Ali Ridho, dkk. Reducing the Politicization of Religion Perada: Jurnal Studi Islam Kawasan Melayu ISSN 2656-7202 (P) ISSN 2655-6626 (O) Volume 6 Nomor 1. Januari-Juni 2023 DOI: https://doi. org/10. 35961/perada. REDUCING THE POLITICIZATION OF RELIGION AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MINORITY GROUPS AHEAD OF THE 2024 POLITICAL YEAR IN INDONESIA FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF DIGITAL MEDIA Ali Ridho The Sultan Abdurrahman Riau Archipelago Islamic College Email: ridhoali975@gmail. Aidillah Suja The Sultan Abdurrahman Riau Archipelago Islamic College Email: aidillahsuja87@gmail. Akhmad RifaAoi Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University Email: akhmad. rifai@uin-suka. Muhammed Sharin Haji Masri Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University Email: sahrin. masri@unissa. ABSTRACT Indonesian people have lived together in a socio-religious context in a peaceful atmosphere, full of tolerance within the framework of diversity, and prioritizing religious values. However, this peace and harmony turned into conflict, hostility, and discrimination, which was triggered by political elites using religion through identity politics and the politicization of religion to gain power in the 2019 legislative and presidential elections, which started with the fire that was ignited in the 2017 DKI Pilkada. This article uses a qualitative type virtual ethnographic method and literature review in obtaining main data derived from the search results, collection, and processing of sixty reputable national and international scientific journals, general and religiousbased online news websites, to social media platforms. Digital media has become a battle arena that legitimizes narratives of the politicization of religion and identity politics which ultimately lead to social turmoil with political and religious nuances so that a series of strategies are needed by the government, religious leaders, and a plural society that are concerned about these conditions in moderating the digital world and digitalization-based cross-cultural religious literacy in the form of positive-inclusive content that is massive and has a large flow so that it exalts the political narrative of humanity which becomes the spirit of politics until finally a soothing social and digital media climate is created without any negative tendencies that become seeds of discrimination and conflict when elections come. Perada: Jurnal Studi Islam Kawasan Melayu. Vol. No. Juni 2023 http://ejournal. id/index. php/perada Ali Ridho, dkk. Reducing the Politicization of Religion Keywords: Reduction. Politicization of Religion. Minority Discrimination. Politics 2024. Digital INTRODUCTION Indonesia will hold another general election in 2024. 1 The excitement and interest had begun to be felt long before the hot political year came. However, another thing that is considered to need serious attention is the emergence of the discourse on the politicization of 2 Religion on the other hand has an interesting side when photographed from the perspective of political interests, religion has one trait that is not owned by other entities, namely dogma. In addition, religion also has a concept of martyrdom that makes it used as an instrument of political movements in the history of politics in the name of religion to compete for electoral bubbles of power. 4 Especially in the era of democracy where electoral forces have become the main weapon for the political interests of the elites and their parties. The slogan echoed by political elites affiliated with evil religionists in the form of "dying for religion leads to heaven" has become the mainstream that floods the stage of political speeches and digital media every political year. Religion can be likened to a kitchen knife that can be used to slice onions or stab people. Religion when it intersects SAMOSIR OSBIN. ADemocracy. Political Identity, and the Fate of Minority Politics: Reflections Towards IndonesiaAS National Concurrent Elections in 2024A. Globus: Social Sciences, 2. , 14Ae22 . 2 Mathias Daven. APOLITIK ATAS NAMA ALLAHA. Jurnal Ledalero, 18. , 22 . 3 Imron Mustofa. ASaeculum-Mundus Politik Indonesia: Satu Kajian Filosofis Dalam Perspektif Nurcholish MadjidA. Hayula: Indonesian Journal of Multidisciplinary Islamic Studies, 5. 221Ae42 . 8 Bryan S Turner. AReligious Authority and the New MediaA. Theory. Culture & Society, 24. 117Ae34 . 9 Siavosh Sahebi and Paul Formosa. ASocial Media and Its Negative Impacts on AutonomyA. Philosophy and Technology, 35. 1Ae24 . 