{"title":"Salafist Third Spaces and Hybridic Purity on YouTube","authors":"Susanne Stadlbauer","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10034","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This case study applies aspects of third space theory (Bhabha, 2004; Hoover & Echchaibi, 2014) to investigate the activism on the YouTube channel Salafimedia UK (smuk) and their claim to be the self-proscribed “truest” and “purest” Islamic sect. This chapter introduces the somewhat paradoxical concept of “hybridic purity” – an emerging ideology that seeks to encompass pre-modern Islamic practices of the salaf (“predecessors” or first generations of Muslims) as the purest form of Islam (see also Wagemakers, 2016); modern values of individuality and reliance on the “self”; the affordances of the YouTube channel; and resistance to present-day Western cultural and political values, especially those of the United Kingdom (UK), as well as to the UK government’s censorship and bans of Salafist movements. This hybridic purity becomes authoritative as it compels YouTube audience members to take responsibility for their own growth and activism as pious Salafists.","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83539258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Online Intersection among Islamophobia, Populism, and Hate Speech: An Italian Perspective","authors":"A. Vitullo","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10028","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Online radical Islam is a topic widely studied by scholars and notoriously discussed among non- experts as well (Awan, 2007; Von Behr et al. 2013; Gray & Head 2009). Because of its intrinsic characteristics (i.e. accessibility, anonymity, or users’ identity dissimulation), the internet has always been a useful tool for propagandists of Islamic fundamentalism (Fighel, 2007; Stenersen, 2008; Koehler, 2014). However, in the last decade, studies have questioned the real importance and magnitude of Islamic radicalization online (Gill et al., 2017). In fact, while scholars were focused on observing digital Islamic radicalization, a galaxy of new forms of extremism was growing online (Silva et al., 2017; Roversi, 2008) that no longer made Islam an exceptional case study. Today, Muslim people are one of the groups most aggressively targeted by extremist, intolerant, violent, and radical discourses (Elahi & Khan, 2017; Amnesty International, 2019). Anti-Muslim hate speech has spread online throughout Europe and the United States, reinforced by the propaganda and political discourse of populist right-wing parties (Hafez, 2014; Bakali 2016). This paper introduces some large-scale action-research projects developed in Europe and Italy in the last three years (2016–2019) and aims to reconstruct the most updated Islamophobia state of the art in terms of numbers, characteristics, and phenomenology from the offline to the online context.","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81491027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Likes, Comments, and Follow Requests: The Instagram User Experiences of Young Muslim Women in the Netherlands","authors":"Lale Mahmudova, Giulia Evolvi","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10038","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Young Dutch Muslim women often lead complex existences: on the one hand, they may be considered “other” to European culture and expected to conform to so-called Western values; on the other hand, they can be subject to scrutiny within their cultural and religious communities. This article explores young Dutch Muslim women’s online practices by focusing on Instagram. By discussing the theories of third spaces (Bhabha, 1994; Pennington, 2018b) and composite habitus (Bourdieu, 1990; Waltorp, 2015), we investigate the following questions: How do young Dutch Muslim women use Instagram? What are the opportunities and constraints that they face when using Instagram? Through qualitative interviews, we discovered that Instagram helps young Dutch Muslim women express their identity in their own terms, but it presents negative aspects connected with privacy and surveillance. We then discuss the need not to generalize Muslim women’s experiences and instead to consider their selective use of Instagram and heterogeneity within Islam.","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"95 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90895293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Production of Salafi Spaces in Computer-mediated Environments: A Social Theory Perspective on ‘Digital Religion’","authors":"C. Becker","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10033","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The concept or notion of ‘digital religion’ has gained traction in recent years in the study of the intersection of media and religion. In this paper, I argue that this concept tends to reify ‘religion’ as a unique, sui generis phenomenon, disregarding decades-long debates about the idea of ‘religion’ in the study of religion. After deconstructing the notion of ‘digital religion’, as put forward in an essay by Stewart Hoover and Nabil Echchaibi (2014), I propose a social theory perspective of (digital) space, drawing mainly from the sociology of space and taking into account affordances and the citational nature of signifying practices. In the final section, I apply this approach to data I gathered during fieldwork online and offline among Salafi Muslims in the Netherlands and Germany from 2008 until 2015; this will showcase the potential not only for abstaining from ‘religionizing’ social phenomena but also