Muslims in cyberspace: exploring factors influencing online religious engagements in Malaysia

Abstract

The emergence of Islam and Muslim public spheres in cyberspace has progressed along with the development of Information and Communication Technologies. Just like believers of other faiths, Muslim individuals are enthusiastic in sharing their faith, beliefs, and values at the click of a mouse. Based on an online survey conducted on 525 respondents, this study seeks further understanding on the factors that influence engagement in online religious activities among Muslims. Through the application of the Theory of Planned Behavior, results from the study revealed five important predictors of online religious engagement, namely attitude–Internet perception, the subjective norms of the Muslim community, the Internet self-efficacy, level of religiosity among Muslims, and offline media usage for religious purposes.

Keywords:

• muslims
• online engagement
• religiosity
• Theory of Planned Behavior

1. Introduction

The advent of ICTs can be seen as revolutionary for religious growth and dissemination. Just like other religions and religious movements in the world, Islam and its teachings are widely disseminated and proliferated across borders through the advancement of new media technology, especially the Internet. According to Campbell, “the Internet is changing the ways people of faith spread their beliefs and make converts” (2006, p. 5).

The influence of the Internet in the propagation of Islam in Malaysia is significant, despite the fact that the majority, i.e. 61.3% of its population profess to be Muslims (Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Website, 2011). Islam is the official religion of the country and Malaysia is often regarded as an exemplary Muslim country due to its strong commitment and staunchness in preserving and practicing true Islamic teachings.

The promulgation of Islam in the Malaysian cyberspace started as early as 1985 (Ramasamy, Chakrabarty, & Cheah, 2004) and according to Anderson (1999), Malaysia’s International Islamic Universityhomepage was among the first Islamic oriented web page initiated in Malaysia. It was only towards the end of the 1990s, when a government agency on Islamic affairs, Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) setup their first website in December 1996, followed by several other Islamic non-government organizations (NGO). However, as noted by Ashaari (2012) and Ghani (2010), Muslim individuals were among the major contributors to Islamic activism within Malaysia’s online environment. Nowadays, many concerned Muslim individuals or religious scholars have started their personal online media portals, web pages, and social media platforms resulting in tremendous response among Muslims in Malaysia.

The growth of Islamic content is expected to be even higher at international level in line with the rapid growth of the global Muslim population. The global Muslim population is expected to double by the year 2030, from 1.1 billion in 1990 to 2.2 billion or 26.4% of the global population (Pew Research Center, 2011). According to Varisco (2004), statistics from Google search engine produced over 8 million results based on the keyword “Islam” in April 2004 compared to 1.25 million in October 2000. In fact, a web server from The Open Directory Project shows a total of 1410 pages of Islamic websites listed under the religion and spirituality sites compared to Christianity with 73,219 pages listed on the web (Netscape, 2012).

2. Muslim engagement in online religious activities

Muslim religious engagement encompasses all behavioral efforts and situations involving human endeavors in communicating knowledge, ideas and information based on the Islamic frame of references, the al-Quran and al-Hadith (Sardar, 1993). Social engagement/contact among Muslims in religious activities forms a part of the daily communicative process in achieving a better understanding of the Islamic concept of “ilm – knowledge that is practiced individually, within the family and with the collective ummah.” Thus, for Muslim individuals to establish and maintain their Islamic faith and belief, they should continuously renew, revive, and increase their knowledge and understanding of Islam.

The advancement of the Internet has provided an effective means of religious promulgation and engagement due to its interactivity, ease of use, and multimedia affordability. However, as mentioned by Hamada (1999), in one of the earliest studies on the impact of the Internet on the Muslim community in Malaysia, websites were first used as one way communication tools to convey information about Islam (Chawki, 2010). The trend continues based on a recent study on the effects of religiosity on the Internet consumption in Turkey. Its findings revealed that the most common activity that people engaged in while online is information seeking, especially among moderates and staunch believers (Sanaktekin, Aslanbay, & Gorgulu, 2012).

Moreover, Muslim online engagement can be manifest in various forms of Islamic religious activities such as listening and viewing of religious lectures online (Bunt, 2000b; Hirschkind, 2012), seeking information on the halal status of products and services (Echchaibi, 2009; Hashim, Murphy, & Hashim, 2007), performing zakat through online portals (Wahab & Rahman, 2011), downloading azan and prayer times worldwide (Campbell, 2010).

