Resilient Religion: the Online Presence of Dutch Mosques in Times of COVID 19

Abstract

For more than one year already, mosques throughout The Netherlands have been largely empty. The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the lives of individuals internationally, robustly defying previously assumed ‘normalities’ of societal life. As such, religious communities have been forced to reimagine their communal activities to comply with measures intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. In these circumstances, the online presence of Dutch Muslims, Islamic charities, and Dutch mosques is visibly growing. Be it through the streaming of the weekly Friday-sermon and prayer, as undertaken by Imam Abdelouahab Bozhar in Rotterdam; the organizing of public lectures by Islamic scholars on Facebook; or the mosques’ local fundraising through online payment requests, virtual space is the ‘place to be’ The pandemic gives mosques and Islamic centers not yet active in the online public sphere now an extra incentive to explore the virtual possibilities for religious communities and institutions.