Young muslims in televangelism

The religious life of young people or teenagers has recently become the deep concern of many religious studies scholars. The publication of a book edited by James Heft entitled, Passing on the Faith: Transforming Traditions for the Next Generation of Jews, Christians, and Muslims (2006), justifies this increasingly deep concern. The central argument of the book is about the necessity of transmitting religious teachings and identities from one generation to the next. The importance of this religious transmission is applied to all Abrahamic religions, from Judaism, Christianity to Islam. Religious scholars are now rethinking how to strengthen the role of religion to stimulate an energetic faith in the next generation. Does the same issue take place in the context of Indonesian Islam? Yes, much has been undertaken by Muslims in Indonesia, as with other parts of the Muslim world, for Islam to be transmitted to the public. But less has been devoted to putting this Islamic transmission segmented and oriented toward young people and teenagers. Let’s make a small comparison between the Islamic transmission within popular print publications and TV programs (or better known as “Islamic televangelism”). There was a boom in popular print publications devoted to transmitting Islamic teachings to the young and to teenagers. This kind of publication is popularly referred to as “Islamic teen literature [teenlit]”.