Exploring virtual law and government

The Al-Andalus Caliphate

By Dreamingen Writer, Correspondent

Dreamingen believes we are employed by the future to help the next generation. He is a law student, art lover, and Pollywog’s hat model.

In a post 9/11 world, it takes courage to provide a place in Second Life (SL) where Muslims, Jews, and Christians can live and work together in the same space to explore democratic principles. The Al-Andalus Caliphate Project reconstructs 13th Century Moor Alhambra and provides a virtual space for a community of individuals of different languages, nationalities, religions and cultures within a political and juridical space shaped by authentic Islamic principles. Virtually Blind, a blog devoted to the study of law in virtual worlds, reports that Al-Andalus joins Caledon, the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, and others, as “quasi-governmental systems” in SL.

Founding member, Michel Manen, studied politics, languages, law, and international relations and served as president of the real-life non-profit organization, CRAEDO (Coalition for the Reformation of the Euro-American Democratic Order) to explore issues of “democratic participation, citizenship, intercultural communication, diversity, and human rights” in a 21st Century democracy.

Sun correspondent Dreamingen Writer interviews Michel Manen on The Al-Andalus Caliphate Project.

Michel Manen was born in Bucharest, Romania, where he lived for twelve years. He then spent a year in Algeria and two in West Germany before emigrating, with his family, to Montreal, Canada. He studied politics and languages at the undergraduate level at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario and the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He also spent a semester studying Spanish in Salamanca, Spain. In his spare time he debated, volunteered with the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves, and was commissioned as an officer. He participated in various international conferences in the United States. He studied law at McGill University, Montreal, worked with law firms there, and then moved, in 1992, to London, UK.

Dreamingen Writer:  I’m exploring the very broad topic of what role does the legal system play in that virtual governance. In your opinion, which system of governance or legal system will prove the most useful in a virtual world?

Michel Manen:  A pleasure to see you—and welcome to Al-Andalus. Let me tell you first about the Al-Andalus Caliphate Project. What I hope to do here is to build a diverse, multicultural community centered around a virtual space, Al-Andalus, and based in Islamic principles of government and justice, capable to address real issues in a way that is also compatible with ideas of equality, dignity, democracy, participation and human rights.

Historically, about 1000 years ago, most of today’s Spain and Portugal was called Al-Andalus and was ruled by a Caliph—a ruler who claimed to trace his origins back to the Prophet Mohammad, and therefore was particularly respected by the Muslim people with all kinds of backgrounds, languages and tribes and was seen as having the authority and legitimacy to govern them. He was in a way a unifying person that brought together all these very diverse people, including even non-Muslim communities, like Christians and Jews, and could maintain a system of government and justice among them. So Al-Andalus at the time was the most advanced regions of Europe and one of the most advanced in the world—economically, culturally, artistically, and technologically—and in comparison with other societies at the time, one of the most diverse, multicultural and tolerant too, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived and worked together in the same space. So that is the model we want to draw upon and find inspiration in—which is why we have chosen to rebuild the Alhambra fortress in Granada, and give it the original name of the Al-Andalus Caliphate.

Today most Islamic countries and their government and legal systems are the result of the colonial encounter with Western countries. This means their elites have been integrated in a global system, but this integration does not go deep, to the grass roots. Most of these elites governing them are in many cases not democratic.

Dreamingen Writer:  So they are not pure forms of their own governments?

Michel Manen:  Exactly—I would not use the word pure—but certainly not based on their own historical and political and legal traditions. So the only way for grass roots citizens to protest is to fall back on their history and traditions.

Dreamingen Writer:  Why did you choose Islamic principles of law and government?

Michel Manen:  Let me explain briefly. This project is to serve as a social experiment in practice. Historically, opposition to rulers in Islamic countries was structured around Islamic institutions such as Islamic judges and scholars. So even today they have great authority and are respected by many ordinary Muslims in many countries, and at the same time respectful of universal principles of dignity, equality, democracy and human rights. So let me explain two concepts:

First, we want to develop a system of governance based on Islamic principles of government. In the past, Islamic countries had as supreme temporal authority a Caliph, so we want to develop a constitution drawing on this idea of a Caliph. A legitimate political authority in Islamic history can function in a modern system of government not because we want to recreate this in real life, but because we want to show that Islamic government, if given a chance, would have been able to develop democratic institutions which encourage citizen participation, the rule of law and democracy just like western countries did—and do so on their own, without outside interference. In this way we can talk in a language people living in Islamic countries understand, in their own historical perspective and frame of reference.

Second, we will get together all citizens, whatever their background or religion, not just Muslims, and draft a constitution and have elections. This is very important because in today’s global world economy where boundaries are less important and people and information move so much easier it is important for all countries to respect all their communities, including of different religions, and allow their members equal rights and democratic participation not only in Europe and North America but also in Muslim countries around the world.

Dreamingen Writer:  How many members does this group have and are you working with the Muslim community?

Michel Manen:  We have about 90 members in our group, many Muslims. I will start making presentations throughout SL about this project.

Dreamingen Writer:  What is the most controversial and misunderstood part of this project?

Michel Manen:  The most controversial part—Shariah. All I have to do is mention Shariah law and one thinks of beheadings, torture, and abuse of women. Of course such actions are unacceptable both in real life and [simulated in] SL and in violation of human rights. I want to dispel any notions that we somehow want to enforce Shariah law here—understood as the worst deformations of Islamic law, such as stoning, beheadings, beatings and discrimination against women.

Dreamingen Writer:  What do you hope to achieve with this project?

Michel Manen:  What I hope we can do in Al-Andalus is look at the fundamental principles of Islamic law and specific interpretations and ways of reasoning that can also meet universal standards of democracy, equality, dignity and human rights. We can then develop a legitimate version of Islamic law that is based on its historical development and is at the same time appropriate for the social and cultural problems of the 21st century and in accord with universal values of equality, dignity, democracy and human rights.

A lot of people are working on this in real life all across the world, in universities and research centers and institutions. Islamic law is incredibly diverse and dynamic and has been going on for 1300 years now. One of the problems we have is that it has been abused by extremists and terrorists so we tend to dismiss it all. What SL offers that is unique is to create a virtual space like this where people from all over the world—with different backgrounds, languages, and religions—can meet and create a virtual community. We just tend to say that the entire legal history of one billion people is incapable of change and adaptation and should be changed to something we are familiar with and try not only to talk about, but to apply such theories in practice—when it would be impossible to do so in real life without creating very serious real life problems. So it is a bit like a social laboratory, where we can test new and creative ideas and try to find out alternatives and improve on them. This way Second Life can provide something unique to people in real life working on these issues.

We will hopefully try to combine ideas of universal values of democracy, dignity and human rights and apply them specifically to Islamic concepts of politics and justice to develop new interpretations of it appropriate for the 21st century.

The Al-Andalus Project in Second Life fully intends to play a small role in this vital and exciting process currently taking place in political, legal, and academic circles in Islamic and non-Islamic institutions and societies across the world, and show the extraordinary potential of the emerging Metaverse to assist in addressing real world issues in new, creative and unique ways. In turn, by learning from the history of Islamic societies how rights of political participation, separation of powers, justice, and the rule of law can arise authoritatively across vast geographical spaces encompassing a multitude of ethnic, national, cultural and linguistic groups, those of us living in Western nation states may well derive valuable lessons about building legitimate political and legal structures across national boundaries—so as to be able to address authoritatively and efficiently the increasingly urgent and intractable challenges of environmental pollution, global poverty, and humanitarian disasters we are facing today with increasing regularity.

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