New Media and Religious Conversion out of Islam Among Celebrities in Indonesia
The Indonesian Journal of Southeast As ian Studies Vol. 3, No. 2, January 2020, pp. 189-199 ISSN 2580-6580, E-ISSN 2597-9817 New Media and Religious Conversion Out of Islam Among Celebrities in Indonesia Budiawan1 Media and Cultural Studies Program, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia Keywords Abstract New media; religious In Muslim-majority Indonesia religious conversion to Islam among conversion; celebrities; religious celebrities always makes it a piece of good news. Infotainment programs minorities of most TV channels broadcast it as their prime news. However, the opposite direction, namely the religious conversion out of Islam to other religions, is hardly possible to broadcast in conventional media such as TV, newspaper, radio, etc. It is a very sensitive issue, which could cause a mass outcry. Yet, such a phenomenon is easily found in a new media platform, such as YouTube. This paper explores the netizens’ responses to religious conversion out of Islam to Christianity among Indonesian celebrities. By scrutinizing this phenomenon, this paper aims to show to what extent new media provides a space for the religious minorities to speak for themselves. By closely reading their comments, this paper finds that in new media being a religious minority does not matter to represent themselves. Introduction terms to quite often inserting “Islamic” words in expressing their feeling and thoughts4. Such In Muslim-majority Indonesia2 religious portrayal of the new adherents of Islam is seen conversion to Islam among celebrities always as a part of the promotion of Islam as makes it good news. Infotainment programs of “superior/truthful” religion (dakwah), in the most TV channels broadcast it as their prime sense that it is a religion which has been able to news.3 The celebrities who have just converted transform the “messy, liberal and secular” life of to Islam are portrayed as the ones who have got the given celebrities – as it is publicly imaged - hidayah (or “spiritually enlightened”), as it - into a “religious/pious” one.
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