Appropriate Internet forums for

Discussing Islam

  • Newsgroups
  • Mailing lists
  • Web boards
  • Chat rooms / IRC channels

    Newsgroups

    Public forums with ongoing discussions on Islam and its relationship to other religions are

  • soc.religion.islam (moderated)
  • alt.religion.islam (unmoderated),

    but the latter of these might not be available at your site, (since not all news servers carry groups in the alt.* hierarchy).

  • soc.culture.pakistan.religion and a number of other groups in the soc.culture.* hierarchy about countries with large Muslim populations might be a place to look. Religion and culture are interwoven. But usually it is better to focus exclusively religious discussions on the newsgroups specificially created for this purpose and listed above.

    Web access to newsgroups (search, read & post):

  • DejaNews: "Search Newsgroups" and choose e.g. "soc.religion.islam" or go directly here (but for some strange reason, it doesn't always catch all the postings... click "next messages" a few times, it might give you some more of the most recent ones. The first link above, through your local newsserver should be the normal way to go.)
  • News2Web Gateway is a convenient read only page

    Before you jump into discussions it might be good to have a look at the charter for the Islamic newsgroup and the frequently asked questions on soc.religion.islam in regard to this newsgroup. Search the web to find the FAQs of other newsgroups.

    For some newsreaders it seems to be difficult to post to the moderated newsgroups since the posts have to first go to the moderator email address. Hence, if you want to post to the Islamic newsgroup soc.religion.islam, send your contribution via email to sri@hrweb.org, soc-religion-islam@telerama.lm.com [using both makes it more certain that it arrives].

    You might also want to have a look at the Christian newsgroups soc.religion.christian and soc.religion.christian.bible-study which discuss topics relevant to Christianity and other religions but the direct interaction with Islam is (sadly) relatively rare in these groups. FAQs are available for both soc.religion.christian and soc.religion.christian.bible-study.

    The submission email address for soc.religion.christian is christian@cs.rutgers.edu and for soc.religion.christian.bible-study it is bible@mcs.net

    It is always good to think twice before hitting the deliver button and sending off a contribution to the newsgroups that will be read by thousands. But if you are having second thoughts, and urgently have to retract your contribution, here is the procedure how you might be able to undo it: CANCEL FAQ.

    Mailing Lists

  • Muslim/Christian Dialog List (MCD): If your browser supports forms you can subscribe from this web based subscription form, or otherwise send email to lists@integrity.org with only this line in the body of the email:

    subscribe mcd

    MCD has quite vigorous discussion by people who want to convince each other of truth. That makes it lively and interesting but sometimes it gets hot as well. If you would like to have a taste of what is discussed currently, have a look at the MCD Email archive.

  • The Bnai Avraham mailing list for Jewish - Christian - Muslim dialog at Seed House is a very friendly dialog list. It is understood that there is to be no proselytizing / evangelising on the list. You can subscribe to Bnai Abraham by sending email to Majordomo@leb.net with this line only in the body

    subscribe bnai-avraham    your.address@some.host

  • Islamic Perspectives mailing list

  • ISLAM-L" (History of Islam) [moderated]: For subscription send an email to LISTSERV@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU with only the following line in the body of the message:

    SUBscribe ISLAM-L    your-full-name

    This is not a religious debate list, but an academic forum (well, supposedly). Questions and statements allowed as far as they are relevant to the "History of Islam." ISLAM-L Web Archive

  • Adnan Khan has set up his own debate mailing list, called MCAD (Muslim, Christian, atheist/agnostic debate) for those who prefer a more hostile Christian bashing mode compared to the aim for dialog on the MCD list.

    Web Boards

  • Sala@m discussion board
  • Investigating Islam Dialog Forums
  • Islamic Forum in Portugal
  • Discussion board at the Debate Site.
  • A general Faith Forum
  • Muslim - Christian Dialogue Site
  • Islam Today

    Chat rooms / IRC channels

  • Islamic Chat Channels
  • Adhie's Muslim Chat!
  • The Park Life Chat

    Note: I have never used chat rooms, this is the part of the discussion forums I am only semi-confident in recommending...

    If you know of other generally accessible forums of dialog, please inform us as well.

    Answering Islam Home Page