Arabs and Atheism: Religious Discussions in the Arab Twittersphere

Youssef Al Hariri; Walid Magdy; Maria Wolters

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_2

Arabs and Atheism: Religious Discussions in the Arab Twittersphere

Youssef Al Hariri, Walid Magdy, Maria Wolters

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract / Description of output

Most previous research on online discussions of atheism has focused on atheism within a Christian context. In contrast, discussions about atheism in the Arab world and from Islamic background are relatively poorly studied. An added complication is that open atheism is against the law in some Arab countries, which may further restrict atheist activity on social media. In this work, we explore atheistic discussion in the Arab Twittersphere. We identify four relevant categories of Twitter users according to the content they post: atheistic, theistic, tanweeri (religious renewal), and other. We characterise the typical content posted by these four sets of users and their social networks, paying particular attention to the topics discussed and the interaction among them. Our findings have implication for the study of religious and spiritual discourse on social media and provide a better cross-cultural understanding of relevant aspects.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Social Informatics
Subtitle of host publication	11th International Conference, SocInfo 2019
Publisher	Springer
Pages	18-34
Number of pages	17
ISBN (Electronic)	Online ISBN 978-3-030-34971-4
ISBN (Print)	978-3-030-34970-7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_2
Publication status	Published - 11 Nov 2019
Event	11th International Conference on Social Informatics - Doha, Qatar Duration: 18 Nov 2019 → 21 Nov 2019 https://socinfo2019.qcri.org/

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS)
Publisher	Springer, Cham
Volume	11864
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	11th International Conference on Social Informatics
Abbreviated title	SocInfo 2019
Country/Territory	Qatar
City	Doha
Period	18/11/19 → 21/11/19
Internet address	https://socinfo2019.qcri.org/

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Atheism
Arabic
Religion
Islam
Twitter

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_2Licence: All Rights Reserved

Arabs and Atheism_AL_HARIRI_DoA010719_AFVAccepted author manuscript, 431 KB

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_2Licence: All Rights Reserved

ATI Faculty Fellowship
Wolters, M.
UK-based charities
1/09/16 → 31/08/20
Project: Research

Cite this

@inproceedings{0f9ec55a1f8e46e08167e35c515409fd,

title = "Arabs and Atheism: Religious Discussions in the Arab Twittersphere",

abstract = "Most previous research on online discussions of atheism has focused on atheism within a Christian context. In contrast, discussions about atheism in the Arab world and from Islamic background are relatively poorly studied. An added complication is that open atheism is against the law in some Arab countries, which may further restrict atheist activity on social media. In this work, we explore atheistic discussion in the Arab Twittersphere. We identify four relevant categories of Twitter users according to the content they post: atheistic, theistic, tanweeri (religious renewal), and other. We characterise the typical content posted by these four sets of users and their social networks, paying particular attention to the topics discussed and the interaction among them. Our findings have implication for the study of religious and spiritual discourse on social media and provide a better cross-cultural understanding of relevant aspects. ",

keywords = "Atheism, Arabic, Religion, Islam, Twitter",

author = "{Al Hariri}, Youssef and Walid Magdy and Maria Wolters",

year = "2019",

month = nov,

day = "11",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_2",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-3-030-34970-7",

series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS)",

publisher = "Springer",

pages = "18--34",

booktitle = "Social Informatics",

note = "11th International Conference on Social Informatics, SocInfo 2019 ; Conference date: 18-11-2019 Through 21-11-2019",

url = "https://socinfo2019.qcri.org/",

}

Al Hariri, Y , Magdy, W & Wolters, M 2019, Arabs and Atheism: Religious Discussions in the Arab Twittersphere. in Social Informatics: 11th International Conference, SocInfo 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), vol. 11864, Springer, pp. 18-34, 11th International Conference on Social Informatics, Doha, Qatar, 18/11/19. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_2

TY - GEN

T1 - Arabs and Atheism: Religious Discussions in the Arab Twittersphere

AU - Al Hariri, Youssef

AU - Magdy, Walid

AU - Wolters, Maria

PY - 2019/11/11

Y1 - 2019/11/11

N2 - Most previous research on online discussions of atheism has focused on atheism within a Christian context. In contrast, discussions about atheism in the Arab world and from Islamic background are relatively poorly studied. An added complication is that open atheism is against the law in some Arab countries, which may further restrict atheist activity on social media. In this work, we explore atheistic discussion in the Arab Twittersphere. We identify four relevant categories of Twitter users according to the content they post: atheistic, theistic, tanweeri (religious renewal), and other. We characterise the typical content posted by these four sets of users and their social networks, paying particular attention to the topics discussed and the interaction among them. Our findings have implication for the study of religious and spiritual discourse on social media and provide a better cross-cultural understanding of relevant aspects.

AB - Most previous research on online discussions of atheism has focused on atheism within a Christian context. In contrast, discussions about atheism in the Arab world and from Islamic background are relatively poorly studied. An added complication is that open atheism is against the law in some Arab countries, which may further restrict atheist activity on social media. In this work, we explore atheistic discussion in the Arab Twittersphere. We identify four relevant categories of Twitter users according to the content they post: atheistic, theistic, tanweeri (religious renewal), and other. We characterise the typical content posted by these four sets of users and their social networks, paying particular attention to the topics discussed and the interaction among them. Our findings have implication for the study of religious and spiritual discourse on social media and provide a better cross-cultural understanding of relevant aspects.

KW - Atheism

KW - Arabic

KW - Religion

KW - Islam

KW - Twitter

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_2

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-34971-4_2

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 978-3-030-34970-7

T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS)

SP - 18

EP - 34

BT - Social Informatics

PB - Springer

T2 - 11th International Conference on Social Informatics

Y2 - 18 November 2019 through 21 November 2019

ER -

Arabs and Atheism: Religious Discussions in the Arab Twittersphere

Abstract / Description of output

Publication series

Conference

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

ATI Faculty Fellowship

Cite this