Connecting the Actual with the Virtual: The Internet and Social Movement Theory in the Muslim World—The Cases of Iran and Egypt

The rapid expansion of Internet use in the Muslim world has called into question
what role—if any—this medium can play in political action in these countries.
This paper seeks to analyze the extent to which the Internet offers space for an
expansion of social movement theory in the Muslim world. It relies on a number
of case studies from two Muslim countries, the One Million Signatures Campaign
and “Weblogistan” in Iran, and the Kefaya Movement and Muslim Brotherhood
blogging in Egypt. When placing Internet use in the context of political scientist and
historian Charles Tilly’s “repertoire” of social movement characteristics (worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment) and political scientist Robert Putnam’s theory that the Internet can isolate individual users, it appears that the key to
the successful collaboration of the web and social movements is an adaptive
dynamic, through which groups function in both the cyber-world and the real
world. This paper presents a potential vision for the future of the Internet and
Islamic activism based on the assumption that an online element will help generate
some of the elements of Tilly’s social movement repertoire, particularly if the Internet
is used to inspire sympathetic individuals to real world political action.