KnE Social Sciences

Published date: Jul 15 2025

Journal Title: KnE Social Sciences

Issue title: The International Conference on Da'wah & Communication 2024 (ICDComm 2024)

Pages: 38 - 46

DOI: 10.18502/kss.v10i14.19072

Acep Muslimacepmuslim@uinsgd.ac.idUIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung

This paper explores Islamic communication theory developed by Hamid Mowlana (1979, 1993, 2007). The analysis includes the context of the emergence of a discourse on Islamic communication in the academic realm and the elaboration and criticism of the substance of Hamid Mowlana’s Islamic communication theory. Using the literature study method, the author found that the emergence of Islamic communication theory was motivated by the meeting of two streams of criticism of Western science, namely the criticism of Islamic intellectuals against the paradigm of Western social science (and therefore, against western modernization); and the tendency towards international communication studies by emphasizing the DE westernization approach, motivated by the cultural turn in the development of the social sciences. Hamid Mowlana formulated Islamic communication theory by proposing the concept of tabligh initially developed from his studies of communication practices and systems in Iran, especially around the period before and after the revolution. Tabligh, besides being a theory, is also an ethic and is based on five fundamental principles: Tauhid, Amar ma’ruf nahi munkar, Ummah, Taqwa, and Amanah. Hamid Mowlana’s Islamic communication theory has its weaknesses, especially in its basic assumptions about Islamic exceptionalism and the singularity of Islamic and Western civilizations.

Keywords: Tablighi, Islamic communication theory, Hamid Mowlana

[1] Al Attas, S.H. (1978). Islam and Secularism. Kualumpur: ISTAC.

[2] Curran J, Park M. De-Westernizing Media Studies. New York: Routledge; 2000.

[3] Downing DH. Internationalizing Media Theory. Peace Rev. 2007;8(1):113–7.

[4] Khiabany G. (2003). De-westernizing Media Theory, Or Reverse Orientalism: Islamic Communication as Theorized by Hamid Mowlana, in Media, Cultre & Society, 25.

[5] Khiabany, G. (2007) Is There an Islamic Communication, in Criticalerts, 21(1).

[6] Khiabany G. Iranian Media: The Paradox of Modernity. New York: Sage; 2010.

[7] Konsorsium Wahyu Memandu Ilmu. Pandangan Keilmuan UIN: Wahyu Memandu Ilmu. Bandung: UIN Sunan Gunung Djati; 2008.

[8] Konsorsium Wahyu Memandu Ilmu (akan terbit). Trilogi Wahyu Memandu Ilmu. Bandung: UIN Sunan Gunung Djati.

[9] Mowlana H. (2003). The New Global Order and Cultral Ecology, in Media, Culture & Society, 15.

[10] Mowlana H. (1979). Technology versus Tradition: Communication in the Iranian Revolution, in Journal of Communication, Summer.

[11] Mowlana H. (2007). Theoretical Perspectives on Islam and Communication, in China media Research, 3 (4).

[12] Nasr SH. Science and Civilization in Islam. Kazi Publicatio; 2007.

[13] Nasr SH. (1989). Knowledge and The Sacred (Gifford Lectures. New York: State New York University Press.

[14] Steinmetz G. State/Culture: State-Formation after Cultural Turn. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; 2014.