Islam in the digital infrastructure: the rise of Islamic cyber practices in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

This contribution investigates how people in Northern Nigeria appropriated and converted digital technology into the Islamic infrastructure. Using ethnographic and netnographic methods, I examine three ‘infrastructural outcomes’ or ‘infrastructural components’ of Salafi digital practices: the cyber imam figure; new notions of Islamic community (cyber ummah); and the notion of algorithmic religiosity. I propose the term ‘cyber imams’ to describe a set of Salafi scholars who use digital infrastructure to engage in digital da’wah, attract followers, and cultivate religious authority online. The cyber ummah is a dynamic cluster of different types of social media formations that have become a palpable and tangible community of believers through online interactivity and the experience of presence. I define algorithmic religiosity as the ability of social media algorithms to be used to shape certain religious subjectivities, build religious collectivity, and cultivate discrete religious authority. These tropes are enabled and afforded by the emergence of Islamic digital infrastructure.