New ZeMKI Working Paper: “German Version better”: Mimetic Normativity in TikTok Daʿwa

A new working paper by Christoph Günther titled “German Version better”: Mimetic Normativity in TikTok Daʿwa has recently been published.

The paper explores how TikTok’s short video format facilitates a unique form of religious instruction, simplifying Islamic norms into binary categories like “right” (ḥalāl) and “wrong” (ḥarām). The study highlights how Muslim content creators convey ethical guidance by referencing the Qurʾan and Hadith, while omitting the complex discursive traditions and contextual knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence.

The research shows that the brevity of the videos hinders in-depth engagement with theological topics, presenting norms as supra-historical and detached from human experience. Viewers discuss the norms presented in the comments, without the inclusion of scholarly expertise. Furthermore, the study analyzes how TikTok’s functional elements, such as collaboration, humor, hashtags, and captions, influence the presentation of religious content and foster the engaging, collaborative dissemination of simplified religious norms.

Here is the link to the working paper.