The Styrian provincial branch of the right-wing populist FPÖ party (the Freedom Party of Austria) launched its anti-mosque online flash game called "Moschee Baba" ("Bye Bye Mosque") in advance of regional elections which are to be held on 26 September. The objective of the game is to shoot down minarets that are being built. That raised criticism from the local Muslim community, the Social Democratic Party of Austria and the Green Party. The public prosecutor in Graz, the capital of the Styria region, has opened an investigation into the game after receiving the Green Party's complaint. At this time, the game is taken offline and the statement on the website says: "Due to the political influence of our opponents this game was banned by the Austrian justice! Now, it's up to you to decide on 26 September."

This book looks at the role that communications technologies play in advancing democratic transitions in Muslim countries. As such, its central question is whether technology holds the potential to substantially enhance democracy. Certainly, no democratic transition has occurred solely because of the internet. But, as Philip Howard argues, no democratic transition can occur today without the internet. According to Howard, the major (and perhaps only meaningful) forum for civic debate in most Muslim countries today is online. Activists both within diasporic communities and within authoritarian states, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, are the drivers of this debate, which centers around issues such as the interpretation of Islamic texts, gender roles, and security issues. Drawing upon material from interviews with telecommunications policy makers and activists in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Tajikistan and Tanzania and a comparative study of 74 countries with large Muslim populations, Howard demonstrates that these forums have been the means to organize activist movements that have lead to successful democratic insurgencies.

This lively book focuses on how different Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities engage with new media. Rather than simply reject or accept new media, religious communities negotiate complex relationships with these technologies in light of their history and beliefs. Heidi Campbell suggests a method for studying these processes she calls the "religious-social shaping of technology" and students are asked to consider four key areas: religious tradition and history; contemporary community values and priorities; negotiation and innovating technology in light of the community; communal discourses applied to justify use.

Call for papers for the Cyberspace 2010 conference organized in November 2010 by the Masaryk University in Brno has been extended. The abstract submission will be opened till the end of August. As a part of this conference the section Religion in Cyberspace will be held.

Ho Wai-Yip from the City University of Hong Kong has published an interesting article about Islam, China, and the Internet. While the predominant focus of the rise of cyber Islamic environments has been on the West and the Middle East, this article is an exploratory study of the emergence of the Chinese Islamic websites. With the rapid proliferation and usage of new informational and communicative technologies and the Chinese government's relentless policy in regulating the internet, this article put the peculiar situations of Chinese cyber Islamic environments in the political background of China's rise.