Quranic app practices among multilingual Muslim youth in Denmark
Daugaard, L. M. (2019). IQuranic app practices among multilingual Muslim youth in Denmark. Apples : Journal of Applied Language Studies, 13 (4), 43-69. doi: 10.17011/apples/urn.201912185424
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Apples : Journal of Applied Language StudiesAuthors
Date
2019Copyright
© The author, 2019
This article sheds light on a set of religious literacy practices which have so far
received very little scientific attention, namely ‘quranic app practices’. Quranic app
practices are conceptualized as ways of engaging with the Quran through religious
apps on smartphones or tablets. The article is based primarily on an explorative
group interview with four young people from a Year 8 class in a multilingual lower
secondary school in Denmark. The youth have Somali and Afghan background,
consider themselves practicing Muslims and can be described as ‘religious heritage
learners of Arabic’ (Temples 2013). The article explores the quranic app practices of
the young people as reported in the interview and shows how the young people use
the quranic apps to engage with the sacred text of the Quran in different ways, with
different objectives and drawing on different languages. Building on Rosowsky’s
(2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015) research on faith literacies, the analysis reveals that
the young people have radically different understandings of that it entails to ‘read
the Quran’ and that their quranic app practices vary greatly, but also that their
choice of app is consistent with their stated objectives, priorities, preferences and
practices. The different quranic app practices thus all appear meaningful, consistent
and legitimate. Based on the analysis, the article calls for further investigation of
young people’s quranic app practices.
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