Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

Rapid developments in information communication technologies and fast-spreading news and data have turned the world into a place as if it were a small village. Through the Internet, applications such as e-government, and e-learning have become popular, and the quality and speed of service provided for people have increased. However, the people who do not have “digital literacy consciousness” in this cyber world that is full of traps have not got away from being “little data” of the big data, “object” of the digital industry, and “captive” of digital desires.
In the digital media, baseless religious information has also been circulated in addition to a lot of baseless news with the spread of opportunities of computer, smartphone, the Internet, and social media, and significant socio-cultural changes have happened. From this point of view, the Directorate of Religious Affairs, which is responsible for following social developments closely and enlightening people about religious issues, and the Religious High School and Faculties of Theology, which train personnel for this institution, have crucial duties. In this respect, the Directorate of Religious Affairs is in the position of checking again the content of the service they provide, and the educational institutions have also the duty of recontrolling the content of the curriculum. For the reason that crooked plans appeared in the “digital visual/written/audio” publications, videos and visuals including confusing and suspicious information that the communities who do not like Islam intentionally produce and circulate, and fabricated hadith shared blindly have caused that Islam has been misrepresented and Muslims understanding of Allah, the prophet, timeless existence (ahiret), fate (kader), pray (dua), hope, livelyhood, and so on has been disrupted. Some people who have been negatively affected from all these events have stayed away from Islam. This article addressed the positive and negative impacts of digitalization on the life of individuals and society, damages that fabricated hadith caused in the religious perception of Muslims, and discussions on the ways of struggling with these kinds of fabricated hadith. The main purpose of the article was to deal with the duties of political authority, the Directorate of Religious Affairs empowered by the Constitution, and Muslims in order to eliminate the damages of fabricated hadith circulated in the digital platforms, and to evaluate the method discussions on this issue. The scarcity of academic studies on these issues in terms of quantity and quality is the reason for writing the article. At the end of the study, it was concluded the necessity of credible religious information, sharing this information in social media environments through supporting it with “digital visual/written/audio” materials, and also carrying out a legal struggle together with an intellectual struggle against the ones circulating fabricated hadiths in order to eliminate the damage of fabricated hadith circulated in the digital world. Similarly, it was remarked on the importance of religious officials with digital competence sharing “accurate and credible religious information that receives the approval of High Board of Religious Affairs” and warning the Muslims against the negative influence of fabricated hadiths through actively using especially social media environments. The significance of establishing a “site or mobile application” collecting together fabricated hadiths circulated in virtual environments and raising public awareness through revealing fabricated hadiths by the Department of Digital Broadcasts was emphasised. The importance of religious officials (mufti, preacher, imam, muezzin, religious services expert, and so on) instilling consciousness of “asking the source and correctness of hadiths” among the Muslims in tv and radio programs, preachings or Friday sermons and expressing the an appropriateness of sharing “without indicating the source and correctness of hadiths” just as it is not possible to share “meaning of the verse” without giving sura and verse number was pointed out. The significance of the High Board of Religious Affairs preparing “valid, credible, and persuasive information” about fabricated hadiths in order for the youth not to be alienated from religion and be captivated by invalid ideologies and deviant religious movements, all the staff members working in the Directorate of Religious Affairs sharing this information in the social media environments, and the youth creating “social awareness” by circulating these materials in different platforms was emphasised. ...