of a social theory approach to the production of digital spaces.","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87350439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kristoffer Holt. Right-Wing Alternative Media","authors":"Sebastian Tjelle Jarmer","doi":"10.1163/21659214-10010003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-10010003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89221385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Keep It Halal! A Smartphone Ethnography of Muslim Dating","authors":"Farah Hasan","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10042","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article reveals how Muslim religious identity is impacted by Muslim dating apps. The development of Muslim dating apps within the last decade has led to Muslims seeking partners beyond their physical and social locality. The following research takes inner-Muslim discursive traditions into account in order to examine how Muslim males articulate and negotiate their Islamic identity in the process of partner selection. The research’s methodological approach draws from digital ethnography, with the smartphone as the primary field site. The smartphone ethnography on the app of Muzmatch will demonstrate that users are physically embedded in doctrinally heterogenous contexts. Yet, the religious framework of the app promotes a “doctrinal homogeneity” that finds expression via the discursive articulations of the app users. It will be shown that users are being shaped by the app as they incorporate the religious framework provided by it.","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84209256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aesthetic Styles and the Occupation of Space in the “Places You’ll Pray” Photo Series","authors":"Kristin M. Peterson","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10029","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper analyzes a series of photographs that feature Muslim Americans praying in various public locations. In the “Places You’ll Pray” series, photographer Sana Ullah employs attractive settings along with framing, lighting, angle and colors to emphasize that the Islamic practice of prayer is not only an act that induces feelings of tranquility but also a beautiful practice that belongs within American public spaces. Through the policing of the sensory realm, the complex experiences of Muslims are generally over-simplified or made invisible in the media. This article explores how Muslim creators use aesthetics to shift the larger sensory realm of what is considered attractive, beautiful and valued in American society. As these photos circulate through social media and other digital spaces, Ullah and the photo subjects use the occupation of physical and digital spaces to assert that Muslim lives and Islamic values belong in the American landscape.","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85593041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction: Islam, Space, and the Internet","authors":"Giulia Evolvi, M. Giorda","doi":"10.1163/21659214-bja10047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10047","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue comes from a panel we organized at the conference of the European Association for the Study of Religion (easr) held in Bern in June 2018.1 The panel, titled “Space, Religion, and the Internet,” aimed at exploring the relationship between religion and new media by considering the spatial turn in Religious Studies. We launched an open call for the panel and, while it was not restricted to a specific religion, it mostly attracted papers on Islam. This resulted in a panel exploring digital Islam in countries that are not predominantly Muslim, analyzing topics that included Salafi and fundamentalist practices, gender performances within Islam, online Islamophobia, and the use of the Internet to counteract stereotypes. Following the panel, we decided to publish this special issue with a focus in Islam in Europe and North America. The growing academic interest on Islam and the Internet, shown by the significant number of submissions on the topic we had for the easr conference panel, has different causes. First, Muslims living in non-Muslim countries often employ digital media to gain knowledge about Islam, negotiate religious practices, explore ways to be part of a community, consume Muslim-inspired pop culture, and find like-minded people to discuss religious and cultural backgrounds (Echchaibi, 2011; Bahfen, 2018). Second, the growth of digital practices also sheds light on the intersection between offline and online Islamophobia, which is a pressing social issue. Together with street-level Islamophobia, the Internet may offer venues for stereotypes, abuses, discriminations and threats","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89133040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Alvin Eng Hui Lim. Digital Spirits in Religion and Media: Possession and Performance","authors":"Rosemary Huf","doi":"10.1163/21659214-10010002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-10010002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"322 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74122342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Melissa M. Wilcox. Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody","authors":"Rosie Clare Shorter","doi":"10.1163/21659214-10010001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-10010001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29881,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76283943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}