Muslims in the Digital Age Series: AI and Muslim Piety on TikTok

In February, Dr Christoph Günther had been invited by the Global Islamic Studies Center at the University of Michigan to present his research on AI image tools and Islam on social media platforms. Dr Günther is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of History of Art at the University of Michigan. He presented two case studies to the ways in which Muslim content creators utilize AI-generated texts and images to illustrate Qur’anic passages and hadith narrations, creating visually engaging content to promote ethical guidance and encourage people to a more pious conduct. Dr Günther argues that these actors blend sacred narratives with non-Islamic visual frameworks, hence proposes to understand such AI-generated or AI-enhanced (moving) images as a 21st-century update of the illustrations of Islamic knowledge for an audience that is familiar with the visual language used. His lecture offered insights into how AI technologies mediate religious expression in the digital age and challenges audiences to consider the implications of blending sacred and secular visual vocabularies in the pursuit of piety.

A recording of the event is available on the YouTube channel of the Global Islamic Studies Center: