Suddenly last summer I realized I needed to find a soapbox from which I could speak my mind, share what I know about the Middle East and North Africa, and try to educate people, other than my students, about the occupation of Palestine. Since many of my colleagues believe that the study of religion has nothing to do with contemporary Israel/ Palestine, I knew I had to engage some new friends. I would need a digital soapbox to find these intellectual kindred spirits, one not of major interest to the folks with whom I teach. I found more treasure than I had hoped for. As I joined the public debate about Palestine and Israel, I realized the importance of gaining name recognition on internet sites. After slowing climbing the Facebook ladder, making friends with journalists, activists, policy-makers, Arabs and Jews, Christians and stolidly nonreligious bloggers, I was asked to blog regularly for the Huffington Post. From there, I saw what a vital tool Facebook can be, as my students were eager to “thumbs up” what I write and share my blogs with a wider circle. Last semester my ethnic studies class and I even made a few U Tube cartoons on the topics of xenophobia and Islamophobia. In this multimedia presentation, I shall show how Twitter can improve contact between students and faculty; how the Internet social media sites can build a strong learning community, and how my non-scholarly journey through as an active contributor to Internet-based sites has made my work more accessible to students and general readers as well. Finally, I will raise some of the possibilities for extended use of social media and joint websites as a forum for scholars and activists to combine their work. At every turn I will wonder if the Academy will ever respect my blogs, podcasts, and facetime with a global constituency.