10 Oksiana Jatiningsih. Windita Mei Bella Averina, and Miftakhul Hidayah. AControlling Hoax of Covid-19: Capturing Moral Messages from Social EventsA. Proceedings of the Annual Civic Education Conference (ACEC 2. , 636. Acec 2021 273Ae77 . Perada: Jurnal Studi Islam Kawasan Melayu. Vol. No. Juni 2023 http://ejournal. id/index. php/perada Ali Ridho, dkk. Reducing the Politicization of Religion Content analysis is particularly useful in a situation where there is a large amount of unanalyzed textual data, such as that which has been collected by digital media researchers as part of research and Like other research methods, content analysis has three basic principles: objectivity, systematicity, and 19 The content analysis method in this context is used to analyze the phenomenon of religious moderation and cross-cultural religious literacy in the digital world with the aim of reducing the discourse of religious politicization and discrimination against religious groups and minorities ahead of the 2024 political year in Indonesia. DISCOURSE RELIGIOUS POLITICIZATION AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MINORITY GROUPS Democracy in Indonesia will again experience political contestation with the upcoming general elections in 2024. The issue and discourse of political parties born from certain religious ideologies to collaborate or coalition again in repeating the elections in 2014 and 2019 has Identity politics, which has a bad track record in politics in Indonesia, seems to hope to be repeated by politicians in achieving victory. As a country that upholds democracy. Indonesia provides guarantees and freedom for political parties to have political ideologies. Law No. 2 of 2011 on political parties provides a way for political parties to use certain ideologies and identities as long as the ideologies and identities used do not violate established rules, including in this case 19 Vanessa Woodward Griffin and O. Hayden Griffin. AContent AnalysisA. The Encyclopedia of Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice: Volume II: Parts 5-8, 2008, 2021, 375Ae80 . and shows no sign of being fully healed. The barriers and walls as a result of the use of religion and minority groups in the political agenda are still very thick, high, and strong in providing distance and separating fellow children of the nation, which is difficult to recover. The use of identity politics by politicians and their coalition is an old agenda and contradicts eastern politics that prioritizes nobility and courtesy, not focusing on narrating religious sentiments that imprison and kill common sense. The discourse on the use of identity politics will only make this nation repeat a dark history that is counterproductive in welcoming the brilliance of the future. As a discourse that will still be carried out, it is already negative, especially if it is actually Then, political elites should have a firm stance not to use political speeches that lead to identity politics, the use of religious figures for provocative religious lectures at pulpits and places of worship, the use of campaign posters and billboards that contain SARA, to the spread of hate speech through anonymous accounts and political buzzers on social . 26 When these things cannot be avoided by political elites and their followers, it is difficult to avoid public uproar in the implementation of elections. Another pattern of religious politicization can be seen when there is a struggle for the authenticity of religious practices that come from the same religion, for example Islam. Legitimacy is obtained from the 25 Iswandi Syahputra. ASEARCH Journal of Media and Communication Research Expressions of Hatred and the Formation of Spiral of Anxiety on Social Media in Indonesia * Iswandi SyahputraA, 11. , 95Ae112 . 28 Muhammad Turhan Yani and others. AAdvancing the Discourse of Muslim Politics in Indonesia: A Study on Political Orientation of Kiai as Religious Elites in Nahdlatul UlamaA. Heliyon, . . of the ministry of religion which appears to be dominant in the wheels of government, religious fatwa institutions that receive large amounts of funding from the government, to religion-based regional regulations that remain in effect and are strictly maintained. 30 Thus, religiosity is no longer the identity of religion, but also becomes one with the identity of the state. 31 At its peak, the role of religion became dominant in the lives of Indonesians as an identity. The number of religious mass organizations in Indonesia is also considered to be a factor in the politicization of religion. 32 Religious organizations are varied with all their roles and become pillars of Indonesianness and democracy. The religious organizations that the author refers to are not only those that have an Islamic religious background, but also those that represent the six recognized religions in Indonesia. Then, it is still added by organizations with nationalist, regional, and tribal directions that are evenly distributed in almost all major cities in Indonesia. INFORMATION FRAMING BY DIGITAL MEDIA Mass and digital media essentially have inherent characteristics including Negara Hukum. Pada Era, and Otonomi Daerah. APeraturan Daerah Berbasis Syari A Ah Dalam Perspektif Negara Hukum Pada Era Otonomi Daerah (A, 2020. 31 SUNNY TANUWIDJAJA. APolitical Islam and Islamic Parties in Indonesia: Critically Assessing the Evidence of IslamAs Political DeclineA. Pacific Affairs, 32. , 29Ae49 . Ahmad Najib Burhani. AFundamentalism and Religious Dissent: The LPPIAs Mission to Eradicate the Ahmadiyya in IndonesiaA. Indonesia and the Malay World, 44. 145Ae64 . 