As a matter of fact, the Internet has become a virtual archive for Islamic information (Kort, 2005) since the medium is recognized for its storage capacity. The Internet or cyberspace provides access to countless collections and recordings of al-Quran and al-Hadith, in addition to compilations of religious books from various Muslim scholars as well as daily information with regards to prayer times and recordings of adhan (Bunt, 2000a). Despite the lack of interactivity during the early days of the Internet, Ess et al. (2007) professed that the technology is deemed useful to religion and its communities as every Muslim is highly encouraged to consistently renew, revive, and increase one’s knowledge and understanding of Islam (Solihin, 2008) through whichever media or means that they have access to.

While Muslim early engagement in online environments via websites/portals are often associated with a one-way process of gathering religious information, greater interactivity can be observed in the chat rooms, e-mails, mailing lists (Ashaari, 2012), and forums (Brouwer, 2004; Marcotte, 2010), especially in the present era. Nowadays, we can see more sharing of resources and interactivity among participants of online forums, which basically reflect greater engagement and participation. Many Islamic web content were developed detailing various Islamic knowledge and jurisprudence such as the online fatwa (Ali, 2010; Sisler, 2007, 2011) and these in turn led to numerous dialog and interactions among participants.

In an electronic ethnography study, Varisco (2010) found that engagement in the online environment among Muslims did not only provide a sense of being “for real” individually, but also actually connecting individuals and communities towards the realization of the ummah (Tibi, 1990). The Internet has become a useful instrument for networking, dialog and exchanging ideas between Muslims and non-Muslims (Yousif, 2006) resulting in a greater understanding and appreciation of Islam and Muslim communities (Brouwer, 2004; Marcotte, 2010; Piela, 2010), especially for those often under constant threat and intimidation in many parts of the world.

Based on the literature, the concept of engagement in online religious activities in this study refers to Muslim behavior in online religious environment, which include activities such as browsing, reading, sending, receiving, searching for Islamic information, and the expression of ideas through the Internet via e-mails, chat rooms, or social networks.

3. Theory of Planned Behavior

It has been generally understood in psychology that human behavior consists of a complex structure due to the influence of many factors. This renders it very difficult to explain and predict (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010). In this context, engagement in online religious activities among Muslims may be affected by several factors such as the level of knowledge or skills in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and attitudes towards technology as theorized in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB).

The TPB (Ajzen, 2011) is one of the most frequently cited and influential models for the prediction of human social behavior since its introduction 26 years ago. Specifically, TPB assumes that behavioral intentions are determined by three interacting constructs; attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, which seem relevant to behavioral, normative, and control beliefs concerning behavior (Ajzen, 1991).

In the earlier formulation of TPB, Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) presented the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA); a concept of behavioral intent, which further developed the central understanding that an individual’s thoughts and perception act as important determinants of behavior. According to Hale, Householder, and Greene (2002), the TRA is a causal model, which postulates that individuals are influenced by two factors, just before engaging in a particular behavior. The two factors are personal attitudes or evaluation based on the beliefs that the individual developed regarding the behavior and perceived social pressure, especially from those deemed significant from an individual’s viewpoint such as family, friends, or peers.

In addition to TRA, TPB is an attempt towards expanding the extent to which behavior may be influenced (Manoncourt, 2000). The TPB introduces perceived behavioral control or belief refers to an individual’s perceived ability or power to execute anticipated behavior. In fact, Hale et al. (2002, p. 277) claimed that perceived behavioral control is, “most closely akin to Bandura’s self-efficacy construct,” which specifically gauges an individual’s skills and capabilities in the context of a particular behavior (Bandura, 2006).

In a recent review of TPB, Ajzen asserted that,

no matter how people arrive at their behavioral, normative, and control beliefs, their attitudes towards the behavior, their subjective norms, and their perceptions of behavioral control follow automatically and consistently from their beliefs. It is only in this sense that behavior is said to be reasoned or planned. (Ajzen, 2011, p. 1116)

It is evident that TPB tend to project the possibilities within an individual towards the likelihood of performing a desirable behavior or action as well as increasing the possibilities of him or her to actually engage in performing the task.

