Creative and Lucrative Dawa: The Visual Culture of Instagram amongst Female Muslim Youth in Indonesia

Social media have become part of the private and public lifestyles of youth globally. Drawing on both online and offline research in Indonesia, this article focuses on the use of Instagram by Indonesian Muslim youth. It analyzes how religious messages uploaded on Instagram through posts and captions have a significant effect on the way in which Indonesian Muslim youth understand their religion and accentuate their (pious) identities and life goals. This article argues that Instagram has recently become the ultimate platform for Indonesian female Muslim youth to educate each other in becoming virtuous Muslims. The creativity and zeal of the creators of Instagram dawa (proselytization), and their firm belief that 'a picture is worth a thousand words', has positioned them as social media influencers, which in turn has enabled them to conduct both soft dawa and lucrative dawa through business.