Visual Politics of Indonesian Islam
Contesting Digital Islamic Authority through Austerity and Parody
The contestation of religious authority in Indonesia's digital space is shifting from theological debate to a clash of two aesthetic regimes. I explore how Salafi and Garis Lucu groups construct contrasting forms of digital religious authority. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, I analyzed 12 visual units and selected audience interactions from @thesunnah_path, a Salafi-affiliated account, and @nugarislucu, a representative of the humorous faction, from January 2025 to January 2026. The data were analyzed through a synthesis of Alatas, Mahmood, and Bakhtin. The results show that Salafis implement "spiritual sanitation" through imperative aesthetics, triggering strict self-policing comments. In contrast, @nugarislucu implements "desacralizing carnivalesque" utilizing humor to generate inclusive laughter. This underlines that humor is not merely entertainment but also a political strategy of Digital Wasathiyyah to counter puritanical rigidity, marking an ontological shift where authority legitimacy now depends on the actor's ability to manage audience emotions through visual style.
References
Abdulloh, S. (2026). The Indonesian Goverment’s romanticization of local culture in religious moderation indicators: A critical discourse analysis. Al-Wasatiyah: Journal of Religious Moderation, 5(1), 33–58. https://doi.org/10.30631/ajrm.v5i1.4945
Akmaliah, W. (2025). Algorithmic religious authority: Digital Islamic preachers and mainstreaming the meaning of jihad. Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture, 14(3), 430–453. https://doi.org/10.1163/21659214-bja10157
Alam, L., Nurwahidin, N., Katni, K., & Suyurno, S. (2025). Digital religion: Social media and the spread of Salafi thought in Indonesia. Fikrah, 13(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.21043/fikrah.v13i1.30930
A’lan Tabaika, M., & Roibin, R. (2025). Digital dawah and the reconstruction of Islamic authority. Al-Balagh: Jurnal Dakwah Dan Komunikasi, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.22515/albalagh.v10i2.12116
Alatas, I. F. (2021). What is religious authority? Cultivating Islamic communities in Indonesia. Princeton University Press.
Ardiansyah, A., Firmansyah, H., & Aniq, A. F. (2025). The adaptation of cyber Salafism daʿwah in hadīth aḥkām literature: Analyzing ʿUmdat al-aḥkām sermons on the Yufid channel. Jurnal Ilmiah Islam Futura, 25(1), 263–284. https://doi.org/10.22373/jiif.v25i1.28991
Azra, A. (2004). The origins of Islamic reformism in Southeast Asia: Networks of Malay-Indonesian and Middle Eastern “Ulamā” in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Allen & Unwin University of Hawai’i press.
Bahri, M. Z. (2017). “Islamisme terselubung” versus moderat Islam: Mencermati geliat radio-radio dakwah di Batam. In D. Wahid & J. Makruf (Eds.), Suara Salafisme: Radio dakwah di Indonesia (pp. 11–60). Pusat Pengkajian Islam dan Masyarakat UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta; Prenadamedia Group.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and his world (1st Midland book ed). Indiana University Press.
Campbell, H. A. (2013). Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds. Routledge.
Chozin, M. A. (2015). Strategi dakwah Salafi di Indonesia. Jurnal Dakwah, 14(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.14421/jd.2013.14101
Dewi, A. S., & Sujibto, B. J. (2024). Laughing at religious radicalism: How memes promote interfaith, multiculturalism and nationalism. Simulacra, 7(2), 209–224. https://doi.org/10.21107/sml.v7i2.27240
Efendi, A. (2021). Humor analysis of ideological discussion in Twitter account interactions @NUgarislucu and @MuhammadiyinGL. International Journal of English and Applied Linguistic, 2(11).
Febrian, H. (2024). Visualizing authority: Rise of the religious influencers on the Instagram. Social Media + Society, 10(4), 20563051241286850. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241286850
Fiqri, U. P. (2020). Dialog humor antargama dan politik. Jurnal Riset Mahasiswa Dakwah dan Komunikasi, 2(1).
Halimatusa’diyah, I. (2012). Religious celebrity: The metamorphosis of Islamic preachers in Indonesia. Jurnal Indo-Islamika, 2(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.15408/idi.v2i1.1658
Hasan, N. (2007). The Salafi movement in Indonesia: Transnational dynamics and local development. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 27(1), 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201x-2006-045
Hasan, N. (2009). The making of public Islam: Piety, agency, and commodification on the landscape of the Indonesian public sphere. Contemporary Islam, 3(3), 229–250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-009-0096-9
Hidayatullah, A. (2019). Inklusifitas dakwah akun @NUgarislucu di media sosial. Islamic Communication Journal, 4(2), 183. https://doi.org/10.21580/icj.2019.4.2.4019
Hjarvard, S. (2011). The mediatisation of religion: Theorising religion, media and social change. Culture and Religion, 12(2), 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2011.579719
Hoesterey, J. B. (2021). Nahdlatul Ulama’s “Funny Brigade”: Piety, satire, and Indonesian online divides. CyberOrient, 15(1), 85–118. https://doi.org/10.1002/cyo2.8
Iqbal, A. M. (2014). Internet, identity and Islamic movements: The case of Salafism in Indonesia. Islamika Indonesiana, 1(1), 81–105. https://doi.org/10.15575/isin.v1i1.42
Istiqomah, D., Rusidi, M., & Yensi, O. (2025). Tafsir digital: Antara adaptasi dan krisis otoritas keagamaan. Lathaif: Literasi Tafsir, Hadis Dan Filologi, 4(1), 41. https://doi.org/10.31958/lathaif.v4i1.15416
Ja’far, A. (2023). The new visibility of the Salafi da’wah in the “digital space”: Fundamentalism and political identity in the post Suharto. Addin, 17(2), 233. https://doi.org/10.21043/addin.v17i2.20227
Kamali, M. H. (2015). The middle path of moderation in Islam: The Qur’anic principle of Wasatiyyah. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226831.001.0001
Kress, G. R., & van Leeuwen, T. (2010). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed., reprint). Routledge.
Kulsum, U., Subhan, A., & Darajat, D. M. (2021). Praktik dakwah online di media sosial (studi kasus pada akun Instagram @KHALIDBASALAMAHOFFICIAL). Virtu: Jurnal Kajian Komunikasi, Budaya dan Islam, 1(1), 40–65. https://doi.org/10.15408/virtu.v1i1.21749
Lim, M. (2017). Freedom to hate: Social media, algorithmic enclaves, and the rise of tribal nationalism in Indonesia. Critical Asian Studies, 49(3), 411–427. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2017.1341188
Machin, D., & Mayr, A. (2012). How to do critical discourse analysis: A multimodal introduction. Sage.
Mahmood, S. (2005). Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton University Press.
Millie, J. P. (2012). Oratorical innovation and audience heterogeneity in Islamic West Java. Indonesia, 93, 123–145. https://doi.org/10.5728/indonesia.93.0123
Misbah, A. (2019). Fun and religious authority: Socializing anti-music on Instagram. Jurnal Masyarakat & Budaya, 21(2), 149–168. https://doi.org/10.14203/jmb.v21i2.819
Muary, R., Susanti, N., & Atikah, P. (2025). Salafis and social media: The emergence of Islamic populism in Indonesia. Jurnal Sosiologi Agama, 18(2), 151–170. https://doi.org/10.14421/jsa.2024.182-02
Muhasyim, & Putra, A. A. (2024). Meme sebagai media dakwah: Analisis konten Memeislam.id di kalangan milenial. El Madani: Jurnal Dakwah Dan Komunikasi Islam, 5(1), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.53678/elmadani.v5i01.1723
Mukarromah, M. (2024). Islam santuy in cyberspace: Existence, contestation and resistance. Al-Jadwa: Jurnal Studi Islam, 4(1), 130–145. https://doi.org/10.38073/aljadwa.v4i1.2199
Nisa, E. F. (2018). Creative and lucrative daʿwa: The visual culture of Instagram amongst female Muslim youth in Indonesia. Asiascape: Digital Asia, 5(1–2), 68–99. https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-12340085
Nisa, K. (2023). Humour as a counter Islamist discourse. Epistemé: Jurnal Pengembangan Ilmu Keislaman, 18(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.21274/epis.2023.18.1.1-25