In short, the TPB assumes that an individual’s behaviors or intentions are based on three basic factors. Firstly, one that is personal in nature – the individual’s attitude towards the behavior. Secondly, one that reflects social influence – the individual’s subjective norms. Finally, one pertaining to issues of control – the individual’s perceived behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991, 2005; Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010). When applied to the study, each of these factors, namely attitudes towards the Internet, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, lend their collective weight in explaining the state of engagement in online religious activities among Muslims in Malaysia.

3.1. Factors influencing Muslim online engagement

3.1.1. Attitudes–Internet perception

Generally, attitudes are believed to be the outcome of personal disposition in favorable or unfavorable responses to a psychological object. In fact, attitude could also be referred to as the evaluation of an object, concept or behavior. Attitude, according to Ajzen (1991), is based on the influence of specific actions in specific situations and is greatly mitigated by the presence of other immediate factors.

When an individual has the required opportunities and resources, the stronger the likelihood and intention to engage in one’s chosen behavior. Thus, it then becomes more likely that the individual would react accordingly. When applied to this study, it is expected that Muslim individuals with a positive perception of the Internet would be more likely to engage in religious activities online compared to those with a negative perception of the medium. Therefore, in this study, the attitude is defined as an individual’s positive or negative attitude towards the Internet. Thus, the following hypothesis is posited:

H1: Attitude–Internet perception is positively related to engagement in online religious activities.

3.1.2. Subjective norms: Muslim community and family

A subjective norm functions as a normative belief and the motivation to comply with the belief, which basically refers to a social factor. The subjective norms represent the individual’s perceived social pressure based on the individual’s belief about whether a significant other thinks/considers that the individual should engage or not engage in the behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Social pressure refers to the individual’s social referents which include parents, spouse, groups, peers, and such.

According to Ho, Lee, and Hammed (2008), an individual would be more motivated when the referent people or group appeared as important to him or her. This can simply be understood in the context of whosoever the individual considers an authority figure, where the weight of opinion significantly influences an individual to perform or not to perform a particular behavior. Such belief is combined with whether whosoever the individual is most motivated to obey, would approve or disapprove if the individual decides to perform or not to perform a particular behavior. Therefore, the subjective norms; Muslims community refers to the social influence from within a Muslim community that may affect a person’s intention to use the Internet.

It is obvious that Islam is a religion that unites its community under the flagship of faith. Thus, Muslims are inclined to conform and act according to the conditions within their communities, the ummah. In addition, Muslims in Malaysia are mainly ethnic Malays who as a rule tend to be close-knit and family oriented. Hence, it can be predicted that:

H2: Subjective norm from the Muslim community is positively related to engagement in online religious activities.

In a nation with a Muslim majority such as Malaysia, the distinction between the community and family is important for justification. In a Muslim community, the nearest and most important persons would be the family. In fact, among Muslim families, parents are obligated to take care of their children’s needs and rights, especially in providing Islamic knowledge to their children. Hence, the subjective norms – family describes the social influence from person’s family that may affect his or her intention of using the Internet. Thus, the study expects that an individual’s engagement in religious activities in the online environment to be positively influenced by perceived social pressure from their family:

H3: Subjective norm from one’s family is positively related to engagement in online religious activities.

3.1.3. Perceived behavioral control and the Internet self-efficacy

The fact that motivation or intention influences behavior is well known. (Ajzen, 1991). According to Hale, Householder and Green (2002), perceived behavioral control is postulated to function as a control of beliefs and perceived power. The availability of such power would become an attribute influencing an individual to engage or not to engage in the particular behavior. Therefore, perceived behavioral control describes beliefs about having the necessary resources and opportunities to engage in online religious activities.

The belief is deemed reasonable in the sense that the individual develops his or her own intention to engage or not to engage in a particular behavior, which is within the individual’s control. Therefore, with regard online activity, the study posits the following:

H4: Perceived behavioral control is positively related to engagement in online religious activities.

