Challenges and Opportunities of the Imamat-Ummat System in Cyberspace

In the age of virtual space, the way is much better paved to meet Islam’s transboundary claims, and to increase Islam’s strategic depth. Virtual space, as a real space, is an extention of human society in the context of information and communication technology. The main question of this research is ‘With such facilities provided in cyberspace as space-time compression which makes it possible to form an innovative sort of pure political system, what are the challenges and opportunities of such a system in virtual space, and what are the strategies of finding ways out of these challenges? Drawing upon the descriptive-analytic research methods, as well as making use of the library and Internet tools in collecting information, this research deals with the challenges and opportunities which may arise due to the formation of this kind of system in syberspace and seeks to meet the theoretical and practical challenges with emphasis on the pivotal role of the Islamic Cooperation Organization in this regard. Some of the challenges this system may face in virtual space are as follows: differences of opinion on cyber Imamate, contradiction between the Shia’s ideal forms of government with those of the Sunnis, the inconsistencies between the Imamat-Ummat system and the existing state-nation system governing Islamic countries, governance of cyberspace and their anonymous users. Meeting the said theoretical and practical challenges provides the Islamic community with excellent opportunities, the most significant of which are the flourishing of ecumenical jurisprudence (fiqh-e taqrib), political, economical and cultural opportunities.