Noor, F. A. (2015). Popular religiosity in Indonesia today: The next step after ‘Islam kultural’? Al-Jami’ah: Journal of Islamic Studies, 53(2), 33. https://doi.org/10.14421/ajis.2015.532.33-52
Nursyabani, M. (2024). From Saudi to social media: Arabization of Islam via Salafi Instagram accounts in Indonesia. Afkaruna: Indonesian Interdisciplinary Journal of Islamic Studies, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.18196/afkaruna.v20i2.23730
Pangestu, P. P., & Ulum, M. B. (2022). Konten “pemuda tersesat” dan pengaruhnya terhadap efektivitas dakwah masa kini. AT-TABSYIR: Jurnal Komunikasi Penyiaran Islam, 9(1), 39. https://doi.org/10.21043/at-tabsyir.v9i1.13599
Pramana, M. A. (2023). Salafi online: Dakwah Salafi pada akun Instagram @dakwah_tauhid. Idarotuna, 5(1), 63. https://doi.org/10.24014/idarotuna.v5i1.22792
Putra, T. M., & Febriana, P. (2022). Organization student perceptions about comedy da’wah on Instagram. Indonesian Journal of Innovation Studies, 21. https://doi.org/10.21070/ijins.v21i.821
Romadhon, S., & Saputra, A. W. (2021). Humor sebagai strategi moderasi umat beragama pascateror bom Makasar 2021. Tatar Pasundan: Jurnal Diklat Keagamaan, 15(2), 154–165. https://doi.org/10.38075/tp.v15i2.231
Sanjaya, M., Bakti, A. F., Sigid, R. R., & Nasrullah, R. (2022). The practice of digital capitalism and the commodification of the Salafi community on Instagram Rodjatv. International Journal of Environmental, Sustainability, and Social Science, 3(3), 577–591. https://doi.org/10.38142/ijesss.v3i3.248
Schmidt, L. (2021). Aesthetics of authority: ‘Islam Nusantara’ and Islamic ‘radicalism’ in Indonesian film and social media. Religion, 51(2), 237–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2020.1868387
Sunaryanto, S., Rizal, S., & Mulyono, E. (2023). Reading the ideology of Salafi da’wah: Media technology perspective. Analisis: Jurnal Studi Keislaman, 23(1), 21–46. https://doi.org/10.24042/ajsk.v23i1.14466
Sunesti, Y., Hasan, N., & Najib Azca, M. (2019). The sunnah lake of Muslimah: Salafi women, the manhaj and online media. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 6(3), 67–71. https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2018.6310
Syatar, A., Hasyim, B., Rahmatullah, Saputra, A. T., & M. Ilham. (2024). Religious authority in the age of Instagram: Unveiling the contestation of Islamic discourses. Jurnal Adabiyah, 24(2), 182–201. https://doi.org/10.24252/jad.v24i2a3
Tasman, T. (2019). Radio Rodja: Kontestasi ideologi Salafi di ranah siaran. Dakwah: Jurnal Kajian Dakwah Dan Kemasyarakatan, 22(2), 151–177. https://doi.org/10.15408/dakwah.v22i2.12066
Turner, B. S. (2007). Religious authority and the new media. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(2), 117–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276407075001
Wafi, M. H., Hidayati, M., & Usman, S. (2025). The reproduction of salafism in the online ecosystem: Strengthening of Indonesian salafi groups. Multidisciplinary Science Journal, 8(2), 2026128. https://doi.org/10.31893/multiscience.2026128
Wahid, D. (2012). Challenging religious authority: The emergence of Salafi ustadhs in Indonesia. Journal of Indonesian Islam, 6(2), 245. https://doi.org/10.15642/JIIS.2012.6.2.245-264
Watson, C. W. (2005). A popular Indonesian preacher: The significance of Aa Gymnastiar. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 11(4), 773–792. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2005.00261.x
Zaenuri, A., & Yusuf, H. (2019). Salafi’s da’wah and the phenomenon of religious piety among hijrah artists. Millati: Journal of Islamic Studies and Humanities, 4(2), 228–249. https://doi.org/10.18326/mlt.v4i2.228-249
Zayyadi, A., Hasan, Z., & Kasrim, K. (2025). Contesting religious authority in the post-truth era through a case study of fatwas issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council and online preachers. West Science Islamic Studies, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.58812/wsiss.v3i04.2344
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
© 2026 Syahid Abdulloh (Author)The author retains the copyright and grants the journal the right of first publication of the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal
