Closing Thoughts

This study began by raising questions about the representations of the sacred by the secular; the questions were raised as a result of my personal experience as a newly arrived Muslim in the West. Those questions further produced the framework of this study, which interrogates knowledge production on Islam within a secular media platform. Using TED Talks on Islam as a case study, I analysed how a secular platform produces knowledge on Islam; how the audience or consumers of this knowledge respond and react to this process, and what the characteristics are of the perceived authority and agency that the knowledge producers—in this context TED speakers—embody. This concluding chapter summarises the main findings of this research and offers final theoretical and conceptual reflections based on the data analysis. In this chapter, I first summarise key arguments and draw together the main threads of the discussion. Secondly, I discuss this study's key contributions to the existing discussion and larger context of postsecular engagement with Islam; I will provide some insights into the broader influence that TEDified communication patterns have on the overall mediated discourse on Islam. Finally, I outline certain limitations in this study and its scope by outlining the areas that need further research.