ABSTRACT
Virtual communities may be broader or narrower, and they may change their message over time. Some sites are cyber-extensions of local churches, temples, or mosques and are intended mainly to provide a service for current, potential, or virtual worshipers. Some sites also engaged in facilitating religious performance: perhaps allowing the worshiper to accomplish a religious act, to experience something akin to what he or she would experience offline, or to join with others in a religious service of some sort. Many religious sites have bulletin boards, mentioned earlier; some also have chat rooms, and those on Facebook of course can become centers for exchange. But many religious-minded users also enter into protracted and sometimes heated exchanges about how best to understand their religions. Long before the Internet, religions differed in the degree and the location of performativity. The hajj is like other pilgrimages in that it replicates a series of steps taken by a key religious figure.
