Online Sufism and Reestablishing Religious Authority

Abstract

ONLINE SUFISM AND  REESTABLISHING RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY Recent burgeoning assumptions claim that long-established traditional authorities are professed to diminish due to the rapid advancement of information media technologies. New and more flexible and democratic authorities have dismantled the abovementioned old power. However, contemporary social media transmission does not eradicate these religious authorities, particularly in the realm of Sufism. Sufi figures generally use cyberspace technologies to disseminate and reinforce their doctrines. Based on Weber's theory of charismatic authority, this study examined the authority features manifested by the Sufism figure Habib Luthfi bin Yahya from Pekalongan Indonesia on social media networks. It is encapsulated that the Islamic mystical school of thought is no longer maintained through direct or offline practices, but it has increasingly evolved into an online community.   Keywords: Media, authority, sufism, online, cyberspace.