The Social Media Wars: Sunni and Shi'a Identity Conflicts in the Age of Web 2.0 and the Arab Spring

This monograph evaluates the role of the social media in strengthening and transforming religious identities in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Focusing specifically on Bahrain, this study assesses how the sectarian interpretation of the protests exacerbated social divisions and reverberated around the Middle East intensifying sectarian loyalties. The social media contribute to negotiation and re-construction of the collective identities of the groups involved in the 2011 uprising, which is visible through their online manifestations.

The Arab Spring: the recent uprisings in the Middle East have been commonly called a Facebook Revolution due to the role of social media in gathering supporters, organising the movement as well as coordinating widespread protests. While new scholarship on the subject has been already emerging, there is a shortage of studies on the post-Arab Spring influence of the social media and their role in identity transformation. The shortage of monographs dealing with the subject of Bahrain is especially acute. This study goes a long way in remedying the dearth of scholarly material analysing cause and effect and focuses on the enormous role of social media as well as concomitant countermeasures.