36 Yasmin Jamali. Ghazala Shoukat, and Rameez Ali Mahesar. AComparative Study of Democratic Performance of News Media in reality taken is the life of a minority of a particular religious group, but in the creation and distribution of information and news to the public only takes on certain aspects of the overall reality of the religious group. Meanwhile, framing analysis is an effort made by connoisseurs of information and news in dissecting and looking more deeply at how the media works to present a reality that has been constructed in such a way, even on facts that become the media's main concentration in reporting. So, framing can be concluded as a method that the media does in packaging or framing a case, event, incident, and reality to be presented to the public. The issue of minority groups experiencing discrimination framed in different ways by different media can produce different interpretations and conclusions in the public. Thus, framing is closely related to the slanting of public opinion, the breakdown of perceptions and interpretations, and the psychological part of the audience desired by the maker of information and news. With the prominent construction of one or two realities in the news carried out by the media against certain religious minority groups, eventually there is a blurring of the dominance of other realities. For example, in a series of shooting cases in the United States that occurred in public spaces and educational institutions, media framing took the role of creating a blurring of the dominant reality, until finally the shooting cases in the United States repeated themselves every time without any concrete efforts to solve Pakistan: Analysis of Framing TheoryA. Ilkogretim Online, . , 6897Ae6906 . 39 Bruno Arayjo and Hylder Prior. AFraming Political Populism: The Role of Media in Framing the Election of Jair BolsonaroA. Journalism Practice, 15. , 226Ae42 . 41 Wonhyuk Cho and Winda Dwi Melisa. ACitizen Coproduction and Social Media Communication: Delivering Municipal GovernmentAs Urban Services through Digital ParticipationA. Administrative Sciences, 11. . 42 Bayu Kharisma. ASurfing Alone? The Internet and Social Capital: Evidence from IndonesiaA. Journal of Economic Structures, 11. . public consumption almost every day not only when the general election is approaching, but also in certain periods and times according to the owner's MODERATE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES SPEAK UP In the history of the development of religious understanding in Indonesia, there are at least 5 . major currents of religious models including liberal, moderate, conservative. Islamist, and radical or extremist. 43 The liberal group is a religious model that actively voices thoughts in the form of dissatisfaction with reason, tradition, norms that are considered too given restrictions by Muslim groups who are the majority (Ahlussunnah wal jamaa. , then a moderate religious model is a religious life that synergizes between reason and revelation, respect for good traditions and culture of society, and tolerance between community groups with the main goal of obtaining common benefits and avoiding mafsadah . ad effect. Furthermore, there are conservative and Islamist religious groups, namely religious groups that make the traditions and culture of the Arab nation (Middle Eas. 43 Muhammad Parhan. Risris Hari Nugraha, and Mohammad Rindu Fajar Islamy. AModel of Religious Moderation in Universities: Alternative Solution to Liberal. Literal and Radical IslamA. EDUKASIA ISLAMIKA Model of Religious Moderation in Universities : Alternative, 7. Agus Ahmad Safei. APromoting Moderate Islam in a Global Community through the AuEnglish for UlamaAy ProgrammeA. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 77. , 1Ae 8 . Perada: Jurnal Studi Islam Kawasan Melayu. Vol. No. Juni 2023 http://ejournal. id/index. php/perada Ali Ridho, dkk. Reducing the Politicization of Religion at the time of the Prophet Muhammad and the generations of companions as a duplication that must be used formally and campaign actively to the public about the obligation of Islam to be used as a political system in order to realize a literal Islamic state. 47 Radical and extremist groups become the last religious model that carries out propaganda and violence in the name of certain religions to realize religious visions and missions according to the version they have. The religious model above was born not only as a representation of one particular religion (Isla. , but other major and recognized religions in the world have also been proven to be liberal to extremist. Jews who justify the colonization, attack, and murder of Palestinian citizens. Hindus in India who build power through political governance, narratives that last hundreds of years as an inherited myth of past history, and other major religions. 49 Then, there are various characteristics that can be observed from the religious model that has led to conservative. Islamist, and radical-extremist, namely being apathetic to the development of the modern world Syafiq Hasyim. AState and Religion: Considering Indonesian Islam as Model of Democratisation for the Muslim WorldA. Colloquium on Models of Secularism, 2013, 1Ae32 . 