@article {2695, title = {Muslim Political Activism or Political Activism by Muslims? Secular and Religious Identities Amongst Muslim Arab Activists in the United States and United Kingdom}, journal = {Identities}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Scholarship on Muslim political mobilisation in the West has developed as an important counterpoint to public discourse, which has tended to cast Muslims as a threat to social cohesion, liberal democracy, and national security. But even as scholarly literature has shed light on civic participation among Muslims, it has sidelined the diversity of political identities and values that motivate them. Most, if not all, Muslims in the West find their identities politicised in some way, but the question of whether this leads to a consensus amongst Muslims about the role of religion in public life often remains unexamined. In this article we draw on interviews with seventy-eight activists in Britain and the United States who are both Muslim and Arab to complicate ideas about the political mobilisation of Muslims in the West. Respondents, we show, are far from unified in their views on religion as a basis for political action and mobilisation. Some are keen to place Islam squarely in mainstream political spaces; most, however, are insistent that Islam should remain a private faith and identity and that political mobilisation should take place under the aegis of Arabness or other {\textquoteleft}secular{\textquoteright} identities. Using theoretical perspectives on the public sphere, we explain the complexity of our respondents{\textquoteright} political identities and activism. Our overall aim is to broaden perspectives on the ways in which people from Muslim backgrounds participate in public, political life in Western contexts.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1070289X.2011.656068}, author = {Nagel, Caroline ~ R. and Staeheli, Lynn ~ A.} } @article {2673, title = {Digital leadership, Twitter and Pope Francis}, journal = {Church, Communication and Culture}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The Internet reproduces and strengthens our model of social dialog. Just as in the physical world, the online public conversation and, above all, the ideological debate, requires leaders who can be a point of reference to either foster values or contradict them. The concept of leadership has drawn the attention of several studies concerning communication management. Leaders are neither all equal nor do they exercise leadership by means of the same tools. This article studies both the concept of digital leadership as a guide for online conversation and the use that microblogs, such as Twitter, can provide for this purpose. Among several public figures using Twitter, we have focused our study on the @Pontifex account to have an insight into the type of leadership exercised by the Holy Father and the impact of his teaching. The analysis shows that the Pope uses Twitter for catechetical purposes and that he is aware that his message can reach a large audience. Moreover, although interaction between the Pope and his followers on this platform is a fact already known, we have further found that some messages arouse followers{\textquoteright} interest more than others do.}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23753234.2016.1181307}, author = {Narbona, Juan} } @book {2759, title = {religion@home? Religionsbezogene Online-Plattformen und ihre Nutzung: Eine Untersuchung zu neuen Formen gegenw{\"a}rtiger Religiosit{\"a}t}, year = {2016}, publisher = {Ergon}, organization = {Ergon}, abstract = {Uber den Wandel gegenwartiger Religion und Religiositat ist in Debatten rund um Sakularisierung und Re-Sakralisierung viel diskutiert worden. Die Bedeutung neuer Medien wurde dabei aber noch wenig berucksichtigt. An diese Debatten anschliessend widmet sich die vorliegende Studie deshalb religioser Online-Nutzung, ihren Bedingungen, Formen und Konsequenzen: Was sind Ausloser fur den Einstieg, Themen des Online-Austauschs, und in welchem Zusammenhang steht die Online-Nutzung mit der Einbettung in die lokale Gemeinde? Dem geht die Arbeit mit Blick auf christliche Online-Foren nach. Sie beschrankt sich dabei nicht auf Analysen der Online-Diskussionen, sondern stellt mit uber 30 qualitativen Interviews und einer quantitativen Erhebung die Perspektive der Nutzer dieser Foren in den Mittelpunkt. Insgesamt zeigt sich: Forennutzung ist vor allem als Strategie der Restabilisierung individueller Religiositat zu verstehen. Ihr Ausgangspunkt sind weniger mediale Eigenschaften des Internets, sondern vielmehr Defizite traditioneller religioser Angebote, die zu anhaltender Unzufriedenheit oder dem Abbruch der Gemeindeeinbettung fuhren. Durch die Aneignung individueller religioser Expertise und Wiedereinbettung in einen Kontext kollektiver Legitimierung von Religiositat vermag die Online-Nutzung hier Ausgleich zu schaffen. Die erarbeiteten Nutzungsmuster und Typen online entstehender Gemeinschaften zeigen Details dieser Prozesse.