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195931

Internet Exposure and Religious Openness in the Arab Region

Article

Last updated: 26 Dec 2024

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Abstract

This paper examines the religious implications of Internet exposure in the Arab region, which is deemed a world's hub for both religious devotion and hostility. Utilizing the mediatization of religion theory, this work argues that frequent exposure to the Internet enhances religious openness in the region, attitudinally as well as behaviorally. To empirically investigate this assumption, the study utilizes a unique cross-national survey interviewing more than 25,000 participants from 12 Arab countries, during 2018 and 2019. Findings show that the rise and spread of the Internet cultivates religious openness among Arabs. Specifically, Internet use is positively associated with increasing acceptance of the religious other and with growing support for gender equality. In addition, Internet users are more likely to perceive religion as a private rather than public matter, and more willing to support the separation between religion and politics. Arguably, the results conclude that the growth of online communication in the region helps “democratize" the Arab religious sphere, giving way to new religious agents, beliefs, and practices to flourish. The implications of digital media use for conventional religious authority and secularization processes in the Arab region are further discussed.    

DOI

10.21608/jkom.2021.195931

Keywords

Online religion, Internet and secularization, religious openness among Arabs, privatization of religion, Media and religion

Authors

First Name

Alaa

Last Name

Elshamy

MiddleName

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Affiliation

Assistant Professor of Communication Faculty of Women for Arts, Science and Education Ain Shams University

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Orcid

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Volume

2021

Article Issue

33

Related Issue

27788

Issue Date

2021-06-01

Receive Date

2021-09-23

Publish Date

2021-06-01

Page Start

32

Page End

60

Print ISSN

2536-9393

Online ISSN

2735-4008

Link

https://jkom.journals.ekb.eg/article_195931.html

Detail API

https://jkom.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=195931

Order

9

Type

بحوث علمیة متخصصة فی مجال الاعلام والاتصال.

Type Code

1,442

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

المجلة العربية لبحوث الاعلام والاتصال

Publication Link

https://jkom.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Internet Exposure and Religious Openness in the Arab Region

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Article

Created At

23 Jan 2023