Use of the Internet in Islamic Propagation by Islamic Organisations in Nigeria: Public Perception

Abstract

At this present age of global village, the Internet has become the most versatile and the most popular channel for indoctrination and religious propagation as well as a virile communication medium to consolidate ideologies in human society. Many religious organisations and individuals in Islam have also adopted the Internet as a complementary approach or strategy in the process of propagating the teachings of Islam. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of the Internet in Islamic propagation by the Islamic Organisation in Nigeria via the public perception. This study aims to examine the extent to which Islamic Organization in Nigeria use Internet in Islamic propagation, determine the public perception on the contents available in the websites of their Islamic organisations, determine the degree of visit by the public on the websites of their Islamic organisations and determine the influence of the contents of the websites of these Islamic organisations on the members of the public. The perception of the users of Islamic organizations websites on the objectives of this study was measured through quantitative online survey methodology using the online survey questionnaire. 58.33% of the participating Islamic organisation have functional websites and 39.04% (majority) of the public agreed that utilisation the Internet Islamic propagation is at a high level. 39.38% of the respondents agreed that the contents available on the websites of the Islamic organisations websites are reliable at a high level and 27.74% at the highest level . 20.73% respondent chose the highest level of websites accessibility and 41.45% of the respondents chose high level of websites accessibility but the degree of visits by the public on these websites is low as only 43.81% of the respondents seek Islamic information regularly on these websites. 42.51% of the respondents agreed that the contents of the websites of these Islamic organisations have impacted positively on them at a high level and 22.38% at the highest level. The efforts of the Islamic organisation in Nigeria in fulfilling the obligation of Islamic propagation is evident in the utilisation of the Internet by some of these organisation through their websites. However, the usage of Islamic organisation websites for Islamic propagation in Nigeria is still below average considering the level Internet penetration in Nigeria, the literacy level among the Muslims, the disparity in gender exposure to the Internet usage and the disparity in the interest of different age group in the Internet usage. The few Islamic organisation with websites are fairly utilising it for Islamic propagation through frequent websites’ contents update and websites’ contents reliability, with the users of the website using quality time on it, This has resulted in a positive experience, though the feedback to users is still low. The results of the study provide important insights on users' perception on the usage of the Internet in Islamic propagation. It serves as feedbacks to these organisations as well as an indicator for further research on user perception on Islamic websites.