Securitization of Islam and Muslims Through Social Media: A Content Analysis of Stopislam in Twitter

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to examine the securitization of Islam and Muslims on Twitter. Therefore, whether and to what extent securitized images of Islam and Muslims have been produced on Twitter and to analyze the dominant securitized themes and their sub-dimensions. The methodology used for this purpose consisted of quantitative and qualitative analysis and analyzed hashtags #stopislam trending on Twitter. It was found that #stopislam produced securitized images of Islam and Muslims. Totalitarianism as a sub-dimension of ideological threat in the context of Securitization of Islam is dominating than Sharia Law and Jihadism while no evidence has been found in Whahabism Category. Similarly, in the existential threat category in the securitization of Muslims sub-dimension, general Muslims are dominating than Women's, immigrants and refugees on #stopislam. #stopislm produced less neutral and favoring Muslims Tweets evident that hashtag produced securitized images of Islam and Muslims.