<![CDATA[The crisis surrounding the development of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) is not only a technical problem but also a communication problem involving competing sources of legitimacy. Previous studies have examined crisis communication in public institutions, religious organizations, and pesantren, but limited attention has been given to how media discourse constructs the tension between scientific accountability and religious authority in a pesantren construction disaster. This study examines how persuasive communication and information transparency are represented in news discourse on the Al-Khoziny pesantren collapse, using Feyerabend’s epistemological anarchism as the analytical lens. This study employs qualitative research with a discourse analysis approach. The data consist of news reports published by DetikNews, Tempo, and BBC Indonesia on 7–8 October 2025, selected purposively for their relevance to the case and their inclusion of statements from victims’ families or their representatives. The analysis identifies competing scientific, legal, and religious rationalities and interprets how those rationalities shape public trust and responsibility claims. The findings show that persuasive communication rooted in religious authority can sustain acceptance of the crisis as a matter of faith, while demands for accountability rely on empirical and legal reasoning. The novelty of this study lies in connecting media discourse on a pesantren disaster with Feyerabendian epistemic pluralism and positioning transparency as an ethical condition for negotiating competing rationalities. The study argues that crisis communication in religious institutions should open a dialogic space that recognizes religious values without closing public access to critical and accountable information.]]>
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