Social Networking and Muslim Minority Identity: A Snapshot
Muslims living in non-Muslim majority countries negotiate the secular and religious aspects of identity and community, using various means (Sirin & Fine, 2007). In Western contexts many of the beliefs held by Muslims appear linked to a bygone era and based on societal values that have disappeared in secular societies. Key ideas from secular modernity are coded to situate Islam from a position where it negates these ideas so that Islam and Muslims are seen as illogical, autocratic, and living in stasis (Al-Azmeh, 1996). However, Islam is rapidly growing (Rehman & Dziegielewski, 2003) in countries where its followers are a minority such as the United States (Crockatt 2004) and Australia (Bouma, Haidar, Nyland and Smith 2003). This paper focuses on social networking sites as one method of negotiation between the values of secular modernity and the principles of Islamic religious observance, and asks how Muslims who are part of religious minorities make use of the social connectedness that is coming to characterize communication (Lucky, 2009). It uses data gathered from online interviews to discuss the use of sites such as Facebook and Twitter by members of Muslim minorities in the United States and Australia. It asks how these sites are seen as tools for faith-related practices including networking, overcoming gender inequality, political involvement, and cultural or artistic expression. The paper argues that social networking is seen by some Muslims in Western countries as a way to facilitate the increased involvement of Muslim women with their communities, to reconcile young Muslims’ religious and secular identities, and provide Muslims with a political voice. It also explores the concerns that some Muslims in Western countries have with the use of social networking in relation to faith.