A Research on Salafism's Discourses on YouTube in Terms of Political Participation, Democracy and Social Cohesion

Authors : Mevlüt Uğurlu

Pages : 401-430

Doi:10.47951/mediad.1706595

View : 136 | Download : 294

Publication Date : 2025-12-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Salafis, one of the religious groups, have begun to spread their views in society through digital preachers by taking advantage of the opportunities of new media. This process causes tension and anomie to emerge between the norms and values of society and Salafi groups. From this point of view, the aim of this study is to reveal the political aims of Salafi religious groups in the context of Türkiye and the means and strategies they prefer to achieve this aim. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the case study approach, one of the qualitative research method designs, was used. The videos of 6 preachers selected through the purposeful sampling technique were obtained through the document review technique. The videos were analyzed using thematic analysis method by transferring them to text. As a result, the views of Salafi preachers were grouped under 3 different categories: Absolutist and Exclusionary Salafism, Contextual and Pragmatic Salafism, and Passive and Conjunctural Salafism. These different titles have shown us that Salafism does not exhibit a monolithic religious thought and practices and that they can differ from each other in terms of their purposes and the tools they use in the context of Türkiye. Thus, the multifaceted nature of Salafism and the fact that it can have different religious interpretations even within the same society and culture have been revealed.
Keywords : Selefilik, Selefi Vaizler, Anomi, Siyasal Katılım, Demokrasi, Din, YouTube

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