Abstract

This essay comments on Possamai et al.'s paper on Shari'a in Cyberspace [2016], relating their insights to selected theoretical approaches which propose further systematizations of the key concepts, i.e. (religious) authority and (de-)territorialised community. Following from this, it argues for a close connection of case studies on digital religion and authority to broader theories on trends in the field of contemporary religion in order to not only gain further insight into the field of digital Islam but also develop diagnoses which are not limited to religion within digital media. Since digital media is a crucial part of contemporary religion, such a liaison would improve both our understanding of recent transformations in the field of religion in general and our conceptual tools for further research.