This is closely related with Bandura’s concept of perceived self-efficacy (Bandura, 2006), which postulates that the level of confidence in an individual’s ability is associated with the success in performing specific behavior. However, Ho et al. (2008) pointed out that behavioral concepts should be taken separately even as perceived behavioral control by Ajzen (1991) measures an individual’s perceived controllability in general; while, Bandura’s self-efficacy tend to measure an individual’s level of confidence in performing a specific behavior. Meanwhile, both Eastin and LaRose (2000) defined the Internet self-efficacy as the belief in an individual’s ability to organize and execute the Internet actions. For this study, the Internet self-efficacy according to Ho et al. 2008 will also be examined:

H5: The Internet self-efficacy is positively related to engagement in online religious activities.

3.1.4. Muslims’ religiosity

According to Meadow & Kahoe (1984), there are three major components in understanding religious behavior: the creed or cognitive (which refers to thinking), the cultus or affect (which refers to feeling) and the code or the conation (which refers to the striving). According to Azimi et al. (2007), the external behavior, practices, and knowledge of Muslims have the ability to reveal one’s overall religiosity since no one can ever understand what remains hidden within or unexpressed. Muslim religious practices manifest in aspects based on Islam, Iman, and Ihsan, which includes the religious understanding or the worldview and that an individual’s religious personality represent religious discipline and behavior.

Islam encourages the use of science and technology for moral ends and for all the legitimate needs of society. Moreover, scholars have contended that Muslims who are receptive to technological advances will use the Internet to practice, teach, and debate issues related to their faith (Bunt, 2000b).

According to this view, the level of religiosity is associated with the level of engagement in online religious activities. Furthermore, existing research shows that those who surf and search online about their religion tend to take their faith seriously in the real world and are more likely to use online tools to enrich their knowledge of their faith and to practice their devotions (Hoover, Clark, & Rainie, 2004). The religiosity in this study refers to an individual’s level of religiosity in Islam. This study, therefore, posits:

H6: Religiosity is positively related to engagement in online religious activities.

3.1.5. Offline media usage

The utilization of various media to disseminate information and news to Muslims as well as non-Muslims on the true teachings of Islam is deemed important since through both digital and traditional media, proper propagation, and understanding of Islam can be enhanced by highlighting the universal appeal of Islamic teachings.

Before the advent of the new media, offline, or traditional media has long been used to disseminate information about Islam (Ishak & Solihin, 2012). A previous study by Ho et al. (2008), revealed that a slightly higher proportion of Muslim Internet users engaged in online activities were somewhat less engaged in activities related to traditional religious institutions. Thus, offline media usage for religious purposes describe the behavior of Muslim individuals in using offline resources such as printed materials, religious broadcasts over the radio and television on Islamic programmes. This study, therefore, posits:

H6: Offline religious engagement is positively related to engagement in online religious activities.

Based on the above discussion, the study aims to seek a better understanding on factors that may be influencing engagement in online religious activities among Muslims in Malaysia and to examine plausible behavioral aspects affecting the Internet usage among Muslims for religious purposes. In addition, the study attempts at profiling Muslim Internet users based on their participation in selected Facebook pages (social media network) and to understand the types of engagement in online religious activities among Muslim Internet users in Malaysia.

4. Methodology

With the high rate of Internet penetration in the country, it is considered appropriate to use the online survey method to capture the patterns and levels of religious engagement among Muslims. As such, the study employed an online software tools and service provider for the Internet survey – SurveyMonkey through <http://www.surveymonkey.com> in an effort to understand the level of engagement of Muslim online users in Malaysia.

4.1. Sampling

The study employed multistage sampling techniques to further narrow down the target population of the Muslim online community. Ashaari (2012) described the Malaysian-based Islamic cyberspace as being mainly government organizations, such as the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia, Department of Islamic Development Malaysia, NGOs, and religious personalities. Based on Ashaari’s suggested lists, the study used Facebook’s PageData <http://pagedata.appdata.com> to screen the highest visited pages and identify the page owners who were contacted via email in order to obtain their permission to conduct the online survey at their respective portals or Facebook pages. Once permission was obtained from page owners or portals, the researcher started to post notifications about the study that reached out to the entire population or fan base of religious portals or web pages. Six page owners/portals granted permission to conduct the study and these include IKIM.FM, E-Usrah, JAKIM, IKRAM Malaysia, Ustaz Zahazan Mohamed, and Dato’ Dr Haji Mohd Fadzilah Kamsah.

