AI AND ISLAMIC REFORM MOVEMENTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF JADIDISM AND CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL REFORMISM

Abstract

This article offers a comparative analysis of the Jadid movement in early twentieth-century Central Asia and contemporary forms of digital Islamic reformism influenced by artificial intelligence (AI). It examines how both movements employ emerging technologies—print culture and modern schooling in the Jadid era, and digital media and AI in the present—to advance education, rational inquiry, and moral renewal. Through an interdisciplinary framework combining intellectual history, digital humanities, and the sociology of technology, the study identifies continuities in reformist ideals of enlightenment and progress while noting key differences in epistemology, authority, and communication. The findings suggest that AI not only transforms how religious reform is expressed but also redefines the broader relationship between Islam, modernity, and technological innovation in the twenty-first century.