Framing the Friday Sermon to Shape Opinion: The Case of Jordan

by Philip Odeh Madanat

Overview

The 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498586979
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/25/2019
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Philip Odeh Madanat, PhD, is an independent scholar.

Table of Contents

Preface

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 'stensibly 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

Editorial Reviews

A 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

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

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