4.2. Instrument

The instrument used in the study was adopted from the previous study by Ho, Lee and Hameed (2008). The study incorporated several improvements and modification made to the original instruments. All items are based on a Likert scale of 1–4 denoting “Strongly disagree,” “Disagree,” “Agree,” and “Strongly Agree.” Five items were used to measure attitude–Internet perception, with three items reverse coded, which include: (a) the internet is unimportant to me; (b) the internet is not a useful tool to me; (c) the internet is interesting to me; (d) the internet can make my life convenient; and (e) The internet is difficult for me to use.

Subjective norm was divided into two levels, subjective norm – Muslim community (two items) and subjective norm – family (two items). Items used for subjective norm – Muslim community includes (a) people close to me in the Muslim community encourage me to use the Internet for religious purpose and (b) I care about what people close to me in the Muslim community think (motivation). Two items were used to measure subjective norm – family, which includes (a) my immediate family encouraged me to use the Internet for religious purposes; and, (b) I care about what my family thinks (i.e. motivation to comply with referent).

Perceived behavioral control is measured using three scenarios: (a) I feel free to use the Internet to do what I want to do; (b) whether I use the Internet or not is completely within my control; and, (c) I have the necessary means and resources to use the Internet. To measure the Internet self-efficacy, nine items were used: (a) I feel confident when searching for information on the World Wide Web; (b) I feel confident chatting on the Internet; (c) I feel confident using e-mail on my computer; (d) I feel confident in sending e-mails or tweets from a mobile phone; (e) I feel confident towards creating a home page or blog on the World Wide Web; (f) I feel confident in making changes on a home page or social networking sites; (g) I feel confident when it concerns downloading and uploading files from the Internet, (h) I feel confident when it concerns playing an audio CD on my computer; and (i) I feel confident updating status on my social networking sites or blogs.

Seven items were developed to measure offline media usage for religious purposes, which include level of usage of printed materials (e.g. the al-Qur’an, religious books, magazines, etc.), television programmes, radio programmes, lectures from religious leaders, discussion among friends, discussion among family members, and recorded materials (e.g. cassette, CD, VCD, etc.)

There were 30 items used to measure religiosity divided into two levels: Islamic worldview and personality. These levels were developed using Rehman & Shabbir (2010) as basis and further subdivided. The 15 items listed under Islamic worldview are: (a) Allah S.W.T. sees us at all times; (b) Allah S.W.T. is the only one that can be depended on in any situation; (c) only Allah S.W.T. is qualified to devise laws for his creations; (d) angels that record peoples’ deeds accompany them wherever they go; (e) all laws/rulings in the Qur’an were formulated for the benefit and well-being of the people; (f) the Qur’an will remain unchanged until the Day of Judgement; (g) Rasulullah’s teachings are for the people’s advantage and well-being; (h) all sunnah Rasulullah s.a.w. benefit the people; (i) all amalan done by Rasulullah s.a.w. are guided by wahyu; (j) worldly deeds are a share in the hereafter; (k) worldly life cannot be separated from life hereafter; (l) the effects of peoples’ amalan do not end in this world; (m) Allah S.W.T. provides rizk to people whether they are Muslim or not; (n) people must accept failure in something even though they may have worked for it; (o) man must follow the law/principle of cause and effect determined by Allah S.W.T.

The measure used for Muslim personality, which is a component of religiosity, was based on a 4-point Likert scale representing self-accomplishment in performing Islamic requirements, as follows: “Never,” “Sometimes,” “Often,” and “Very often.” Items included were: (a) I regularly offer prayer five times a day; (b) I fast regularly in the month of Ramadhan; (c) I do not miss paying zakat (alms) if I meet the criteria; (d) I believe that I am obliged to perform the Hajj if I meet the prescribed criteria; (e) I regularly recite the Holy Quran; (f) I try to follow Islamic injunctions in all matters of my life; (g) I always try to avoid major sins; (h) I always try to avoid minor sins; (i) I always keep myself away from earning through haram (prohibited) means; (j) I establish good relations with my neighbors; (k) I follow the Islamic code of dress at all times, situations, and places; (l) I look for opportunities to give sadaqah; (m) I carefully adhere to Islamic social interaction norms during all activities I am involved in; (n) I make sure my food is halal; and (o) I make sure all my family members adhere/follow the sunnah of Rasulullah s.a.w.

