Strengthening Religious Moderation: Learning from the Harmony of Multireligious People in Indonesia
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Religious moderation is an urgent entity for Indonesian people because they are multireligious. Hence, this qualitative study aimed to explore the religious moderation factors of multireligious people residing in the Sekaran, Rama Agung, and Cigugur villages of Indonesia and to analyze the people’s most vital factors of religious moderation. Fifteen religious and communal leaders from the three villages were purposively involved as the participants. An interactive model was adopted to analyze the data from interviews and focus group discussions. This study found five factors of religious moderation exhibited by Sekaran people, namely the principle of togetherness, socio-religious traditions, social traditions related to the values of the Indonesian Republic, and family. Rama Agung people showcased three factors: accepting the reality of differences, putting aside exclusivity, and upholding the harmony of life. Cigugur people demonstrated ten factors extending to family, awareness of moderation, mutual respect, tolerance, internalization of multiculturalism, good communication, socio-religious traditions, cultural ties, social relations, and interactions with cultural traditions. Furthermore, three latent and generalizable factors of religious moderation were codified as the strongest. They entailed upholding the principle of togetherness, accepting the reality of differences, and having mutual respect.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
• Arphattananon, T. (2018). Multicultural education in Thailand. Intercultural Education, 29(2), 149–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2018.1430020
• Birhan, W., Shiferaw, G., Amsalu, A., Tamiru, M., & Tiruye, H. (2021). Exploring the context of teaching character education to children in preprimary and primary schools. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 4(1), Article 100171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100171
• Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching: A practical introduction for teachers. The Council of Europe. https://rm.coe.int/16802fc1c3
• Byram, M., & Wenger, M. (2018). Making a difference: Language teaching for intercultural and international dialogue. Foreign Language Annals, 51(1), 140–151. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12319
• Chandra, P., & Sulistia, D. (2020). Pola penanaman toleransi melalui interaksi sosial berbasis multikultural [The pattern of cultivating tolerance through multicultural-based social interactions]. Fenomena, 19(2), 176–196. https://doi.org/10.35719/FENOMENA.V19I2.40
• Chen, G.-M., & Starosta, W. J. (2000). The development and validation of the intercultural sensitivity scale. Human Communication, 3(1), 3–14. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/com_facpubs/36/
• Çokgezen, M. (2022). Can the state make you more religious? Evidence from Turkish experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 61(2), 349–373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12785
• Datta, R. (2019). Sustainability: Through cross-cultural community garden activities. Local Environment, 24(8), 762–776. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2019.1641073
• Davids, N. (2017). Islam, moderation, radicalism, and justly balanced communities. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 37(3), 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2017.1384672
• Deardorff, D. K. (2009). The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence. SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Djuniasih, E., & Kosasih, A. (2019). Penerapan karakter toleransi beragama pada masyarakat Cigugur yang pluralism [The application of religious tolerance character amidst the pluralistic society of Cigugur]. Jurnal Pendidikan Karakter, 10(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.21831/JPK.V0I1.22987
• Dunn, A. H. (2017). Refusing to be co-opted: Revolutionary multicultural education amidst global neoliberalisation. Intercultural Education, 28(4), 356–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2017.1345275
• Foucault, M. (1999). Religion and Culture (J. R. Carrette, Ed.). Routledge.
