Ethnic harmony on Second Life

A new article in the current issue of Saudi Aramco World Magazine called “Al Andalus 2.0.” , by our friend Josh Fouts, tells the story of an experimental community in the virtual world of Second Life called Al Andalus, that has spent the last three years exploring innovative and emerging ways that we can use virtual worlds to co-exist harmoniously as different cultures. Many of the cultures of the real world, such as the muslim, offer difficulties and challenges almost unsurmountable to many of its followers, particularly the women, who in many instances are treated as second-class citizens, forbidden even to freely enter cemeteries, mosques and public places.

The virtual, writes Josh, is psychologically quite real. People exchange real emotions and real ideas, experience real interactions. While this is what makes all social media tick, Second Life’s immersive qualities make it a truly new frontier for diplomacy and cultural relations.

A scene of the Al Andalus community on Second Life

According to Josh, the more time that users invest in their Second Life experiences, the more they come to express high degrees of creativity and understanding of each other. In this and other ways, Second Life is more like the physical world than most people tend to believe.

Second Life is by far the largest of the on-line virtual worlds and, most importantly, and the most incredible thing is that it is created entirely by its users. Down to the details of flowers in bloom and fruiting trees, the gardens in the this virtual community, Josh beautifully describes as the gardens of Al Andalus have been created by its residents to virtually resemble those of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

The community of Al-Andalus occupies a group of virtual islands, and its virtual architecture and lush gardens are designed to resemble two of the great monuments of medieval Islamic architecture, the Alhambra in Granada and the Great Mosque in Córdoba, both in Spain. The virtual buildings were conceived and built to evoke a historical memory of convivencia, the Spanish term for the harmonious co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Jews in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Islamic caliphate there.

Josh spent nearly four months with the Al Andalus residents, who in the physical world live in Canada, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil among many other countries. He attended various virtual events with the Second Life participating avatars at the parties, Flamenco concerts, Compline Prayer Services, and morning prayers at the Grand Mosque of Al Andalus.

In real life, some of the more active Al-Andalus members are accomplished professionals; they include a Russian ballerina, a Saudi accounting student, a retired British engineer and a Houston attorney. It would be practically impossible for such diverse group to meet in person, let alone set up a real-world socio-cultural experimental community.

Members of Al Andalus participate in religious events and gatherings

One of the residents, in a virtual interview with Josh at one of the lush and magnificent gardens of Al Andalus, says that “part of the pleasure and value of the experience is meeting people with other backgrounds and beliefs
Part history and part fantasy, Al-Andalus is, above all, a metaphor for the future, fostering a new and more tolerant form of human engagement, at the same time that it promotes greater understanding among religions, particularly about one of the most obscure and mystical in all humanity.

More details about the communityAl Andalus.

Josh Fouts is a Senior Fellow for Digital Media and Public Policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and he blogs regularly about how technology can elevate the current paradigm of cultural diplomacy and relations, and how individuals around the world from different cultures are using virtual worlds to create better understanding between cultures.

André Blas