The Attitude Towards the Other in Jewish and Islamic Religious Websites
Date
2014-08-05
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Abstract
This dissertation focuses on Jewish and Islamic websites that allow their visitors to pose questions relating to religious law to well-known rabbis and muftīs, receive an answer on the website itself; and, in some cases, comment on the scholars’ answers. The Q&A reviewed focused on the attitudes towards various ‘others’: members of other faiths, members of a nation in conflict with their own, and those challenging traditional religious gender roles. Utilizing a discourse analysis, case study approach, several research questions are posed: are online Questions and Answers compatible with traditional religious Q&A or are the websites creating a new form of religious discourse? Are online Q&A marking the boundaries of a religious Enclave, and who is setting these boundaries? How are the various ‘others’ treated? Is the medium actually creating a democratic, rational-critical discourse, resembling Habermas’ ideal public sphere? And does the medium’s public nature enable the religious scholars to assume the role of public intellectuals?
The theoretical framework for the dissertation is outlined in Chapter II, which reviews the concepts of the “other” and the “Enclave”. The chapter then turns to theories of public discourse, primarily Jürgen Habermas’ “Public Sphere,” as well as the rise (and perhaps fall) of public intellectuals and an evaluation of the internet as a vehicle for democratic public discourse. Chapter III examines the development of Jewish and Islamic law, with a special focus on the Q&A genre. Chapter IV evaluates Q&A websites as an ideal public sphere, as well as in comparison to traditional Q&A. The second part of the chapter presents a case study dealing with social interaction with non-Jews and non-Muslims, which aids in defining the characteristics of online Q&A. Chapter V focuses on a political ‘other’; it reviews Q&A from Jewish Religious-Zionist and Islamic “Centrist” websites, focusing on issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Chapter VI focuses on the ‘other’ from within – Jewish and Muslim women who challenge their conventional religious roles. The dissertation ends with Chapter VII, presenting the study’s conclusions, as well as a look into current trends in online religious discourse, beyond the realm of Q&A websites.
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Keywords
Mass Communications, Religion, History--Middle Eastern
Citation
Steinitz, O. Z. (2014). The Attitude Towards the Other in Jewish and Islamic Religious Websites (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28015