Virtual atmosphere group: Director of Ravaq-e Hikmat (Porch of Wisdom) Cultural Institute maintains that deepening religious beliefs of activists in the virtual atmosphere is a way for promoting and spreading virtues and reducing moral depravity in the virtual atmosphere.
Speaking to International Quran News Agency (IQNA), Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani, director of Ravaq-e Hikmat Cultural Institute said that in order for us to be able to control the virtual atmosphere properly, we must help strengthen the religious belief of the society. "Certainly, one who has a strong religious belief and his vision is that the world is God's presence and that God is Omnipresent and He sees him no matter where he is, he is less likely to commit any sins. One way to spread virtues and reduce evils in the virtual atmosphere is to deepen religious beliefs among the activists in this atmosphere. In fact, deepening of religious beliefs requires some preliminary measures of which one is to promote religious knowledge. That is to say, we should help increase the people's religious knowledge," he said.
Member of the supreme council of Ahlul-Bayt (a.s.) World Assembly referred to the relationship between belief and religious knowledge. "Religious knowledge is something other than religious belief. It is very much possible that someone may know something but he may not believe in it. There is no doubt that knowledge paves the ground for belief. Therefore, we should create an opportunity for spiritual promotion in the society and in the virtual world through promoting religious instruction in the public level of the society including the virtual atmosphere.
Referring to the cause of existence of moral vice in the virtual atmosphere he said, "Since the identity of most people in the virtual atmosphere remains anonymous and anonymity provides a kind of security for some users, therefore it is possible that some people may do actions in the virtual atmosphere that they do not do in normal situations."
"It is for the same reason that observance of piety and avoidance from vices in the virtual atmosphere are faced with some difficulties as compared to the human society in the concrete external world. It is like committing a sin in private, "Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani added.
Director of Ravaq-e Hikmat Institute said, "It is easier not to commit a sin in the presence of others because others are with him and their presence is by itself a barrier to committing a sin. However, when a person is alone and when he think that no one is seeing him and despite that he does not a commit a sin, that indicates he has reached a higher level of self-control and self-restraint."
Speaking about site filtering, Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani said, "If filtering is done, we can tell the users, with reference to the law, that cooperating with some websites is illegal because, according to the law, the website is doing criminal activities, so entering that website is prohibited. It should be noted that such an action will not lead to promotion of spirituality in the virtual atmosphere and that it is merely a legal action."
Member of Int'l Committee for Dialogue between Islam and the West went on saying that "such a behavior can, to some extent, curb crimes and depravities in the internet but personally I believe that alongside filtering we must also embark on conducting some moral and cultural activities to prevent crimes and depravities. For example, we can inform internet users that some websites which they want to enter contain materials that are offensive and opposed to religious teachings and that these websites can harm them from this perspective. We can tell them that God is present everywhere and that He sees everything people do in the virtual atmosphere."
"The good thing that has been done with respect to filtering is that useful websites have been introduced on the filtering page. The users can use these links to go to certain web addresses but unfortunately, all this is done without any charm and attraction in it for users whereas the people in charge of filtering can do it in a more attractive manner," Lecturer at the Kharij level of jurisprudence and legal theories said.
Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani further added that in order for all this to happen the intellectuals, religious experts, psychologists and educationists should cooperate with one another to work out models to make use of this opportunity so that we can pass appropriate and attractive religious messages to those who are less exposed to religious messages and those who are less likely to come into contact with religious teachings.
"It is necessary to point out that when it comes to filtering websites, which is technically very difficult and costly, we must exercise extra caution so as not to prevent access to those websites that are useful or contain useful Islamic materials," he said.
Member of the supreme council of Ahlul-Bayt (a.s.) World Assembly gave the example of 'IslamQuest' website. "One of the problems we confronted when we first launched IslamQuest.net, as a website that replies to questions on religious matters in 14 major languages of the world, was that the users should choose their gender before sending their questions so that the answers could be given on gender basis. Thus, in the English version of our website, we faced a filtering problem because the term "sex" on this website would cause the website to be automatically filtered."
Director of Porch of Wisdom Cultural Institute pointed out another negative aspect of filtering. "Owing to this model of filtering, if a person wants to enter an Islamic or a scientific website, he will have to use a proxy to get access to the website."
Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani further added that filtering policy which is now being carried out beyond the crime limit, partly because of technical difficulties, is by itself an important reason behind widespread use of proxies.
"I believe, even he who makes positive use of proxies finally ends up entering morally offensive and anti-Islamic websites or any websites with licentious contents," he was quoted as saying.
Finally, Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani stressed on Islam's standpoint as a solution to this threat. "According to Islamic injunctions, we do not have the permission to extend the boundary of prohibitions beyond the fixed limit because otherwise we have in practice increased breach of the law. That is why, we must clearly determine the boundary of prohibitions and when implementing the filtering policy, we should exercise it only within the prohibited area.
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