Social Media “Influencers” and the Promotion of the Ikhwānī Slogan: “We Cooperate with One Another Regarding That Which We Agree Upon, and Forgive One Another in That Which We Differ Concerning.”
The Emergence of the Insta-Shaykh in Today’s Digisphere
The social media era has swung the doors of fitnah wide-open, allowing pretenders to feign knowledge in cutely curated digital shorts that tantalise with clickbait headlines. These pretenders utilise things like Instagram stories, YouTube shorts and pundit-styled live podcasts that promise to address “hot topics”. Borrowing the digital strategies of so-called digital “influencers”, these techniques are used to make inroads with the young Muslim audience. One such pretender, Abu Taymiyyah, recently apologised...