Description
Book SynopsisThe book investigates the intricate relationship between Friday sermon and the worshippers' opinion in Jordan. The author examines the religious sphere in Jordan in an attempt to unravel the apparent and hidden actors who produce and intake Friday sermon in an ostensibly westernized yet profoundly religious society. It fills a major gap in literature on how Islamist movements and groups use and produce the Friday sermon and its sociopolitical context. Covering the period before, during and after the Arab Spring, the book also challenges the lack of field investigation on framing and agenda-setting. The state, Islamist groups, and the media all vie to usurp the loyalty of the worshipper through the Friday sermon.
Trade ReviewA remarkable and complex research effort on a subject of enormous importance. Few scholars have so intimately engaged with the texts and contexts of Friday Sermons as a vehicle of communication power. Madanat has persevered in a zone of significance which has been shielded from systematic scholarly observation. -- Monroe Price, Yeshiva University
Preachers are influencers even if they are not online celebrities. Madanat’s book shows us the impact of the Friday Sermon into public opinion construction. Whoever wants to understand better how public opinion works in the Muslim World should read these useful and clarifying lines. -- Miriam Diez Bosch, Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture Director
This is highly informative and insightful scholarly research into a hardly investigated, crucial role that the Friday sermons in the mosques play in shaping religious and political attitudes and opinions in Arab societies. By testing the significance of framing, priming, and agenda-setting theories in a Jordanian setting, the study discusses important implications of the tug of war between preachers and government censors over the control of citizens’ public perception of reality. -- Gianpietro Mazzoleni, University of Milan
Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter One: Overview Chapter Two: Thematic Analysis of Friday Sermons Chapter Three: Analysis of Media Coverage of the Mosque and Sermon-Related Issues Chapter Four: Participant Observation: An Ogle on the Ostensibly Dormant Worshipper Chapter Five: Views of the Religious and Political Actors on Regulating the Sermon Chapter Six: The Preacher, the Sermon and its Influence in the Social Milieu Chapter Seven: Conclusion References About the author
