Mosque sermons and audience receptivity

Abstract

With focus on the sermons delivered in the mosques of Sydney during Friday's congregational prayers, the prime objective of this thesis was to investigate whether imams are agents of socialisation. The first step to achieving this overarching aim involved an examination of the acts that form Friday's congregational prayer from the frame of Goffman (2002) and Schechner's (2013) 'Performance Studies' theories. The methodological approach adopted was of an ethnographic orientation involving the observation of the congregational prayers performed in Sydney's mosques and the conclusion reached was that most of what can be observed during Friday's congregational prayers represent 'restorations' of the acts performed by Muhammad (pbuh1) and the first community of Muslims. The 'stage' and the 'setting' as well as the costumes worn by the 'actors' are also to a limited degree 'restorations' of Muhammad's mosque in Madina and the clothes he wore. These restorations are achieved through following the fiqh for Friday's congregational prayers, which I compare to a 'script' that actors follow. Within the script, however, there is some scope for variation. In the role performed by the imam, with some exceptions, the 'script' allows for delivery of a sermon on a topic of their preference. This aspect of the sermon presents the prospect for imams to influence the behaviours of their audiences, thereby acting as agents of socialisation. The second step involved an examination of the content of the sermons delivered in the mosques of Sydney. The theories that formed the basis of this analysis were the interactionist and structuralist methods of socialisation. Fieldwork to collect data involved the recording of sermons delivered across 15 of Sydney's mosques, resulting in the collection of 48 mosque sermons, which were subsequently content analysed. The findings revealed that while the topics covered are generally of social and spiritual orientations, imams adopt a diverse range of methods to influence their audiences. From an interactionist perspective, it was found they may play an important role in influencing the behaviours of their audiences as they reiterate pre-existing notions and present constructions of how the 'role' of a Muslim should be performed in response to new events and circumstances. The main sources of knowledge used, that is the Qur'an and hadith, play a vital role in informing these constructions and reiterations. Implicitly, by defining how they should 'act' Imams are attempting to influence the behaviours of their audiences. Evidence was also found of the imams' use of functional methods of socialisation, as what is appropriate and inappropriate were defined and behaviours regulated through various methods to denote approval and disapproval. Moreover, facilitating the type of socialisation, which relies of seeing models for a 'role' should be performed, imams presented Muhammad, the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an and his companions to illustrate how a Muslim ought to 'act', thereby facilitating the process of socialisation. Another step to achieving the primary aim of this thesis involved an examination of how audiences received, respond to and are affected by the sermon, as well as an understanding of the reasons why audiences participate in the congregational prayers. Adopting the Hypodermic Syringe, Stuart Hall's Encoding and Decoding (ED) and the Uses and Gratifications theories and using the survey as an instrument for gathering data, 745 surveys from 13 mosques in Sydney were analysed. The conclusion reached is that audiences are largely able to 'decode' (interpret the message as conveyed), accept the message conveyed and the majority are impacted by it. However, audiences attend the congregational prayer for the purpose of performing their religious obligations and maintaining their faith. Another idea presented by Stuart Hall's ED theory posits that audience responses will vary depending of the background characteristics of audience members. In view of this theory, an examination of the background characteristics of audience members and how they received and responded to the sermon found some relationships, but not sufficient evidence to support to support this proposition, except that a shared cultural background increases the likelihood the audiences will decode and accept the message delivered. However, examination of the relationship between the characteristics of the sermon (sermons audiences had listened to before completing the survey) as they relate to content and style of presentation provided strong evidence to suggest the way a sermon is delivered makes a significant difference to how audiences receive and respond to it. Sermons that exhibit characteristics of a good quality presentation "" that is, they are delivered clearly, in a logically sequenced manner, timed appropriately and in a language accessible to most sections of the audience "" are received more favourably compared to those that exhibit weaknesses in these areas. Overall, for Sydney's Muslim community, imams are agents of socialisation, but the primary reason for participation in Friday's congregational prayers is because it is a religious obligation and to maintain faith.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English