}, url = {https://www.amazon.com/Religion-Home-Religionsbezogene-Online-plattformen-Nutzung/dp/3956501411}, author = {Neumaier, Anna} } @book {240, title = {Witchcraft and the Web: Weaving Pagan Traditions Online}, year = {2001}, publisher = {ECW Press}, organization = {ECW Press}, address = {Ontario}, abstract = {Witchcraft is one of the most popular and fastest growing spiritual paths in the US. it is also one of the busiest topics on the Web as once isolated communities find making connections a breeze with the advent of internet technology. M. Macha NightMare, a practicing with for 30 years, takes an unconventional look at the cultural effects of the internet on the ancient-future spirituality that is contemporary witchcraft. A new web is being woven with the threads of tradition and technology intertwined.}, url = {http://www.insight-books.com/APPT/Witchcraft-The-Web/1550224662.html?PHPSESSID=2ab065a928fef4fb414965876e8670a4}, author = {Nightmare, M. Macha} } @article {2134, title = {Creative and Lucrative Daʿwa: The Visual Culture of Instagram amongst Female Muslim Youth in Indonesia}, journal = {Asiascape: Digital Asia}, volume = {5}, year = {2018}, pages = {68-99}, abstract = {Social media have become part of the private and public lifestyles of youth globally. Drawing on both online and offline research in Indonesia, this article focuses on the use of Instagram by Indonesian Muslim youth. It analyzes how religious messages uploaded on Instagram through posts and captions have a significant effect on the way in which Indonesian Muslim youth understand their religion and accentuate their (pious) identities and life goals. This article argues that Instagram has recently become the ultimate platform for Indonesian female Muslim youth to educate each other in becoming virtuous Muslims. The creativity and zeal of the creators of Instagram daʿwa (proselytization), and their firm belief that {\textquoteleft}a picture is worth a thousand words{\textquoteright}, has positioned them as social media influencers, which in turn has enabled them to conduct both soft daʿwa and lucrative daʿwa through business.}, keywords = {culture, Da{\textquoteright}wa, fashion, Indonesia, Instagram, Muslim youth, veiling}, url = {http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/22142312-12340085}, author = {Nisa, E.F} } @book {293, title = {The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention}, year = {1999}, publisher = {Penguin}, organization = {Penguin}, address = {New York}, author = {David Noble} } @article {2087, title = {Catholic, protestant and holistic spiritual appropriations of the internet}, journal = {Information, Communication \& Society}, volume = {14}, year = {2011}, pages = {1097{\textendash}1117}, abstract = {This article relies on in-depth qualitative interviews with 21 web designers, active in the fields of Catholicism, Protestantism and holistic spirituality in the Netherlands, to study religious appropriations of the Internet. The authors found that these different religious groups embraced the medium of the Internet motivated by a common desire to make oneself heard in the cacophony of voices that has resulted from processes of secularization and religious change. In doing so, Catholic web designers struggle with the dilemma of either following Roman orthodoxy or creating room for dialogue and diversity, whereas their Protestant counterparts feel forced to either let a thousand flowers bloom or surrender to a highly compromised image of their faith. Holistic spirituality, finally, struggles with neither of these problems and appropriates the Internet as its virtually natural habitat for sharing and connecting. The authors conclude that, consistent with theories about cultured technology and spiritualizing of the Internet, offline religious heritages matter a lot when religions seek to appropriate the Internet through web design. These appropriations tend not to be smooth transpositions of coherent and conflict-free offline religious heritages to online environments, however, but conflict-ridden processes stirring long-standing struggles over authority and identity.}, keywords = {Catholic, internet, Protestant, religion, spiritual}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2011.597415}, author = {Noomen, I and Aupers, S and Houtman, D} }