His e-mail flickering, his brain churning with 7th-century versesfrom the Koran, Muqtedar Khan--sporting a trim beard, Indian pajamabottoms and a Georgetown University T-shirt--hunches over his FallsChurch computer at midnight.
Beneath a Chicago Bulls schedule and a picture of the Muslim holycity of Medina, Khan, 31, begins his favorite late-night activity:his life as an Internet alternative mufti.
Once Muslims seeking muftis--Islamic legal experts--would have hadto travel from village to village to find wise and respected folk.The muftis--some of whom had no formal education, but committed theKoran to memory--would sit face to face with questioners issuingfatwas. These were legal opinions on questions that came up ineveryday life: Was it permissible to use perfume tinged with alcohol?What kind of man was ideal for marriage?
The demand for a good fatwa continues. But to get one today,Muslims can just surf and click. Poof! A whole World Wide Web ofcyber-fatwas appears, including those laid down by respected muftisfrom Egypt, some iconoclasts with no credentials at all and a fewyounger, hipper alternative muftis like Kahn with Islamic legalbackgrounds but without official titles.
Khan won't formally label himself a mufti--in part because of thepolitical baggage the phrase brings these days. Today, 'grandmuftis' in some Muslim governments issue controversial fatwas--likethe well- known 1989 edict from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which ineffect condemned author Salman Rushdie to death.
But Khan, a doctoral candidate at Georgetown, admits that he andothers like him have added their voices to a traditional custom andmade it a detached, e-mail, virtual highway of muftis and fatwas.
'The Internet has made everyone a mufti,' says Khan. 'In the pastthere was only the local mufti. The Internet has opened up a varietyof opinion. It's the globalization of the mufti.'
The Internet mufti is part of the endless stream of God on theInternet. From cyber-Seders to virtual confession rooms, religion isalmost as big as sex on the Internet. (Type 'God' into the Googlesearch engine and, at last count, you get 14,994 hits, the exactnumber you get from keying in 'sex.')
But like virtual monks and online meditation centers, Internetmuftis are both lauded and loathed for unconventional methods andspins on their religion.
'Muqtedar is part of the new phenomena where people on theInternet--some may want to call them the New Muftis--give an opinionon Islamic legal issues,' says John Esposito, director of the Centerfor Muslim-Christian Understanding and a professor of Islamic studiesat Georgetown University. 'The Internet allows for this absolutefreedom and free play. The downside is any idiot can say anything.The upside is it allows for what Muqtedar winds up doing--addinganother voice.'
Khan is a tidy-looking man--he usually wears pressed khakis, poloshirts and white sneakers--who likes to giggle after saying veryserious things.
He didn't plan to plunge into the world of Islamic advice, letalone advice on the Internet. He was born to a father who had anengineering degree and a grandfather who worked for Indian railwaysin the southern India city of Hyderabad. Khan thought he, too, wouldlive in the mechanical, business side of the world. He studiedengineering and computers and earned an MBA.
He toiled in corporate jobs in India, first as a managementconsultant and then in advertising. Six years ago, he came to theUnited States to study for his PhD in business management at FloridaInternational University. He lasted one year.
'I realized I wasn't intellectually engaged,' Khan says as herushes out of the library on the leafy Georgetown campus. 'Islam andGeorgetown saved me.'
Four years ago he arrived at Georgetown to study for his PhD ininternational relations and political theory. He plunged into thearea's active Muslim life, writing articles for journals, speaking atconventions and surfing the Muslim sites on the Internet.
He soon became managing editor of the American Journal of IslamicSocial Sciences and editor in chief of American Muslim Quarterly, twoprogressive academic journals for Muslims in America. Last year hewas named one of the 40 most influential Muslims in America byMajalla, an Arab weekly newsmagazine in London.
'It's just one magazine's opinion,' Khan says. 'I'm sure thereare other ones that would put me in the worst lists.'
Khan bristles at government-appointed muftis, calling them 'state-sponsored' ulema, an Arabic word meaning scholar.
'They are using conservative interpretations that are out ofcontext,' he says. 'I offer something more modern, more in context,more of the philosophy behind Islam. That's the appeal of a guy likeme.'
Khan believes his more liberal voice highlights a historicaltension between traditionalist Islamic theologians, who tend tofurnish more conservative fatwas, and Islamic philosophers, who gofor the more flexible rulings.