• Hamdani, M. F. (2022). Interpretation verse of religious moderation: Systematic library review meaning of Ummatan Wasathan in Qs. 2: 143. SIASAT, 7(1), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.33258/siasat.v7i1.112
• Hanafi, Y., Arifianto, M. L., Saefi, M., Mahliatussikah, H., Anam, F. K., Hassan, A. R., & Hidayatullah, M. F. (2022). Sentiment prevalence on Jihad, Caliphate, and Bid’ah among Indonesian students: Focusing on moderate-radical Muslim group tension. Cogent Social Sciences, 8(1), Article 2054532. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2022.2054532
• Hefner, R. W. (2020). Islam and covenantal pluralism in Indonesia: A critical juncture analysis. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 18(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2020.1753946
• Hook, J. N., Farrell, J. E., Johnson, K. A., Van Tongeren, D. R., Davis, D. E., & Aten, J. D. (2017). Intellectual humility and religious tolerance. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(1), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1167937
• Hurriyah, H. (2020). Dynamics of shrinking religious freedom in post-reformasi Indonesia. JSEAHR: Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights, 4(2), 335–356. https://doi.org/10.19184/jseahr.v4i2.19546
• Iqbal, M., O’Brien, K. S., & Bliuc, A.-M. (2022). The relationship between existential anxiety, political efficacy, extrinsic religiosity and support for violent extremism in Indonesia. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2022.2034221
• Jannah, A. (2018). Perilaku masyarakat multi agama dalam kehidupan bertetangga desa sekaran Kec. Kayen Kidul Kab. Kediri [The behavior of the multireligious community in neighboring life in Sekaran village in Kayen Kidul Regency of Kediri]. Asketik: Jurnal Agama Dan Perubahan Sosial, 2(2), 121–127. https://doi.org/10.30762/ask.v2i2.880
• Jantzen, C. A. (2020). Two perspectives on togetherness: Implications for multicultural education. Multicultural Education Review, 12(1), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/2005615X.2020.1720136
• Jeon, K. S., & Choi, B. K. (2021). Workplace spirituality, organizational commitment, and life satisfaction: the moderating role of religious affiliation. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 34(5), 1125–1143. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-01-2021-0012
• Kirkpatrick, A., & Liddicoat, A. J. (2017). Language education policy and practice in East and Southeast Asia. Language Teaching, 50(2), 155–188. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444817000027
• Kramsch, C. (2013). Culture in foreign language teaching. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 1(1), 57–78. https://ijltr.urmia.ac.ir/article_20453.html
• Kurniawan, R. G., & Bijaksana, M. A. (2020). Building related words in Indonesian and English translation of Al-Qur’an vocabulary based on distributional similarity. Jurnal Teknologi Informasi Dan Terapan, 7(1), 46–53. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10/25047/jtit.v7i1.135
• Lebang, H. T. H. (2022). Spirituality of moderation: Ecumenical responses to human greed – An Indonesian experience. International Review of Mission, 111(1), 56–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12414
• Marpuah, M. (2019). Toleransi dan interaksi sosial antar pemeluk agama di Cigugur, Kuningan [Tolerance and social interaction among religious adherents in Cigugur, Kuningan]. Harmoni, 18(2), 51–72. https://doi.org/10.32488/HARMONI.V18I2.309
• Matua, G. A., & Van Der Wal, D. M. (2015). Differentiating between descriptive and interpretive phenomenological research approaches. Nurse Researcher, 22(6), 22–27. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr.22.6.22.e1344
• Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Rahayu, L. R., & Lesmana, P. S. W. (2020). Potensi peran perempuan dalam mewujudkan moderasi beragama di Indonesia [The potential role of women in realizing religious moderation in Indonesia]. Pustaka: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Budaya, 20(1), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.24843/PJIIB.2020.v20.i01.p05
• Rostiyati, A. (2019). Toleransi keragaman pada masyarakat Cigugur Kuningan [Diversity tolerance in the Cigugur Kuningan community]. Patanjala, 11(1), 65–80. https://doi.org/10.30959/patanjala.v11i1.467
• Sandal, N. A. (2021). Framing religious outbidding: Al-Qaida, Islamic state, and intra-religious competition. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 22(3–4), 461–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2021.1968841
• Scheitle, C. P., & Cornell, N. (2015). Hearing clergy speak about social and political issues: Examining the effects of religious tradition and personal interest. Social Science Quarterly, 96(1), 148–160. https://doi.org/10.1111/SSQU.12139
• Smith, E. R. (2022). Does moderation by perceived normativeness of religion occur at the individual level or the country level? Religion, Brain & Behavior, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2070246
• Warsah, I. (2020). Forgiveness viewed from positive psychology and Islam. Islamic Guidance and Counseling Journal, 3(2), 108–121. https://doi.org/10.25217/igcj.v3i2.878
• Warsah, I. (2021). Jihad and radicalism: Epistemology of Islamic education at pesantren al-furqan in Musi Rawas district. Jurnal Ilmiah Islam Futura, 21(2), 152–169. https://doi.org/10.22373/jiif.v21i2.7683
• Warsah, I., Masduki, Y., Imron, I., Daheri, M., & Morganna, R. (2019). Muslim minority in Yogyakarta: Between social relationship and religious motivation. Qudus International Journal of Islamic Studies, 7(2), 367–398. https://doi.org/10.21043/qijis.v7i2.6873
• Wilson, T. (1970). Normative and Interpretive Paradigms in Sociology. In J. Douglas (Ed.), Everyday Life: Reconstruction of Social Knowledge (pp. 57–79). Routledge.
• Yahya, P., & Montessori, M. (2019). Social integration of multi-ethnic and religious communities in the village of Rama Agung district of Arga Makmur North Bengkulu. Fikri : Jurnal Kajian Agama, Sosial Dan Budaya, 4(2), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.25217/JF.V4I2.574