Contestation of Religious Identity in the Cyber World: A Case Study of arrahmah.com and VOA Islam Dealing with Religious Others on Facebook

Akmal Mundiri*    -  Universitas Nurul Jadid, Indonesia
Moch Tohet  -  Universitas Nurul Jadid, Indonesia

(*) Corresponding Author

Religious identity frequently causes tensions that in turn lead to social polarization. Contestation and representation of religious identity not only hit the real world but also extend to virtual communities, which are part of a new form of identity contestation in the cyber era. This study uses an ethnographic approach focusing on the beliefs, language, values, rituals, customs, and behavior of people who interact in the community as the object of research. Thus, this study portrays the phenomenon of contestation of religious identity, both in the process of forming the identity (personal identity) of members or followers. The result of this study is that there is the process of forming religious identity on Facebook i.e., in the case of arrahmah.com and VOA Islam. Such process occurs because of the awareness of personal identity, in the form of aspects that differentiate others (self-categorization) and social identity in the form of religious identity that has been internalized through the interaction process in the group. While the demographic contestation of religious identity can be categorized into primary participators as creators of content and religious mindedness narratives, and secondary participators as members who are actively involved in consuming content, and lurkers as silent participants who are targeted by propaganda. The basic form of contestation in these two communities is exclusive religious understanding and views other groups as ‘the other’.

Keywords: cyber world; religious community; religious identity; social media; virtual contestation

  1. A’yun, P. Q. 2015. “Fenomena Remaja Menggunakan Media Sosial dalam Membentuk Identitas.” Jurnal Channel, 1–15.
  2. Afif, Afthonul. 2015. Teori Identitas Sosial. Yogyakarta: UII Press.
  3. Ardhianto, Imam. 2016. “Kontra Publik Keagamaan dalam Media Baru: Islam, Kebudayaan Populer, dan Media Sosial pada Gerakan #IndonesiaTanpaJIL.” Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia 37 (2). doi:https://doi.org/10.7454/ai.v37i2.8768.
  4. Baharun, Hasan, and Akmal Mundiri. 2001. Metodologi Studi Islam; Percikan Pemikiran Tokoh dalam Membumikan Agama. Yogyakarta: Arruzz Media.
  5. Barker, C. 2005. Cultural Studies; Teori dan Praktek. Yogyakarta: Kreasi Wacana.
  6. Beek, Martijn van. 2000. “Beyond Identity Fetishism: Communal Conflict in Ladakh and the Limits of Autonomy.” Cultural Anthropology 15 (4): 525–69. doi:10.2307/656621.
  7. Berger, J.M., and Jonathon Morgan. 2015. The ISIS Twitter Census: Defining and Describing the Population of ISIS Supporters on Twitter. Analysis Paper: The Brookinngs Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. Brookings: Center for Middle East Policy The Brookings Intitute.
  8. Capps, Walter H. 1995. Religious Studies: The Making of a Discipline. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
  9. Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. The Clash of Civilization and Remarking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  10. Irianti, Een. 2017. “Dampak Ketergantungan Media Sosial pada Kalangan Dystopian dan Utopian.” Communicatus: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi 1 (1): 67–78.
  11. Karman. 2014. “Media Sosial: Antara Kebebasan dan Eksploitasi Sosial Media.” Jurnal Studi Komunikasi dan Media 18 (1): 75.
  12. Klinken, Gerry Van, and Henk Schulte Nordholt. 2007. Politik Lokal di Indonesia. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.
  13. Koentjaraningrat. 1987. Sejarah Teori Antropologi. Jakarta: Penerbit Universitas Indonesia.
  14. Kusumaningrum, Demeiati Nur, Winda Hardyanti, and Hafid Adim Pradana. 2017. “Komunitas Digital AIMI dan Gerakan Sosial Berbasis Facebook.” Jurnal Islamic World and Politics 1 (1): 72.
  15. Mappiare, A. 2005. “Identitas Religius Perempuan Islam: Kajian dalam Perspektif Teori Kritik Ercih Fromm atas Pemakaian ‘Jilbab Modis’ Oleh Mahasiswi di Kampus Muhammadiyah Malang.” Universitas Airlangga.
  16. Marzuki. 1997. “Pendidikan Agama Islam di Perguruan Tinggi Umum dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Indonesia.” Cakrawala Pendidikan XVI (1).
  17. Musthofa. 2016. “Prinsip Dakwah Via Media Sosial.” Jurnal Aplikasia 16 (1): 51–55.
  18. Nasrullah, Rulli. 2014. Teori dan Riset Media Siber (Cybermedia). Jakarta: Kencana.
  19. PSBPS Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. 2018. “Radikalisme di Website dan Media Sosial.” In Ringkasan Eksekutif Program Convey Indonesia, edited by Convey Indonesia. Ciputat: PPIM UIN Jakarta.
  20. Raharjo, A. 2002. Cybercrime: Pemahaman dan Upaya Pencegahan Kejahatan Berteknologi. Bandung: Citra Aditya Bakti.
  21. Romdon. 1996. Metodologi Ilmu Perbandingan Agama. Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada.
  22. Sarlito, S. 2005. Psikologi Sosial. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka.
  23. Soenarno. 2002. Kekuatan Komunitas sebagai Pilar Pembangunan Nasional. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka.
  24. Sukamto, G. 2010. “Politik Identitas (Suatu Kajian Awal dalam Kerangka dan Interaksi ‘Lokalitas’ dan “Globalisasi).” Jurnal Sejarah dan Budaya 2 (2): 9–23.
  25. Tajrid, Amir. 2012. “Kebenaran Hegemonik Agama.” Walisongo: Jurnal Penelitian Sosial Keagamaan 20 (1): 193–210.
  26. The Policy Institute. 2018. “Respon Pembaca terhadap Publikasi Buletin Muslim Muda Indonesia.” In Ringkasan Eksekutif Program Convey Indonesia, 87–90. Ciputat: PPIM UIN Jakarta.
  27. Valentine, James. 1998. “Naming the Other: Power, Politeness and the Inflation of Euphemisms.” Sociological Research Online 3 (4): 1–17. doi:10.5153/sro.184.
  28. Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1995. The Modern World System III: The Second Era of Capitalist Great Expansion. London: Academic Press.
  29. Zaenuddin, Ahmad. 2018. “Kompetisi di Antara Situsweb Islam.” Tirto. https://tirto.id/kompetisi-di-antara-berbagai-situsweb-islam-cEHi.

Open Access Copyright (c) 2018 Akmal Mundiri, Moch Tohet
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Publisher:
Institute for Research and Community Services (LP2M)
Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang, Rectorate Building, 3rd Floor
Jl. Prof. Hamka - Kampus 3, Tambakaji Ngaliyan 50185, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia
Email: walisongo@walisongo.ac.id

 

 
apps