianity as the example of a ritual created by some British {\quotedblbase}Emerging Church{\textquotedblleft} groups shows. 
These loosely defined groups which span all denominational borders of the Christian spectrum have been established since the late 1980s mainly in the UK in order to organize church services they refer to as {\quotedblbase}Alternative Worship{\textquotedblleft}. The Internet plays an important role as a platform of communication and (self-)organization of the members and as technically and aesthetically challenging means of (re)presentation. Some events that were conducted in real life, like the multimedia labyrinth installation in St Paul{\textquoteleft}s cathedral in 2000, have even been {\quotedblbase}reconstructed{\textquotedblleft} in virtual space , generating a new form of worship. 
Interestingly but not unexpectedly, these transfer processes entail consequences for spirituality in real life. What exactly happens during the transfer into the digital realm? What are the interdependencies between offline and online and how do they affect worship and worshippers? These questions will be followed, employing the results and ideas of modern Ritual and Religious Studies, sheding light on a new field of (post)modern Christianity.
},
	keywords = {Communication, information, methodology, Ritual, study of religion, technology},
	url = {http://www.digitalislam.eu/article.do?articleId=1703},
	author = {Heidbrink , S}
}
@article {1311,
	title = {The Essentiality of {\textquotedblleft}Culture{\textquotedblright} in the Study of Religion and Politics},
	journal = {Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion},
	volume = {50},
	year = {2011},
	chapter = {639},
	abstract = {This article reviews various theoretical approaches political scientists employ in the analysis of religion and politics and posits culture as a conceptual bridge between competing approaches. After coming to the study of religion slowly in comparison with other social science disciplines, political science finally has a theoretically diverse and thriving religion and politics subfield. However, political scientists{\textquoteright} contributions to the social scientific study of religion are hampered by a lack of agreement about whether endogenous or exogenous theoretical approaches ought to dominate our scholarship. I assert that the concept of culture{\textemdash}and more specifically, subculture{\textemdash}might help create more connections across theoretical research traditions. I emphasize how the concept of religion-based subculture is inherent in psychological, social psychological, social movement, and contextual approaches to religion and politics scholarship, and I explore these theoretical connections using the example of religion-based {\textquotedblleft}us versus them{\textquotedblright} discourses in contemporary American politics.},
	keywords = {analysis, culture, Politics, religion, Research, Sociology of religion, study of religion, theoretical approaches},
	url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2011.01608.x/abstract},
	author = {Laura R. Olson}
}
