Islam in the modern world
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The rise and rise of Muslim influencers

In recent decades, Muslim piety has gone through a number of qualitative transformations, the most prominent of which is the emerging phenomenon of "Islamic influencers", which represents a new type of Islamic religiousness that combines globalisation and the values of Western modernity and is easy and effortless. By Ahmad Saif al-Nasr

By Ahmad Saif al-Nasr

The ongoing phenomenon of "Islamic influencers" varies, in many respects, from the model of "the Islamic common market" theorised by Patrick Heaney. An Islamic influencer does not attempt to compensate for political failure with economic success. Rather, he focuses primarily on introducing a new religiosity that is loaded with living conditions and can adapt to its changes.

For instance, it's okay for this influencer to call you to perform prayer, recite dhikr (Islamic oral prayer), do du'a (supplication), as well as listen to religious sermons, but at the same time he would be wearing a global brand (marketing), and he may even encourage you to buy it as well. This has motivated many to enter this field — not in order to provide Islamic content and promote a true Islamic message, but to gain fame and achieve worldly success, even at the expense of dumbing down the religion and presenting a reduced Islam.

With the emergence of Islamic influencers, Islam has been emptied of its substance and content, in the midst of attempts to cling to its lustre in order to adapt to the market and what the followers want, in addition to the fact that social media users and audiences are more inclined towards the type of religiosity that's inexpensive. They like those who offer them a religiousness that is easy, effortless, lenient, and subject to changes in mood.

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