HERMENEUTIC MANIPULATION OF RELIGIOUS TEXTS IN DIGITAL SPACES: EXAMINING ONLINE RADICALISATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO OFFLINE VIOLENCE THROUGH A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE 2025 BONDI TRAGEDY

Abstract

Easy accessibility to internet and free social media applications with worldwide reach have transformed our digital age. With such universal access to social media, violent ideologies and thought processes can also travel rapidly. The use of social media warrants a sense of responsibility and tolerance for opposing view. However, that is often not the case and misuse of social media platforms like X, YouTube, Facebook as means of online radicalization is becoming a troubling trend. The Bondi Beach tragedy of 2025, when two gunmen opened fire at a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach Australia happens to be one such outcome of online interreligious hate and extremism. Using Fairclough’s selective Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper argues that the hermeneutic manipulation of certain religious scriptures in online spaces in Australia is the primary driver behind the extremism that led to the Bondi Beach tragedy. Policy makers need to identify the loopholes that allow usage of social media applications as breeding grounds for interreligious hate, so that such tragedies be prevented in future.