The Salafi Ideal of Electronic Media as an Intellectual Meritocracy in Kano, Nigeria
Like other contemporary “fundamentalist” communities, Nigerian Salafis have proven adept at transmitting messages and winning followers through electronic media. This article argues that Nigerian Salafis pursue an ideal of electronic media as spaces where an intellectual meritocracy, based on the ab...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2015]
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2015, Volume: 83, Issue: 4, Pages: 1058-1083 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Like other contemporary “fundamentalist” communities, Nigerian Salafis have proven adept at transmitting messages and winning followers through electronic media. This article argues that Nigerian Salafis pursue an ideal of electronic media as spaces where an intellectual meritocracy, based on the ability to deploy proof-texts, can flourish. This ideal derives from Salafi conceptions of religious knowledge and draws its impetus from Nigerian Salafis' status as a minority that faces political and theological opponents with greater institutional power. Salafis engage media in an attempt to level the playing field. They work strategically with religious knowledge: they extend the status of proof-texts to media other than scripture, and they present messages in locally resonant idioms. Nigerian Salafis exemplify one way in which religious communities seek to manage new media spaces where the meaning of texts, the boundary between public and private, and the nature of religious authority are questioned and transformed. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfv054 |