Muslim surfers on the internet: using the theory of planned behaviour to examine the factors influencing engagement in online religious activities

Abstract

This study seeks to describe the types of religious activities Muslim surfers in Singapore engage in on the internet, and uses the theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical framework to examine how internet perception, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, internet self-efficacy, religiosity and other key demographic variables affect the use of the internet for religious purposes among Muslim surfers in Singapore. A total of 578 Muslim internet users aged 18 and above participated in a computer-assisted telephone interviewing survey in May 2004. We found that Muslim surfers tend to engage in online activities that were more related to personal religious concerns than those activities that were related to traditional institutional religion. Findings also indicate that perceived social pressure from the Muslim community, internet self-efficacy, and religiosity were positively related to engagement in online religious activities, while age was negatively related to engagement.

The Credibility of Islamic Religious Institutional Websites in Malaysia

“…Moreover, because the IRI websites are considered as official religious websites, the status of trustworthiness and expertise was not questioned. Official religious websites tend to be respected in terms of authenticity and trustworthiness (Hackett, 2009;Ho et al, 2008). The websites enjoy a privileged status as they are endorsed by the state and federal governments while other, nonofficial websites, i.e., independent Islamic religious websites, have less credibility due to lack of official endorsement from the authorities.…”

“…For example, Campbell (2012) presented five main themes in relation to internet studies and religion: "internet rituals, onlineoffline connectivity, online community building, identity performance space and dynamic conceptions of authority" (p. 682). Others focused on end users (Azimaton et al, 205;Ho et al, 2008;Ogan & Cagilty, 2006), developers (Noomen, Aupers, & Houtman, 2011), mediators (Etling, Kelly, Faris, & Palfrey, 2010) and agencies (Marmura, 2008). These studies are evidence that religious websites have impacted web users in delivering religious knowledge to the intended users.…”

“…With the exceptions of Ho, Lee and Hameed (2008), Wall and Kirdnark (2011) and Azimaton, Nor Hazlina and Hasrina (2015), there have been few studies on Islam and cyberspace in the Southeast Asian context. Ho et al (2008) found that Singaporean Muslim surfers tend to engage in online activities that were more related to religious concerns than activities that were related to fundamental institutional religion.…”

“…With the exceptions of Ho, Lee and Hameed (2008), Wall and Kirdnark (2011) and Azimaton, Nor Hazlina and Hasrina (2015), there have been few studies on Islam and cyberspace in the Southeast Asian context. Ho et al (2008) found that Singaporean Muslim surfers tend to engage in online activities that were more related to religious concerns than activities that were related to fundamental institutional religion. Wall and Kirdnark's (2011) study is on participatory media, i.e., Flickr images of Thailand Muslims; they argued that the images were controlled by Flickr and the images did not dispel stereotypes of Thailand Muslims but strengthened them.…”

“…Wall and Kirdnark's (2011) study is on participatory media, i.e., Flickr images of Thailand Muslims; they argued that the images were controlled by Flickr and the images did not dispel stereotypes of Thailand Muslims but strengthened them. Azimaton et al, (2015) study was a replication of Ho et al, (2008) study and was conducted on Malaysian Muslims; they found five important variables that could predict the respondents' online religious behavior. They are "attitude-Internet perception, the subjective norms of the Muslim community, the Internet self-efficacy, level of religiosity among Muslims, and offline media usage for religious purpose".…”