"It should help me progress and strengthen my Imaan": Understanding Algorithmic Experiences of Islamic Content on Social Media Recommendation Systems

The increasing use of social media platforms for seeking religious information raises critical questions about the interplay of technology, algorithms, and faith. Prior HCI literature has explored users’ algorithmic experience in various domains such as news, music, mental health, etc. However, religion, a highly sensitive and significant domain, remains underexplored within the HCI scholarship. Therefore, we investigate how social media algorithms influence users’ religious content engagement through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 24 Muslim participants from Bangladesh. Our findings reveal that the benefits of algorithms in the Islamic context are often overshadowed by the significant harm of inappropriate recommendations. As a result, participants envisioned algorithms that actively support their spiritual growth and faith practices. Building on these insights, we outline a potential design space for religion-aware algorithms and propose a conceptual framework of users’ hierarchical religious needs for Islamic content to inform future faith-based technology design.