Islamic Preaching on Twitter: Mohamad al-Arefe Case Study
Islamic Preaching on Twitter: Mohamad al-Arefe Case Study

Summary/Abstract: This research is part of communication studies on the interplay between religion and media. It is also part of research on the use of Twitter by religious people and the use of social media in the Arab world, and more specifically the current article focuses on the priorities of Arab religious preachers in the Arab-Muslim world in their uses of Twitter. I have chosen a Muslim preacher who has been the owner of the most followed Twitter account in the Arab-Muslim world: Mohamad al-Arefe. At the time of my research, this Saudi Sunni preacher was ranked in the 83rd[1] place in the global ranking of the most followed Twitter accounts in the world. This article aims to develop a typology of content shared on Twitter by al-Arefe. This research examines the way the Twitter platform is being used by this preacher, and it answers the question whether the theoretical model of religion mediatisation applies to the content shared by al-Arefe. This article combines two methodological approaches to study the content shared by al-Arefe on his Twitter account: a quantitative method and a qualitative one. I focus on the analysis of three elements present among the contents shared by this preacher on his Twitter account: Hashtags, visuals and links. Finally, my analysis shows how al-Arefe focuses more on his person and his image than he focuses on presenting Islamic teachings.

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