Women Empowerment as Panacea to Social Media Challenges in the 21st Century Muslim Society: The Role of Muslim Women Faith Based Organizations in Nigeria.

Abstract

Islam, the only world accepted revealed religion in the side of Allah (SWT), deals with the entire gamut of human being, social media inclusive. For the consistency of human culture and society, sharia is not silent on the concept, idea, characteristics, significance etc. of social media and it provides detail principles, directions and guidelines for social media approach among its followers. Several verses in the Qur’an, prophetic traditions as well as juristic verdicts abound to these references. However, despite these divine regulations many Muslim men and women nowadays abuse the use of social media platforms in many ways particularly in the area of pornography; all in the name of sex-education and civilization which is alien to the ideal practices in Islam. This unfortunate development requires urgent attention and right approach from Islamic scholars, the Ulamah, Muslim organizations and groups through women empowerment particularly Muslim women faith-based organizations. Muslim women faith-based organizations is a manifestation of Islamic resurgence in this century. It is formed not only for the purposes of Islamic propagation along, but also to fulfill a vision and serve a mission of reo-orientation, revitalization, rehabilitation and re-instatement of Islamic values and cultures in the mind and attitudes of Muslim women and Muslim society at large. This paper therefore analyzes the concept of social media in Islam, its categories, its significance, position in sharia as well as the challenges it’s posed to the Muslim society. On the other hand, the paper examines women empowerment as panacea to social media challenges through Muslim Women faith based organizations. The method of data collection involves the use of primary and secondary sources data.