Negotiating Social Inclusion within Coastal Muslim Communities through Digital Religious Communication in Bengkulu
Main Article Content
Abstract
The rapid expansion of digital communication has transformed religious interaction within peripheral Muslim communities, creating new opportunities as well as challenges for social inclusion. This study examines how social inclusion is negotiated through digital religious communication within coastal Muslim communities in Bengkulu, Indonesia. While digital religious communication is often viewed as a medium for disseminating Islamic messages, its role in shaping participation, recognition, solidarity, and exclusion remains underexplored in peripheral coastal settings. Using a qualitative case study approach, this research employed purposive sampling and analyzed semi-structured interviews, digital observations of WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages, online sermons, and relevant documents through thematic analysis. The findings show that digital religious communication expands access to religious and community information, strengthens participation beyond physical religious spaces, and supports mutual aid. However, these inclusive opportunities are continuously negotiated because digital literacy, internet access, gender norms, economic capacity, and religious authority influence who can participate and whose voices are recognized. The study demonstrates that digital religious communication functions as an important mechanism through which coastal Muslim communities negotiate social inclusion amid ongoing digital transformation.
Article Details
References
Kantor Wilayah Kementerian Agama Provinsi Bengkulu, Jumlah Penduduk Menurut Agama Provinsi Bengkulu Tahun 2024. Bengkulu, Indonesia: Kementerian Agama Provinsi Bengkulu, 2024.
Badan Pusat Statistik Provinsi Bengkulu, Provinsi Bengkulu Dalam Angka 2025. Bengkulu, Indonesia: BPS Provinsi Bengkulu, 2025.
Badan Pusat Statistik, Statistik Telekomunikasi Indonesia 2024. Jakarta, Indonesia: BPS, 2025.
H. A. Campbell, Ed., Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds. London, U.K.: Routledge, 2013.
H. A. Campbell, “Understanding the relationship between religion online and offline in a networked society,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 64–93, 2012, doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lfr074.
H. Silver, “The contexts of social inclusion,” DESA Working Paper, no. 144, pp. 1–30, 2015.
A. B. Cano-Hila and A. Argemí-Baldich, “Understanding social inclusion in contemporary society: Challenges, reflections, limitations, and proposals,” Social Inclusion, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 1–6, 2022.
J. W. Creswell and C. N. Poth, Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches, 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: SAGE Publications, 2018.
R. K. Yin, Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods, 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: SAGE Publications, 2018.
M. Q. Patton, Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: SAGE Publications, 2015.
C. Hine, Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied and Everyday. London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
N. K. Denzin, The Research Act: A Theoretical Introduction to Sociological Methods. New York, NY, USA: Routledge, 2017.
V. Braun and V. Clarke, “Using thematic analysis in psychology,” Qualitative Research in Psychology, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 77–101, 2006, doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Y. S. Lincoln and E. G. Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA, USA: SAGE Publications, 1985.
L. S. Nowell, J. M. Norris, D. E. White, and N. J. Moules, “Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria,” International Journal of Qualitative Methods, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 1–13, 2017, doi: 10.1177/1609406917733847.
Association of Internet Researchers, Internet Research: Ethical Guidelines 3.0. AoIR, 2019.
H. A. Campbell and R. Tsuria, Eds., Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in Digital Media, 2nd ed. London, U.K.: Routledge, 2022.
G. R. Bunt, Hashtag Islam: How Cyber-Islamic Environments Are Transforming Religious Authority. Chapel Hill, NC, USA: University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
H. A. Campbell, “Digital religion as the networked spiritual infrastructure of society,” in Digital Religion and Global Society. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2025.
H. A. Campbell, “Religious authority and the blogosphere,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 251–276, 2010, doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01519.x.
H. S. Rohmawati, Zulkifli, and N. Hakiem, “Mediatization and hypermediation in digital religion and the transformation of Indonesian Muslim religious practices through social media usage,” Jurnal Sosiologi Agama, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 133–150, 2024, doi: 10.14421/jsa. 2024.182-01.
S. Dhuhri, S. E. Bhakti, K. Kamaruzzaman, N. K. Fauziyah, and R. Wahyudi, “Dislocation of Islamic scientific tradition through digital public sphere: Netnographic analysis on the discourse of Ahl Al Sunnah Wa Al Jama’a between traditionalist and modernist Muslims,” Jurnal Ilmiah Islam Futura, vol. 25, no. 1, 2025, doi: 10.22373/jiif.v25i1.25776.
S. E. Bhakti and S. Dhuhri, “The digital public sphere and Muslim piety in Aceh: Rethinking Habermas’ conception of communicative Islam,” Islam Realitas: Journal of Islamic and Social Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 12–21, 2022.
N. Couldry and A. Hepp, The Mediated Construction of Reality. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 2017.
J. A. G. M. van Dijk, The Digital Divide. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 2020.