On a recent night in his living room, Khan's more liberal voicepops up in bits of several questions.
'Are homosexuals allowed in the mosque?'
'There is no room for gay-pride parades in the mosque,' he says,thinking for a while and knowing that homosexuals are strictlyforbidden, according to many muftis. 'It is not a public squarewhere you flaunt your dissent. But, I think in societies whereMuslims live as minorities, Clinton's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is aperfectly Islamic solution.'
Another sticky question: 'Can couples who are engaged or havedecided to marry have sex or some physical contact before theyactually wed?'
'Sorry, I cannot give you the green signal to have irresponsibleor casual sex,' Khan answers. 'But also remember that Allah is all-forgiving, especially to those who repent sincerely (this is in caseyou have already been naughty).'
Khan--who is married to a former Hindu who converted to Islam,with whom he has a 4-month-old son--isn't queasy about answeringquestions of a sexual nature. He is just surprised that he getsasked intimate questions so frequently.
While muftis and Islamic legal scholars have always answeredhighly personal questions--even about a spouse's lack of virility--the Internet has made people more willing to, as Khan says, 'gothere.'
'I don't know who these people are and they don't send theirname,' Khan says quietly as he eats some charbroiled lamb kebab at anAfghani restaurant in Georgetown. 'The Internet allows a lot moreprivacy. People ask questions more freely.'
At the 'Ask the Imam' site at IslamiCity--a California-based Webpage (http://islamicity.com) that has 15 muftis and legal scholarsanswering questions--people also have been asking private questionsanonymously.
'It has opened up such an alternative for people,' said DanyDoueiri, vice president of the site, which receives about 50questions a day and which has answered 9,000 questions since theservice started about three years ago. 'About 20 percent of ourquestions, people would normally be too shy to ask.'
People seeking advice sometimes engage in 'fatwa shopping' if theydon't initially hear the answer they want, says Yvonne Haddad, aprofessor of Islamic history at Georgetown University who researchedfatwas and muftis on the Internet. She is working on a forthcomingarticle called 'Fatwas for the Perplexed: Muslim Colonization ofCyberspace.'
This kind of fishing for the answer they want to hear--sex beforemarriage, anyone?--is what some scholars and members of the Muslimcommunity find troublesome about looking for fatwas and muftis overthe Internet.
'I personally find the cyber-fatwa ill-advised,' says YusufDeLorenzo, who lives in Ashburn and is the former adviser on Islamicaffairs to the president of Pakistan. 'First you don't always knowwho the mufti on the Net is. In the old days, people knew the muftias a member of the community and he was respected for more than a Webpage.'
He knows and respects Khan, but thinks fatwas or advice over theInternet about marriage problems or family issues can be out ofcontext and too impersonal.
'In difficult questions you really need to be face to face,' saysDeLorenzo. 'You need to look in their eyes and get a feel for theperson and see what they are wearing and how they sit down.'
Mark Kellner, author of 'God on the Internet,' worries that afaceless person on the Net may give bad advice.
'I could set up my mufti Web site today,' Kellner says. 'Ifpeople believe me, I could start saying, 'Go ahead, have a hamsandwich. Want a couple of cocktails? Oh, go ahead.' '
Khan acknowledges such criticism. But he sees himself as ayounger, Muslim American voice, who won't lead people to Hell butmight lead them to a realistic life in the United States.
It's a philosophy of fatwas that mirrors the swirl of old and newthat is Khan's life. His favorite hobbies: cricket (he rose at 4:30a.m. to watch a recent match) and watching 'Seinfeld' ('my favoriteJew').
His typical day: Pray five times, watch C-SPAN and CNN, doresearch at Georgetown, eat a dinner of Indian or Italian food withhis family and log on to the Internet in his modern alternative muftirole.
Recently he gave advice to a young convert to Islam whose Catholicparents didn't want her wearing the hajab, a head covering worn bysome Muslim women.
'Should I disobey them to wear it?' she asked Khan.
'No, you don't have to wear it right now,' Khan responded. 'Thereare other ways to express your feelings as a Muslim. Be a gooddaughter, a good person in every other way, every other small issue.When they ask you about your change tell them it's because of Islam.All of a sudden their attitudes will change.'
Khan's answer was very different from what some muftis would say.
'I dare to think on my own,' says Khan. 'And more and more peoplecome to me.'
