Young Islamic preachers on Facebook: Pesantren As’adiyah and its engagement with social media

ABSTRACT

This article investigates how social media are utilised and appropriated within the community of a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. More generally, it examines how the exposure and engagement with social media have influenced its religious life and the pesantren tradition which is often associated with conservatism. Nowadays, many pesantren, such as As’adiyah, the oldest and once the largest pesantren in the province of South Sulawesi, have inevitably opened themselves to accept and use modern technology in their teaching and preaching programmes. Since the late twentieth century, the alumni of As’adiyah have been maintaining networks in their South Sulawesi homeland and in other parts of Indonesia through personal encounter as well as the assignment of mubalig (religious preacher) and imam. With the introduction and appropriation of digital technologies, many members of the As’adiyah community have harnessed social media to maintain and strengthen their network and increase their religious reputation.

KEYWORDS:

• Facebook
• Islam
• networking
• Pesantren As’adiyah
• social media

Acknowledgements

I thank Martin Slama for suggesting that I conduct research on the role of social media in the development of As’adiyah, and for the invitation to the workshop ‘Social Media and Islamic Practice in Southeast Asia’, held in Vienna in April 2016. The workshop was part of the research project ‘Islamic (Inter)Faces of the Internet: Emerging Socialities and Forms of Piety in Indonesia’ funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and based at the Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Wahyuddin Halim is a senior lecturer at the Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Ushuluddin, Philosophy and Political Sciences, Alauddin State Islamic University, Makassar, Indonesia. He obtained his PhD in Anthropology from the School of Culture, History and Language, the Australian National University, Canberra with a dissertation on the role of a pesantren in the construction and reproduction of religious authority in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Email: [email protected]

ORCID

Wahyuddin Halim http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9107-3832

Notes

1 It is one of the top five pesantren in South Sulawesi today in terms of student enrolment. Data from Ministry of Religious Affairs (2014–2015), showed there were 292 pesantren in South Sulawesi and 28,961 in Indonesia.

2 In addition, scholars such as Azra (2006), Dhofier (1999), Drewes (1955), Moosmüller (1989), Steenbrink (1986); Bruinessen (2012) and Wirosardjono (1987) point to the fundamental role of pesantren in the early Islamisation of Indonesia.

3 For example, Azra (2002), Bruinessen (2012) and Steenbrink (1986) underline the role of pesantren concerning the transmission of Islamic knowledge and values; the adaptation to social changes and modernity (Arifin 2013; Horikoshi 1987; Lukens-Bull 2005; Rahardjo 1988); economic and participatory development (Budiwiranto 2007; Permani 2011; Suaedy and Sulistyo 2000; Suprayogo 2007; Syahid and Mahduri 2002; and Turmudi 2006); gender education (Purwaningsih 2007); the cultivation of nationalism (Moesa 2007; Zaini 1998); the strengthening of civic values and civil society (Feillard 1994; Pohl 2007); political dynamics in the country (Suaedy and Sulistyo 2000; Suprayogo 2007); and the transformation of religious authority and identity (Halim 2015).

4 ‘Bugis’ here refers to one of the two major ethnic groups (the other being Makassar) in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi, which is today the province of South Sulawesi.

5 To distinguish between Islamic educational programmes that are operated by As’adiyah in Sengkang, where it was founded, and those outside of it, including those in other provinces, the executive board of the pesantren calls the former ‘As’adiyah Pusat’ (Central As’adiyah) and the latter, ‘Cabang As’adiyah’ (As’adiyah branches). This article focuses mainly on As’adiyah Pusat, the name ‘As’adiyah’ here refers only to central educational institution in Sengkang unless otherwise stated.

6 The term ‘imam’ in its most general sense refers to an Islamic leadership post that may include that of a community leader who provides religious guidance, and lead prayers at the mosque. In its more specific sense, within the Sunni Muslim tradition, the term is most commonly used as the title for a person who leads congregational prayers in the mosque. ‘Imam’ is used throughout this article in this specific meaning.

7 These are two different contests. Qu’ranic memorisation is for correctness or completeness of one’s Qur’anic memorisation, and Qur’anic recitation is for the melodic beauty or eloquence of one’s Qur’anic recitation (by reading a text in hand).

8 Interview in Sengkang, 17 September 2012.

9 Interview in Sengkang, 20 August 2012.

10 Interview in Sengkang, 25 August 2012.

11 Interview in Sengkang, 20 August 2012.

12 Interview in Sengkang, 25 August 2012.

13 This is a pseudonym.

14 In other cases, local Muslim communities may try to retain their imam for longer in the village when his initial placement contract is about to end, for example, by marrying him to a local girl.

15 Interview in Sengkang, 2 September 2012.

16 Interview in Sengkang, 5 September 2012.

17 Interview in Sengkang, 12 March 2016.

18 For the responses of religious authorities to different forms of media, particularly to newer digital and mobile technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones, see Campbell (2010).

19 Interview in Sengkang, 2 November 2012.

20 AG. stands for Anregurutta (Bugis: lit. ‘our great teacher’), and is the term used in the Bugis Muslim community for ulama, similar to kiyai in Java. H is for haji, as in AGH Muhammad Yunus Martan.

21 I conducted a series of online and offline interviews with Usman Pateha between February and September 2016.

22 For a more detailed profile of Usman Pateha who has benefited from social media to develop his growing reputation as a nation-wide preacher see Halim (2017).

23 To define it broadly, ‘social capital’ refers to the resources accumulated through the relationships among people (see Coleman 1988).

24 Pseudonym used, interview in Sengkang, 21 September 2016.

25 Interview in Sengkang, 23 September 2016.

26 Interviews with AG. Rafi’i in Sengkang in 2012, and between February and September 2016.