A Conflict Between Covid-19 and Religion: Discourse Analysis of Persian Twitter Based on Van Dijk Model

With the spread of coronavirus in Iran, the government cancelled public events and declared the necessity of closing crowded centers, including religious places. Following this announcement, some people in Mashhad and Qom protested by entering the holy shrines. These actions were quickly reflected in cyberspace. On twitter- a social networking Web site- which is possible for the users to debate, A group of users considered the opposition to health orders contrary to religious law. Another group contrasted religion with science. The present study aims to study these debates and the main question is that what strategies each group used to express its beliefs and viewpoints? For this purpose, 170 Persian tweets containing the keywords "religion" and "corona" were selected and examined using the Van Dijk Model. Data analysis showed that the most common linguistic tools used by users to represent their beliefs and ideologies are the two strategies of "distancing" and "cursing". Since the role and the influence of social networks, e.g., Twitter, are undeniable and tweets can shape social actions, the conflict observed in this space can also extend to the community and cause tensions. The results of this study and doing similar studies can help to identify the cause of these conflicts and provide the basis for empathy and the possibility of beneficial dialogue between different ideologies and thus ensure social stability.