The Proliferation of Non‐Mainstream Islam on the Web: The Case of Turkish Preaching Videos on YouTube with Reference to the Videos of Ebu Hanzala

Year 2017, Issue: 5, 225 - 238, 15.07.2017

Mehmet Aksürmeli

Abstract

The Internet has transformed many areas of social life including religion. Especially, in the sense of fast access to information and global communication, it has been a new media through which to preach Islam and is considered a valuable source of Islamic knowledge by believers. It facilitated different channels to preach religion such as personal web sites, blogs, and personal pages on various social media platforms. Recently, thanks to faster internet facilities, video sharing sites have become popular and visual materials have become the prevalent method of preaching in the virtual space. The internet, due to its decentralised structure, is a fertile place for non-mainstream Islam. Although traditional media networks may have no place for preachers of non-mainstream Islam, the internet provides a seat for all kinds of imam. This article, in that context, will focus on videos of Ebu Hanzala, a famous young Islamic imam whose real name is Halis Bayancuk, on YouTube, the most prevalent videosharing and hosting site. He is an Islamic preacher whose his videos have been watched approximately 7,000,000 times. In this article, I will argue the proliferation of the nonmainstream Islamic preaching on the internet through the videos of Ebu Hanzala. I will claim that internet preaching will challenge the power relations between mainstream and nonmainstream Islamic authorities. Analysis of this paper reveals how non-mainstream Islamic interpretations find a place and target audience on the internet, how they present themselves, how they preach Islam, and their future potential. In that sense, this article aims to widen debate of Islamic sects into a different area and draws attention to non-mainstream Islam grown on the internet.

Keywords

YouTube, non‐mainstream Islam, Salafism, internet, Ebu Hanzala

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