Finally, 19 items to measure Muslim online engagement were adapted from Ho et al. (2008), with additional items added to the measures after reviews of previous studies. Items include: (a) to follow religious figures, Islamic personalities such as ulama’ via Facebook or blogs; (b) to read information about Islam; (c) to join, “like” and follow Islamic pages; (d) to watch religious lectures on YouTube; (e) to download or listen to recitation of al-Quran or al-Hadith from online audio; (f) To listen to Islamic music and entertainment such as nasyid; (g) to check and download for prayer times or adhan; (h) to search halal status or information for halal products and services; (i) to listen to Islamic TV or radio streaming; (j) to get ideas on how to celebrate significant Islamic holidays such as Hari Raya, Awal Muharram, or Prophet Muhamad’s birthday; (k) to send, receive or forward emails with Islamic content; (l) to buy Islamic books; (m) to search for location of mosques or surau; (n) to request for ulama’s opinions or suggestions to problems; (o) to make a donation or sadaqah to an Islamic related organization or charity online; (p) to buy Muslim or Muslimah attire; (q) to send online greeting cards that commemorate Islamic holidays such as Hari Raya; (r) to use e-mail for planning meetings for Islamic groups at/or places of worship, e.g. mosques, surau etc.; and (s) to make zakat payments.

All variables recorded a good Cronbach Alpha value with online religious activities recorded α = 0.89, attitude–Internet perception α = 0.71, subjective norm – Muslim community α = 0.78, subjective norm – family α = 0.75, perceived behavioral control α = 0.80, the Internet self-efficacy α = 0.85, Muslim religiosity α = 0.90, and offline media usage α = 0.71.

5. Findings and discussion

In general, results based on the survey data indicate that Muslim Internet users in Malaysia are widely represented by young Muslims between 21 and 40 years old. A majority of respondents (95.2%) based on the selected Facebook pages are Malays. Both genders are equally represented, although females marked a slightly higher percentage at 65.5% compared to males. Similar to findings by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission survey (2012), the findings showed adults between 20 and 49 years old emerged as the main users of home Internet at 73.1%.

While the current study concentrates on Muslims who engage in cyber Islamic environments, the analysis on the level of education among respondents indicates that most of them are moderately educated. A substantial percentage of Muslims who engage in cyber Islamic environments in Malaysia had completed their secondary education, while only a small percentage of them have a university degree. It is also interesting to note that a large majority of Muslims who engaged in online activities in this study did not receive formal religious education from Islamic religious schools, yet they showed a high interest in seeking Islamic knowledge and information online. In addition, most of them were not affiliated to Islamic activism or volunteer organizations. This further reinforced their strong interest in seeking and sharing Islamic knowledge/information in the online environment and their desire to stay connected with Islamic communities online.

It is noteworthy that the majority of the Muslims who engaged in online religious activities in this study are attached to diverse industries such as information technology, finance, manufacturing, and other sectors. Since most of them do not serve in any religious capacity or hold positions related to religion such as religious teachers, this further revealed their strong commitment towards their search for information about Islam.

Muslims who engaged in cyber Islamic environments in Malaysia in this study showed a high Internet access/consumption rate with a large majority of them (70.1%) having daily access to the medium and spending approximately 25 h a week online. A large number of them have home access at 65.7% and office at 19.0%, which further indicated the high Internet penetration rate in contemporary society.

