Muslim surfers on the internet: using the theory of planned behaviour to examine the factors influencing engagement in online religious activities

Shirley S. Ho, Waipeng Lee, Shahiraa Sahul Hameed
2008 New Media & Society  
This study seeks to describe the types of religious activities Muslim surfers in Singapore engage in on the internet, and uses the theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical framework to examine how internet perception, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, internet self-efficacy, religiosity and other key demographic variables affect the use of the internet for religious purposes among Muslim surfers in Singapore. A total of 578 Muslim internet users aged 18 and above participated
more » ... in a computer-assisted telephone interviewing survey in May 2004. We found that Muslim surfers tend to engage in online activities that were more related to personal religious concerns than those activities that were related to traditional institutional religion. Findings also indicate that perceived social pressure from the Muslim community, internet self-efficacy, and religiosity were positively related to engagement in online religious activities, while age was negatively related to engagement. Key words internet • internet perception • internet self-efficacy • Islam • Muslim • religiosity • religious activities • Singapore • subjective norms • theory of planned behaviour
doi:10.1177/1461444807085323 fatcat:vsygcd3z6bb3reucdgmx7vqucq