Media Portrayals of Islam and Muslims in Indonesia: A Modest Proposal

Current political issues related to power struggles in Indonesia play a divisive role, and escalating religious cases are common. With Muslims dominating the nation’s population, Islam inevitably plays a pivotal role in the country’s political pageant. Indonesian government claim that they managed to secure moderate Muslims’ loyalty to the political system, while groups that are labelled as ‘intolerant and radical Muslims’ by the mainstream media reject the mainstream democratic interpretations. Considering this situation, studies on factors contributing to the case and discourse strategies used in news and articles in secular and Islamic mass media dictating the current constructions of Muslim and Islamic identities in the country must be encouraged.