The Influence of Virtual Communities on Discriminatory Attitudes in the Use of Islamic Religious Attributes in Indonesia

Abstract

Various cases of legal issues attacking religious symbols have become increasingly common in Indonesia recently. These cases range from the smallest forms in the form of hate speech comments on social media, prohibitions on religious attributes, to the most serious, namely discrimination and human rights violations based on justifications for one group's disagreement with another group's understanding of religion. Discrimination in this paper sees that clothing or religious attributes are used as a form of desire to obtain more perfect worship. The aim of conducting research is related to virtual communities as mediators of this problem. The research method used is literature study and analysis sourced from the media. This article discusses how this discrimination phenomenon emerged, transformed, and threatened the harmony of diversity in Indonesia. It is also concluded that the root of the problem of this phenomenon includes three parts, namely; (1) Acts of terrorism that occurred in Indonesia, (2) the rise of the Islamic movement, and (3) the presence of public and government figures who muddied the situation.