Dr Yousef Abdullah Al Obeidli*
During my participation in an international conference that brought together religious and intellectual figures from several countries, I was met at the airport by a clergyman, and we had a side conversation about religious institutions and their role in contemporary societies.
During the conversation, he said to me, “Our institution is no longer what it used to be. The new generation no longer attends our lectures and religious programmes.”
He spoke in a tone that clearly conveyed concern about a genuine challenge facing many societies. I smiled and asked him, “Do you think religion has been abandoned?”
This phenomenon is not confined to religious institutions alone; it has also affected numerous other sectors, including education, community services, healthcare, and other fields.
In fact, it is easy to blame the changing times, progress, and new lifestyles, or to say that the new generation is unlike previous generations. Strong institutions, however, do not accept such justifications; rather, they renew themselves, evolve, rethink concepts, and present them in innovative ways suited to the time and place.
Otherwise, they risk becoming like many international telephone and camera companies that failed to grasp the speed of digital transformation and the development of communications in all their forms, and ultimately disappeared.
Returning to my conversation with the clergyman, I said to him, “Do you expect a generation that receives information on its smartphones, presented in less than a minute, to be willing to attend a traditional lecture that may consume more than two hours between travelling and attendance?
"This is a generation that obtains books in various formats suited to the modern age, including audiobooks and electronic books, and the same applies to other sources and information.”
I continued, saying, “Do you know that the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre recognised this reality a long time ago? The Mosque did not confine itself to performing its religious role in the conventional manner; rather, it sought to redefine the relationship between the religious institution and the public.
"It moved beyond the traditional functions of a mosque and entered a broader sphere that keeps pace with the scientific and intellectual transformations taking place across the world and engages with the rapid development of communication technologies and information sources.
"The Centre recognised early on that reaching new generations could no longer be achieved through the same methods that prevailed decades ago. Young people today spend a significant part of their lives in the digital sphere, and acquire knowledge through screens and social media platforms.
"Accordingly, these platforms came to be treated as effective tools for communication and influence, rather than merely channels for publication or advertising.”
The Centre has used these means in a considered manner, not merely to reach audiences, but to remain present and influential within a digital space crowded with competing voices.
This presence has contributed to providing a rigorous, knowledge-based discourse capable of competing with platforms that disseminate misleading ideas or exploit digital platforms to serve agendas and ulterior aims that do not benefit societies, but rather undermine them.
This represents a continuation, in a new form, of a historical tradition whereby major mosques throughout the ages played a significant role in transmitting knowledge and sciences and were not merely places of worship.
What distinguishes the Mosque’s experience in this field is that the content it provides is not limited to publishing news or documenting activities; rather, it involves producing knowledge-based content that combines scholarly value with an engaging style and presents information in contemporary language suited to the nature of digital platforms and the expectations of their users.
The figures speak for themselves. The Centre has produced more than 560 episodes across 14 religious, cultural, and educational series. These series have garnered more than 50 million views since the launch of the digital platforms.
In 2025 alone, views exceeded 18 million. To put this figure into clearer perspective, it is 70 times the number of worshippers who attended Friday prayers at the Mosque during the same year.
In answer to the title of this article and to the clergyman’s question at the airport, we say this: if religious institutions fail to offer content that is convincing and continually renewed, and if they fail to redefine themselves in accordance with the realities of the age and its developments, then it is they that abandon societies. They will leave the space vacant for terrorist and extremist groups and entities.
Religious institutions must therefore offer content that is persuasive and continually renewed, enabling them to convey sound scholarly and intellectual messages to the broadest possible segment of society through modern and effective methods, without losing their depth or authenticity.
*The writer is an Emirati researcher.