It's not every day that a book about the internet emanates from a university's theology department. While most people's attention has been focused on e-commerce and dot.com millionaires, Gary Bunt, a lecturer in Islamic studies at Lampeter, has been exploring what he terms "cyber Islamic environments".

Virtually Islamic is the first wide-ranging study of the way Muslims around the world are using the net, and the impact this may have on Islam.

Muslims are often perceived as ultra-conservative, and that is the case in some countries: the book tells of a 37-year-old man in Sudan whose father threatened to beat him if he ever caught him using the web. But elsewhere they have adopted the internet with alacrity.

Most of the Islamic groups that figure in the news - Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taleban, etc - now have an internet presence, as does the grandson of the late Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. There's even a gay site called Queer Jihad.

One reason for this interest in the internet, the book suggests, is "da'wa", the duty of believers to spread the word of Islam. Setting up websites is a simple and cheap way to fulfil that obligation. Another reason is that various kinds of information which Muslims need can be found much more quickly and easily via the internet. The Koran, the holy book, is available in searchable form at several sites. The timing of the five daily prayers changes from day to day and place to place, but a quick search provides times for anywhere in the world.

There's also software which calculates the direction of Mecca (which Muslims must face when praying) from any location. Several of the Muslims interviewed by the author were excited by the possibility that the internet may one day link up the billion-or-so believers around the world into a single religious community (or "digital umma") of a kind not seen since the early days of Islam 1,400 years ago. One small example is the online mosque established in Belfast in 1995 to serve 3,000 Muslims scattered among the feuding Protestants and Catholics, but now catering for a global audience.

The internet is also likely to make Muslims more aware of the diversity of views held in different parts of the world. Up to now, distance and strict censorship by local establishments have prevented many Muslims from learning about alternative interpretations - or, in some cases, even knowing they existed.

This means that orthodox viewpoints are more likely to be challenged in the future. Muslims generally take a stern view of anything which they consider defames Islam (which in some cases simply means their own interpretation of it). That attitude is difficult to reconcile with the free spirit of the internet.

The book discusses the case of SuraLikeIt, a site which published satirical verses mimicking the style of the Koran. Following complaints, AOL blew away the site. Predictably, numerous other versions popped up elsewhere on the net. Some governments, most notably Saudi Arabia, have set up expensive filtering systems to keep unsuitable material out of their countries.

But filtering systems have difficulty in distinguishing between, say, a devout article and a satirical one. In a test, one of the most popular filters blocked an innocuous site entitled Welcome to Saudi Arabia: the Land of Islam.

The book gets a little technical: appreciating its arguments requires a basic knowledge of Islamic concepts, but there is a glossary. There's also an address list for major Islam-related websites.

Web addresses

Virtually Islamic website: www.virtuallyislamic.com

Belfast Islamic Centre: http://ireland.iol.ie/~afifi/

Hamas: www.hamas.org/

Hezbollah: www.hizbollah.org/ and www.hezbollah.org

Queer Jihad: www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/8977/

Taleban: www.taleban.com

• Review originally published in The Guardian, 8 June 2000