Religious authority in the field of German-speaking Muslim content creators

Abstract

Previous research indicates that traditional religious authority structures have not necessarily been replaced by the widespread growth of digital media but have been partially transformed and/or expanded to include a new group of religious content creators. These actors do not necessarily have religious expertise or a traditional Islamic education, but they offer their own religious interpretations to their followers as part of their digital practice. Our contribution to this special issue offers an analysis of social media content by German-speaking Muslim content creators, focusing on the question of how religious authority is claimed or manifested in this context. To this end, we first develop a systematisation of potential sources of religious authority based on various existing approaches. Our analysis identifies four models of attributing authority depending on whether a) religious roles and positions are claimed, b) religious and other knowledge is presented, c) certain personal characteristics are demonstrated, and/or d) a relationship or collective identity is established between the content creator and their followers. We examine in detail selected audiovisual material from Muslim content creators on Instagram and discuss their internal differences and where they fall within the categories presented above. This analysis reveals an affinity between, on the one hand, explicit claims to religious authority and an emphasis on clear dichotomies and, on the other hand, creators who present themselves as average Muslims and their offers of a rather non-committal identity.