Preaching Islam to the Video Game Generation: New Media Literacies and Religious Edutainment in the Arab World
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the appropriation of games by private companies operating in the context of the Islamic revival or piety movement, that is, for communication of religious, cultural, or moral values. The focus of the chapter is not on the products or their designers themselves but more specifically on the emerging new media literacies associated with video games and on the cognitive skill sets on which they depend.
The research is based on a content and structural analysis of more than 80 games and on interviews with major game producers. The material for this paper was gathered during fieldwork in Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon between 2005 and 2010.
Hence, this chapter maps the changing patterns and transformations of the Islamic edutainment industry as well as the changing perception of video games as an educational medium in the Arab world.