MUSLIM DIASPORAS IN NETWORKED SOCIETIES: IDENTITY, BELONGING, AND DIGITAL PLURALISM
Indonesia 
Singapore Singapore 
Abstract
Muslim diasporas increasingly negotiate identity and belonging within networked societies shaped by transnational mobility, digital communication, and religious pluralism. This study aimed to examine how digital participation influences identity construction, social belonging, religious authority, and encounters with diversity among Muslim communities living in non-Muslim-majority contexts. A qualitative comparative design supported by multi-sited digital ethnography was employed with 48 participants from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Australia. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation of eight digital communities, and analysis of publicly accessible online materials, then examined using thematic, cross-case, and exploratory statistical analyses. The findings revealed that participants developed layered identities combining Islamic commitment, national citizenship, ethnic heritage, professional roles, and digital affiliations. Intensive digital participation strengthened transnational solidarity and community support, while exposure to plural religious perspectives encouraged reflective identity formation. Online discrimination, fragmented authority, and ideological polarization also prompted strategic visibility, audience separation, and self-censorship. The study concludes that digital pluralism functions simultaneously as a resource for inclusion and a source of social tension. Muslim diasporic belonging should therefore be understood as a relational process shaped by personal agency, platform structures, community networks, and wider political conditions across generations, locations, and changing social circumstances globally.
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