Digital Religious Discourse: Constructing Legitimacy and Counter-Narratives in Islami.co
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15408/mimbar.v42i1.48924Keywords:
digital religious discourse, critical discourse analysis, Islamic authority, counter-publics, Islami.coAbstract
Digital controversies around Al-Māʾidah 5:51 and the Ahok case have sharpened struggles over Qur’anic authority in Indonesia’s public sphere. This article examines how the progressive portal Islami.co constructs religious legitimacy and counter-narratives in this context. Using qualitative critical discourse analysis, it analyzes fourteen opinion and expository articles on verse politicization, Qur’an translation, and digital daʿwah, applying Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and van Leeuwen’s legitimation categories. The study finds three mechanisms of legitimation: (1) semantic reframing of key terms such as awliyāʾ/wali; (2) intertextual authority through selective use of classical tafsīr, fiqh, and contemporary scholarship; and (3) moral evaluation foregrounding justice, maṣlaḥah, and plural coexistence. These strategies underwrite counter-narratives that decouple voting for non-Muslim leaders from accusations of betrayal, critique terjemahisme and post-truth uses of state translations, and oppose Islam marah with an ethic of Islam ramah. The findings show how progressive Islamic counter-publics linguistically contest conservative monopolies over Qur’anic discourse.References
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Copyright (c) 2025 Waki Ats Tsaqofi, Achmad Satori, Sarah Hajar Mahmudah, Akhmad Saehudin, Ulil Abshar, Wenhua Li
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