<![CDATA[The expansion of smartphone and social-media use has complicated the role of Islamic Religious Education (IRE) in translating religious knowledge into consistent moral action. This study examined how IRE contributed to students’ religiosity, discipline, responsibility, moral conduct, and digital ethics at two secondary schools in Bandung, Indonesia. Using a qualitative multi-site case study, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and document analysis involving 12 purposively selected participants and were analyzed through within-site and cross-site procedures. The findings show that character-oriented IRE operated through three main pathways: classroom instruction, religious habituation, and teacher role modelling. Religiosity and general moral conduct were relatively well developed, while discipline and digital ethics remained less consistent. A recurring gap emerged between moral knowledge, externally regulated compliance, and autonomous moral action, particularly in students’ digital behavior. Smartphones and social media functioned both as learning resources and as sources of distraction, emotional communication, cyberbullying, and weakened self-regulation. The study’s main contribution is a structure–reflection balance that combines rules and habituation with ethical dialogue, digital role modelling, reflective learning, and school–family collaboration to support more autonomous moral action.]]>
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