Impact of Emerging Digital Technology and Social Media on Muslim Communities

The 47Th Annual Conference of the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS), which focused on the "Impact of Emerging Digital Technology and Social Media on Muslim Communities," was cosponsored by the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC) at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), (September 14, 2018). The Conference Program Chair, Anna Ayşe Akasoy, professor of Islamic intellectual history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) and Hunter College, welcomed the panelists and guests. She expressed CUNY's excitement in hosting a conference that addressed an especially timely topic which "deals with significant transformations both of the Islamic world, and the ways in which this area is studied."

Four panel sessions analyzed the impact of social media. The first panel session, "Islam and the Digital Revolution," was moderated by the Panel Chair and Discussant, Saadia Toor (College of Staten Island, CUNY, NY).

The first presentation by Besheer Mohamed (Pew Research Center, Washington, DC) focused on "Youth Culture in the Digital Age: Findings from Pew's 2017 Survey of U.S. Muslims." According to the Pew survey, at least half of U.S. Muslim adults are millennials, born between 1980–2000. Mohamed's presentation focused on "how the youth of American Muslims is related to their religiosity and religious authority, and political and social issues." According to Mohamed, the survey indicated that while "younger Christians tend to be less religious than older Christians by a variety of measures, the same does not hold for Muslims. Younger Muslims and older Muslims are about equally likely to go to the mosque regularly, or to say religion is very important in their lives." However, Mohamed added that "younger Muslims have different interpretations of religion and religious authority than do older Muslims [and that they] are more likely to see shared struggles with blacks and other minority groups and are more skeptical of the American assimilationist model that assumes that anyone can get ahead if they work hard."

During the Q & A session, in response to a question pertaining to how search strategies like Google, or other digital devices influence today's youth, Mohamed stated that online systems or search procedures are algorithms or instructions for "solving a problem, and/or informative guidelines for completing a task." He noted that "although the Internet runs on algorithms, and all online-searching is accomplished through them, sometimes the application of algorithms leads to undesirable consequences. A code, for example, written to make individualized information delivery more accurate (and more monetizable for the creators of the code), also limits what people see, read and understand about the world. It can create 'echo chambers' in which people see only what the algorithms determine what they want to see. This can limit exposure to opposing views and random, useful information."

Judith Rahima Jensen, Klamath Falls, OR, (@Sister_Sufi and www.sistersufi.com) followed with an inspiring talk on "Teaching Modern Islamic Sufism and Interreligious Understanding via Twitter and Blog." In her efforts to interact with today's fastest growing "spiritual but not religious public," Jensen launched the Sister Sufi project in August 2017 in hopes of "increasing interreligious understanding with an emphasis on core religious principles, and expanding the awareness of modern Sufism as a tolerant face of Islam." She said that she came to "respect the Twitter universe as the subconscious of our culture." Jensen found it possible to avoid harsh exchanges and slowly create a Twitter space to discuss ideas about modern spirituality. She noted that people seek interaction but "want a personality and a point of view, not facts, [since] facts are easy to find on the Internet."

During the Q & A session, she described Twitter as a digital channel that "enables the quick exchange of concise ideas (280 Characters) and offers many search strategies to find and interact with interested audiences." The challenge is to develop and express ideas attractive enough to stimulate engagement (i.e., "click bait"). Jensen added that it is vital to "avoid political discussions" to keep interactions positive. She has begun to target...