47 Harleen K Gambhir. ADabiq: The Strategic Messaging of the Islamic StateA. Backgrounder, 1Ae12 . Perada: Jurnal Studi Islam Kawasan Melayu. Vol. No. Juni 2023 http://ejournal. id/index. php/perada Ali Ridho, dkk. Reducing the Politicization of Religion authenticity of the sources referred to cannot be accounted for. In addition, ordinary people in Indonesia are also more massive to surf through social media Twitter. Instagram. TikTok, and so on, where through these media channels, ultra-conservative religious groups are found to show their activities quite The religious content followed by the cyberspace community is generally incomplete, even though it is serialized, because the content is similar to political demagogy that attacks the opponent, does not invite reflection, but is a Content that is able to go viral and get the main attention of the public is a religious lecture in the form of a slant towards religious polarization, and all aim to go viral due to the characteristics of digital media called the principle of digital darwinism . he survival of the most vira. Thus, religious lectures end up being controversial, sensational, polemical and extreme in order to get attention. The religious content obtained is not actually religious, but political. Although the content refers to the books of the heavenly religions, it has been produced based on the triumphalistic spirit and flavored with the political dichotomy of friends and foes. This is attractive and exciting for the audience, as it is similar to football and boxing matches in that it is easy to catch and has a clear picture of the enemy . Thus, the virality of such polarizing lectures is a result programmed by social media algorithms that ultimately brings profit to media companies, as the more controversial the content, the more profitable it is. Then, the themes carried are generally about religious knowledge regarding bid'ah in the worship rituals of the majority Muslims, polygamy, sharia trading, and politicization of religion 52. 52 M. Khusna Amal. AAnti-Shia Mass Mobilization in IndonesiaAs Democracy: Godly Thus, the digital world in the industrial 0 has occupied a crucial, farreaching role, and turned into a battleground between religious, social, and political ideas. In the end, it becomes quite a challenge in exercising control and spreading influence, despite the fact that individuals and groups who have concerns about religious minority groups have been busy speaking out, in contrast to the previous few years, which was known as the silent majority, namely transnational groups and conservative religious sellers with light mouths and actions to commit infidelity, liberal 54 In these conditions and situations, the majority group seems to have been victimized by their silence, growing fear, and inability to fight back as a consequence of being persecuted and However, after the HTI and FPI groups were successfully suppressed and disbanded by the government after a long process, considering the voices of people who were tired and jaded by the behavior of their leaders and followers. The dissolution has led to a downward trend in social media aspirations . by these groups, as evidenced by the disappearance of social media accounts that originally voiced and narrated hostility in the name of religion loudly have turned anonymous. On the contrary, a new model of labeling by Alliance. Militant Groups and the Politics of ExclusionA. Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies, . , 25Ae48 . 53 Muhammad Zainal Abidin and Yulia Hafizah. AConflict and Integration in The SalafiWahabi Purification Movement in South KalimantanA. Wawasan: Jurnal Ilmiah Agama Dan Sosial Budaya, . , 191Ae201 . 61 Demeiati Nur Kusumaningrum and Tri Sulistyaningsih. AThe Internalization of Nationalism and Pancasila for Teenager as the Value to Living in the Era of Digital TransformationA. Journal of Community Service and Empowerment, 3. , 1Ae10. nalized groups and minorities. Meanwhile, the struggles and problems in the rising political temperature occur in a large ecosystem, namely the digital media Digital media has taken a significant role in the efforts of political elites and their supporters to gain victory by using it as a means of self-proclaiming and campaigning to build self-image to the public to be willing to be part of and support the political elite. The essential value of politics is the humanity that can be maintained closely without any attempt to discredit one 62 Do not repeat the tragedy of division against the culture of people who have different political principles in future elections. As a result of the tension that occurs between political elites, it results in the abrasion of disputes among the middle and lower classes, especially in the realm of digital media. Narratives and behaviors that are hostile to each other have become a common sight as a result of the political power struggle that takes place every five years. Departing from this phenomenon, it is appropriate for the community and the elite to reflect and carefully absorb the principles of democracy, politics, and humanity of KH. Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Du. during his time as a leader and cleric (Kya. in this country. Gus Dur is a fundamental figure of the nation and state who has an attitude of not taking political positions excessively and desperately, and Gus Dur is a religious politician who is able to get along and build good relations with his political opponents who have succeeded in building a structured and systematic evil conspiracy in bringing Gus Dur down from the seat of the legitimate President 62 Imam Ghozali. AThe Criticism of the Political Model of HumanityAs Twitter NU Garis Lucu Against Intolerant Groups GovernmentA, . , 1Ae11