Muslim and Druze YARG respondents’ views on the relationship between their Internet and social media use and personal religious lives

In this section we move to discuss the individual accounts provided by young adult Muslim and Druze respondents about the relationship between their personal religious lives and Internet and social media use in religion-related matters. As noted in the previous section, the YARG survey data revealed considerable differences between Muslim and Druze respondents when it comes to using the Internet for “religious or spiritual services and issues,” with Muslim respondents reporting much higher frequencies of usage as compared to the Druze. While the survey results only take us so far, the interview data allows us to delve much deeper into individual respondents’ thoughts and motivations for using the Internet and social media in ways that connect with their personal religious lives. Although some similar themes emerged in the interviews among respondents in both groups, they differed notably with regard to how directly or explicitly they related their Internet and social media use to their personal everyday religious lives and practices. While Muslim respondents typically talked about their Internet and social media use as having a more concrete and direct relation to and impact on their everyday religious lives, Druze respondents instead primarily talked about the impact of the proliferation of the Internet and social

Social media/religion among Israeli minorities 95 media on the Druze community, the Druze religious establishment, and Druze religious values more broadly. Indeed, even though a significant portion of all surveyed Druze respondents reported “occasionally” using the Internet for “religious or spiritual services and issues,” every single Druze respondent among the 23 interviewed who talked about the topic claimed not to use the Internet or social media for any religion-related purposes, instead expressly rejecting such kinds of use due to the secrecy of the Druze religion. Among Muslim respondents, we can thus identify a more direct and expressed impact of the Internet and social media on their everyday religious lives. Among Druze respondents, by contrast, the impact is more adequately characterized as indirect and indeterminate.

Direct impacts of Internet and social media use on the religious lives of Muslim respondents

Several both Muslim and Druze respondents talked about using the Internet to seek out information about religions other than their own. For example, one Muslim respondents talked about using the Internet to learn about his friends’ religions in order to be better able to “behave correctly” around them:

Sometimes, for example, I happen to be at some place, and someone asks me, so I immediately log in in order to - know ... if there is a Christian person or somebody who told me a sentence, I love to take it, like - to read it, and find interest in it a little bit.... I collect information about everyone, so that I will not behave wrongly to anyone.

(YILSK143P)

While this quote provides an example of using the Internet to seek out information on different types of religions in order to maintain good personal relations, Muslim respondents most frequently mentioned using the Internet to seek out various types of Islamic content online. At the same time, however, many Muslim respondents also expressed some degree of concern about the trustworthiness of religion-related content online. As one Muslim respondent related:

Yes, the Internet I watch on it the lessons, of course of Sheikhs who are not anybody, I don’t consider anybody’s talk. I regard the Sheikhs whom are like scientists, let us say, scientists in religion, let us say. But to return to the Internet and I have a question or something, no, I prefer not, because anybody can write on the Internet. So, because of that I only watch lessons on the YouTube, videos through which I see the Sheikh who is in front of me, and enter to know about his biography.

(YILSK027)

While this respondent does use the Internet for personal religion-related purposes, he simultaneously also articulates clear suspicion toward the reliability of religious, including Islamic, content online. This cautious approach toward religious content online was widely shared among Muslim respondents. In another related example, when asked if she ever turns to the Internet for information and instruction in religion-related matters, one Muslim respondent said:

Honestly, no. Because I am not ready - for instance, a question, for example, especially in the topic of religion or even in something personal, not ready to put it on {Facebook} or on - you know ... in general, no ... I go to, for instance, I have a question that is hurting me I do not - I go to a doctor and ask him. [I: Um-hm.] I want to know about religion I go to a sheikh and ask him, like I do not go or like . . . meaning, for instance, someone comes, comes to tell me something, okay maybe it is wrong maybe true - meaning I cannot guarantee.

(YILSK072PT)

This respondent views the religious content found on the Internet and social media as inherently unreliable. In order to “guarantee” that the information she receives is “correct” and “true,” she chooses to rely on established traditional “offline” religious authorities like Sheikhs in religion-related matters. Both previously quoted accounts provide apt illustrations of the extension of offline religious authority online and the enduring importance of “third-party seals” certifying the background, education, and credibility of the religious “professionals” whose lessons they watch online (cf. Wan-Chik 2015). Talking about social media specifically, another Muslim respondent voiced the following concerns:

R: I prefer for example to enter the Internet, for example, and search, there is anything you want to search for, you’ll find it, like, and find like, whether it’s Haram [religiously forbidden].

I: Facebook, for example if you have a question, something in religion, would you write it on Facebook or - ?

R: No, never, I don’t even think about it.

(YILSK012)

This respondent strongly differentiates between independently seeking out information on Islamic teachings and instruction (e.g. via search engines such as Google and file sharing sites such as YouTube) as opposed to asking peers via social media. In stating that he would never even think about posting religion-related questions on social media, he clearly appears to prefer independent information seeking over the suggestions and views of people on social media. However, even though many Muslim respondents reported rarely using social media to seek out information about religion, many also

Social media/religion among Israeli minorities 97 talked about how it nevertheless provides them with a platform that can aid everyday religious practice and observance. As one respondent said:

Sometimes there are lots of good things to remind you, like for example, not to forget ... or maybe life’s pressures might distract you, so they keep you from distraction; or remind you that at least today, . . . from religious perspective you should do that thing today. At least one, that has to do with religion.

(YILSK004P)

For other respondents, social media provide important platforms for the expression of religious identity. For example, as one Muslim respondent said:

If you log in to my Facebook, it is all about religious things.... Majorly. Like, I put Quranic verses, which occur a lot to me; things like, that calm you down, why? Because I feel that whenever they press - whenever someone reads it, I get a good deed.

(YILSK040P)

For this respondent, Facebook provides a platform for fulfilling her duty as a “good Muslim.” These practices also indicate a good degree of personal agency in religion-related matters on the part of this respondent. For other respondents, social media provided a platform for the expression of religious identity and for publicly displaying abidance by religious rules. As one female Muslim respondent said about her current Facebook profile:

First of all, there are no male friends, not a half one! Even my cousins are not, because it is religiously forbidden. At the beginning, it was normal. ... “They are my cousins, what could possibly happen?” So, when I found out that it was Haram [Religiously forbidden], I cancelled. Like, currently, if you enter my Face they are all girls, and my girlfriends, I don’t add just anyone.”

(YILSK263)

The account of this respondent illustrates how personal religiosity can come to determine how social media are used (i.e. in accordance with religious commandments), thus in turn serving to further strengthen and support the performance of personal religious identity.