No. 48 - Christoph Günther: “German Version better”: Mimetic Normativity in TikTok Daʿwa

This article explores how TikTok’s short video format facilitates a distinctive mode of religious instruction that simplifies Islamic norms into binary categories of “right” (ḥalāl) and “wrong” (ḥarām). Focusing on two case studies, I highlight how Muslim content creators convey ethical guidance by referencing the Qurʾan and Hadith while omitting the nuanced discursive traditions of Islamic jurisprudence and contextual knowledge. The brevity of the videos limits critical engagement with complex theological discussions, presenting norms as supra-historical and detached from human experience. This leaves audiences to debate the norms presented in comment threads, without explicit acknowledgment of scholarly expertise. Additionally, I employ a performance-centred approach to analyse how TikTok’s functional logics and affordances, including collaboration, humour, spatial settings, and app features like hashtags and captions, shape the presentation and reception of religious content. These elements, combined with audience interactions and the app’s user interface, constitute a “technosocial setting” that frames the couple’s performative enactments of Islamic teachings. This setting not only influences audience interpretation but also facilitates memetic engagement, reinforcing TikTok’s role as a platform for disseminating simplified religious norms in an engaging, collaborative manner.

 

About the author:

Christoph Günther