Generally, the pattern of engagement among Muslims in Malaysia’s online environment related more to activities which are carried out to fulfill the personal and spiritual needs of Muslims such as following religious figures, watching religious lectures, and downloading or listening to Quran recitations. In other words, the types of engagement are more connected to the relationship with Allah (hablum min Allah). A careful look at the pattern of engagement also revealed a lower engagement in activities related to relationships with other human beings (hablum minannas) such as the sending of greeting cards commemorating Islamic holidays, email for planning meetings for Islamic groups and/or mosques/surau, or to make payments for zakat to religious institutions. The finding echoes results of a previous study by Ho et al. (2008), which found that engagement in online religious activities among Muslims in Singapore were connected to their personal religiosity concerns (Ho et al., 2008). Furthermore, findings from the Pew’s “Faith Online” report (Hoover, Clark, & Rainie, 2004) also indicated that religious-minded Internet users mostly used the Internet as their supplementary source of religious information.

One of the aims of the study is to understand factors that would influence the level of Muslim engagement in online religious activities. Before hypotheses testing are conducted to understand the best predictor variables, it is appropriate to evaluate the results of the descriptive analysis of the main variables of the study as presented in Table 1

Table 1 Descriptive analysis of the main variables of the study

Variables	Mean	Standard deviation
Muslim online engagement	2.62	0.56
Attitude–Internet perception	3.46	0.43
Subjective norms – family	3.05	0.56
Subjective norm – Muslim community	3.06	0.43
Perceived behavioral control	3.15	0.58
Internet self-efficacy	2.85	0.47
Religiosity	3.76	0.27
Offline media engagement	2.61	0.44

Generally, we can conclude that all the main variables of the study namely the level of engagement, attitude towards the Internet, subjective norms – family, subjective norm – Muslim community, perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, and offline media engagement recorded moderate mean values except for religiosity. The level of religiosity among the respondents of the study was considered high since it is above the midpoint value of 2.5. Further investigation of the data revealed that respondents possess a high level of knowledge related to key elements of Islamic beliefs and creed such as the absolute oneness of God, Allah s.w.t. However, some respondents were found lacking in their actions or behaviors in the manifestation as a Muslim personality in terms of doing “righteous works.”

To test the hypotheses of the study, multiple regression analysis was conducted and the results showed that attitude–Internet perception (β = 0.117, p = 0.004), subjective norms – Muslim community (β = 0.167, p = 0.007), the Internet self-efficacy (β = 0.190, p = 0.000), Muslims’ religiosity (β = 0.135, p = 0.001), and offline media usage (β = 0.361, p = 0.001) are positively related to Muslim online religious engagement. However, no significant relationship is recorded for subjective norm – family and perceived behavioral control. Based on the β value, the best predictor of Muslim online engagement is offline media usage followed by the Internet self-efficacy and subjective norm – Muslim community. Based on the R² value, we can conclude that the model explained 32.4% of the dependent variable. Detail of results as per Table 2.

Table 2 Summary of multiple regression analysis (N = 525)

Theoretical variables	Muslims’ engagements in online religious activities
	β	p
Attitude–Internet perception	.117	.004
Subjective norms – Muslim community	.167	.007
Subjective norms – family	−.066	.288
Perceived behavioral control	.059	.161
Internet self-efficacy	.190	.000
Muslims’ religiosity	.135	.001
Offline media usage	.361	.000
R²	0.324
Adjusted R²	0.314

6. Conclusion

To conclude, results of the study showed five important predictors of online religious engagement namely attitude–Internet perception, subjective norms of Muslim community, the Internet self-efficacy, religiosity, and offline media usage for religious purposes. Offline religious activities among Muslims were the most important predictor variable that best explained the level of online religious engagement. In other words, Muslims who exhibited greater offline media usage for religious purposes, such as seeking Islamic information through print, television, radio, and interpersonal channels, displayed greater participation at online religious environments.

The second best predictor is the Internet self-efficacy. Overall, the level of the Internet self-efficacy is at moderate-to-high, which mirrored their knowledge and skills of ICT in general and the Internet in particular. This may be supported by the fact that most respondents are well educated with almost half of the respondents having completed their secondary and tertiary education, which results in greater online engagement.

In the current study, subjective norm – Muslim community is shown to exert a strong influence on the level of online engagement compared to that of the family. This reflects a significant connection and attachment among members of the online community, which in turn influenced their level of participation in cyber Islamic environments. In addition, Muslims who exhibited strong online religious engagement tended to be among those who are moderately highly religious. Besides that, they also exhibited a positive attitude towards the Internet, especially in terms of its usability, ease of use, importance, and convenience.

