Heritage of Nusantara: International Journal of Religious Literature and Heritage
Vol 6, No 2 (2017)

Islam Nusantara: A Semantic and Symbolic Analysis

Woodward, Mark ( Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict Arizona State University)



Article Info

Publish Date
27 Dec 2017

Abstract

This paper presents a semantic and symbolic analysis of the concept and presentation of the concept of Islam Nusantara and the ways in which it evokes meaning and emotion to counter trans-national violent extremist movements including al-Qaeda and ISIS, based on Salafi-Wahhabi ideologies. It is based on a frame based content analysis of religious and political themes ofIslam Nusantra. I focus primarily on two films produced by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) to promote this concept: the near feature length (83 minutes)The Blessing of Islam Nusantara (Oceans of Revelation: Islam as a Blessing for All Creation) and the much shorter (8 minutes) Launching the Film The Blessing Islam Nusantara. The first draws on elements of Sufism, Javanese and to a lesser extent other Indonesian cultures to construct a vision of Islam directly countering that of both violent and non-violent Salafi-Wahhabi extremists. The second promotes the film and Ansor’s (the NU youth organization) potential for combatting violent extremism. Theoretically, I rely on insights by Goffman’s observations concerning the ways in which semantic frames, and more specifically reframing, can alter dominance hierarchies in discourse systems and Sperber’s demonstration that symbolization is a cognitive process that evokes as well as communicates meaning and emotion.

Copyrights © 2017






Journal Info

Abbrev

HERITAGE

Publisher

Subject

Religion Social Sciences

Description

Heritage of Nusantara: International Journal of Religious Literature and Heritage (ISSN: 2303-243X, E-ISSN: 2442-9031) is an academic international journal published by Center for Research and Development of Religious Literature and Heritage, Agency for Research and Development and Training Ministry ...