Our Project

This Canadian research initiative focuses on Canadian Muslims online and investigates the role of digital technology and its use by Muslim communities in the shaping of their individual and collective religious identities.

Research will be carried out with Muslim communities from across English and French Canada and will provide the first extensive study of usage of the Internet and digital technology by Canadian Muslim women and men. The central research question of this project is to ask:

What role does digital technology play in shaping Canadian Islam(s), and, at a time when going online and connecting new regional, national and global Muslim networks is so accessible, how are Canadian Muslims using the Internet and what are they accessing?

The research project will address this question through four interrelated research areas, each with a sub-question. 

We favor a sociology of usage approach, as it recognizes the agency of users of new media, and we will focus more specifically on the religious element as an important parameter of the analyses and theoretical elaborations.

RESEARCH AREAS

Area 1
IDENTITY		   Area 2
COMMUNITY		   Area 3
DIVERSITY		   Area 4
AUTHORITY
How is digital technology transforming Canadian Muslim religious identities?   How is digital technology transforming Canadian Muslim communities?   How is digital technology transforming Canadian Muslim intra-religious and interreligious relations?   How is digital technology transforming religious authority for Canadian Muslims?

Leader  –  Ramji
(Nova Scotia)

   Leader  –  Marcotte
Collaborator  –  Antonius
(Ontario / Quebec)		   Leader  –  Anderson
Collaborator  –  Greifenhagen
(Prairies and British Columbia)		   Leader  –  Selby
(Newfoundland / Greater Toronto Area)

The research project will provide an opportunity for Canadian Muslim voices to be heard on the potential benefits and challenges the new digital landscape introduces in their lives. We hope to increase our understanding of Muslims’ religious experiences in comparative context across French and English Canada.

Research Team members are affiliated to the following four Canadian universities:

  • Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM),  Montréal (Québec)
  • University of Regina,  Regina (Saskatchewan)
  • University of Cape Breton,  Sydney (Nova Scotia)
  • Memorial University of Newfoundland,  St. John’s (Newfoundland and Labrador)