Findings from this study have also detected several similarities and differences in the results when compared to the earlier study by Ho et al. (2008). Obviously, both studies had detected that the subjective norm from the family and perceived behavioral control factors were not influencing Muslims to engage in online religious activities. The negative relationship on the subjective norm from the family seems to indicate that individual Muslims are more influenced by the larger Muslim community, which could be considered as their referent group, rather than their family. This could be implied that the larger Muslim community may have a vital role in influencing Muslim Internet users in their engagement in religious activities online.

This study had also discovered a significant difference in the attitude–Internet perception factor between Muslims in Malaysia and Muslims in Singapore. The results from the attitude–Internet perception factor in the study had shown that Muslims in Malaysia were more likely to engage in the online religious activities based on their positive perception of the Internet compared to Muslims in Singapore who recorded a negative perception (Ho et al., 2008).

When considered in its entirety, the present study contributes to the current body of literature on Islam and the Internet by providing a comprehensive profile and pattern of engagement in religious activities among Muslim in the Cyber Islamic Environment within Malaysia. Engagement in online religious activities among Muslims is an interesting subject to explore due to the fact that there are only a handful of studies conducted on the topic. While studies in online religious engagement of other religions, especially Christianity is mounting, the researcher found only a limited number of empirical research targeted towards Muslims. Therefore, this study also assists in understanding the factors that influence online religious engagement among Muslims through a theoretically driven approach and empirical study.

Undoubtedly, the Internet offers a different and unique environment of communication compared to offline environments. In relation to this, Bunt (2009) in iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam indicated that a large number of Muslims are more comfortable with openly expressing their worldview and religious perspectives through the online medium rather than declaring aloud at their local mosques or offline religious environments. Clearly, for over 14 centuries, Islam has flourished and expanded gloriously. Although Varisco (2010) seems to agree with Bunt’s statement that, “Islam is practised without computer Interfaces or the use of a mouse” (2003, p. 1). However, Larsson (2011) sees the possibilities for the Internet, not just to publish adequate information on Islam, but also to set up online fatwa services.

Religiosity seems to have an important role as an outlet for Muslims to engage in online religious activities. The current study in Malaysia as in Table 2 and the previous study in Singapore (Ho et al., 2008) revealed religiosity as having a positive relationship in terms of influencing Muslims to engage in such behavior. Although the level of Muslim religiosity has been proven as having a significant effect on the pattern of the Internet consumption (Sanaktekin et al., 2012), Muslims seem to adopt new technologies such as the Internet to function as their communal need, besides improving their lives in overall. In view of this, Muslims in Malaysia seem to perceive the Internet in positive light. That in turn seems to influence them to venture online for religious purposes when compared to Muslims in Singapore

The findings of the study may have further implications in improving the study on the levels of engagement in online religious activities among Muslims within a Malaysian context. However, there are some limitations in this study that could be overcome in future research. The sample of the study is limited to members of several Islamic web pages and portals, developed by individuals and organizations. Future studies may expand the sample to include members of other Islamic portals or web pages for more in-depth findings. Measure of religiosity in this study is limited to a number of items for the purpose of reducing time spent on the questionnaire. Full measure should be used to reflect the full dimensions of religiosity. Once data is collected, Confirmatory Factor Analysis should be conducted to determine the internal validity of the construct.

Furthermore, the number of independent variables in the present study is limited to seven variables. The seven variables only explain about 31.4% of variance in the dependent variable. Clearly there are other factors that influence the pattern of engagement among Muslims in online religious settings. Future studies could explore other new variables such as website credibility. Further studies could also investigate the interactive process that occur within the pages involving religious figures, fans, and followers and to examine the strength of linkage or connection or ukhuwah among the online Muslim community, its differences and similarities compared to the offline Muslim community.

As a conclusion, the profile of Muslims within the Cyber Islamic Environment of Malaysia can be characterized by the following descriptions: young Malay Muslims (both male and female) with no formal Islamic education working in nonreligious-related sectors. Engagement in online religious activities among Muslims is driven by several important factors with the first significant factor being offline religious engagement. The connection between offline and online engagement can be discerned. Those who are active in offline religious activities tend to participate in online religious activities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.