Saturday, April 12, 2008

Discouraging Words

Chatted with Sanad tonight. I told him about the attack on me and he indicated that it has happened to him as well. At IslamOnline in SL. Three guys threatened him, so he went to another island. Another friend of mine told me about a guy she knows who also had three men try to shoot him when he was at IslamOnline.

Sanad's theory is, "they want to show muslim people that they hate them ... my thinking". He said," I think it is a big problem... in SL and RL, because it is a wrong idea."

So for all of the promise of this new medium, whether in education or business or just plain social networking, we're still faced with the global problems of xenophobia and discrimination.

Monday, April 7, 2008

The Usual Suspect

Did a little more in-world wandering. I've changed back into jeans & t-shirt. I went back to the Oldies dance club and guess what...? They talked to me as soon as I stepped into the dance area. Welcomed me, chatted a bit. I was still around the outside and didn't dance. But what a stark difference between my welcome today and the disregard I encountered when wearing the abaya.

On another note, I was showing SL to a businessperson last week. I was still dressed in the abaya & hajib. He commented: "You aren't wearing any explosives, are you?" I suppose it was an attempt at humor on his part. In context with these other experiences, I'm inclined to see it as a stereotypical generalization.

Of History and Horror II

So, what's with the title of these entries? Last post I described participating in a history lesson of sorts. This post, unfortunately, describes an attack in SL.

Still wearing my abaya, I was working on my building skills in the Edtech sandbox. It's an area that is open to the public for whatever activities they wish, typically building or practicing flying, etc. There are some restrictions like no weapons or violence. As I was building a pillar, another avatar started repeatedly running into me wearing a hockey goalie mask (that looked like the one from the movie Friday the 13th) and holding a meat cleaver. There was also loud chaotic music and it was obvious that he was attacking me. It took me a moment to realize what was happening. When I did figure it out, I moved away from him and he ran off, but still in my view. I went back to building and about 5 minutes later, he did it again.

Now, I know this sounds rather benign and in fact when I told other avatars what happened they just laughed it off. But as odd as it sounds, it alarmed me. Except for the lack of actual injury, it was almost as if it happened in real life. It was sudden, unprovoked and intentionally assaultive.

Of course, the bigger question is, why me? He didn't attack anyone else in the sandbox. Was it because I am a female? Was it because of my attire? Was I just unlucky? Hmmm.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Of History and Horror

Spent about three hours in world last Tuesday night. Again went to the dance club in the Netherlands (well, the DJs are from the Netherlands in RL). Again they were very welcoming and chatted with me. I wandered around a bit this time and watched from the balcony.

My friend from Qatar signed on & I invited him to join me. I'm not sure how he feels about being identified, so I'm going to give him the pseudonym Sanad since he is Bahraini. Sanad joined me for a few minutes and then we retreated to the deck on the treehouse on EdTech island where it was quieter and easier to talk.

Sanad indicated to me that it is not permissable for Muslims to dance (or at least it would not be appropriate for me to dance wearing an abaya & hajib). I had guessed as much, which is why I watched from the balcony.

I mentioned that I was finally able to enter the MuslimBrotherhood site in SL. Each time I had attempted before, SL crashed. I was beginning to get suspicious, but Sanad thought this was just a coincidence. He had not been there, so we went back.


The Muslim Brotherhood site has a bunch informational posters calling for the release of several political prisoners. Many of them are in Arabic, but there is a fair amount of English, too. Sanad and I began to discuss the history of the Muslim Brotherhood. I was curious about them because I'm reading The Looming Tower : Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright. In the book, Wright talks about how some of the early radicals split from the Brotherhood to form various groups of their own. Sanad described the present-day group as being very different from al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Again, it was getting late for me and REALLY late for him, so we didn't get too far, but Sanad definitely knows his history.