Social Media, Religious Authority, and the Arab Gulf Crisis

This book examines how the Arab Gulf Crisis (2017-2021) led to a robust social media reaction that seemingly - and perhaps perpetually - changed the ways in which religious authority manifests in the digital age.

Positioning the Arab Gulf Crisis as a key moment in the transformation of public religious expression in the Gulf, Ibrahim N. Abusharif investigates how religious authority was mobilized through digital media, where the authority of traditional scholars contended with a networked public sphere. This shift was most prominently evident in social media spaces, with the proliferation of texts which used Islamic language and philosophy to both justify and contest the political blockade of Qatar by neighboring states. While the crisis largely unfolded via traditional geopolitical measures - severing diplomatic ties, imposing blockades, and disrupting trade - the digital battlefield became a parallel front in which state actors, religious scholars, and influencers competed for narrative control.

Drawing on analysis of media texts by Gulf-based religious figures, the book demonstrates how scriptural allusions, moral framing, and juridical language were deployed to endorse and critique the crisis. Through these analyses, Abusharif challenges prevailing binary frameworks and proposes an interdisciplinary methodology which combines media studies and Islamic studies to more fully understand the complex digital discourses associated with this conflict. Ultimately, this work offers a deep examination of how religion, media, and politics intersect in the digital age and considers how future crises might continue to develop across both physical and digital terrains.