Celebrity ‘Ulama’: Contiguity Religion and Popular Culture (original) (raw)

When Ulama Support A Pop Singer: Fatin Sidqiah and Islamic Pop Culture in Post-Suharto Indonesia

Television, music videos, films, and pop bands are all part of global popular culture and thought to be the product of “the west”. These media are therefore often seen as a threat to the identities of nationalities, local cultures, and religious groups. In contrast, in the context of Indonesian Muslims, the Indonesian Ulama Council’s (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI) showed support for Fatin Shidqia Lubis to the singing contest of Indonesian X Factor, 2013. This paper intends to study the presence of Fatin Sidqiah as the winner of Indonesian X Factor and the response of Indonesian muslims regarding Islamic popular culture in Indonesia. This paper argues that the presence of Islamic popular culture in Indonesia through books, novels, films, as well as fashion, show that Indonesian Islam and muslims are compatible not only with democracy but also with global popular culture. In addition, the presence of Fatin is a symbol of young Indonesian muslims who already connect globally. Whatever they consume in terms of popular culture is intrinsic to the creation of their hybrid identities, as both Indonesian muslims and global citizens.

Mainstream Islam: Television Industry Practice and Trends in Indonesian sinetron

Asian Journal of Social Science, 2014

This article explores the modes of consolidation between the dynamic practices of commercial television and the rising Islamic manifestation among urban, middle-class Indonesians. Focusing on the most-consumed type of television programming in the country, the sinetron (television drama), it describes media-economic factors that have led to the multiplication of Islamic symbols in television. An image of Islam that is unobjectionable to both the vocal, moralist Muslim audience and the general, heterogeneous audience has received a privileged position in prime time television. Business deals between media organisations that have become more stable blow the wave towards “mainstream Islam”, which reflects a symbiosis between growing Islamic influences and commercialisation in Indonesia’s television industry.

Commercial Islam in Indonesia: How Television Producers Mediate Religiosity Among National Audiences

International Journal of Asian Studies, 2014

While Indonesia's burgeoning private television industry has prospered through the country's democratic transition and the rise of popular Islam, it has remained ideologically constrained by many of the content restrictions established during Suharto's New Order era. One area in which producers have broken these norms is in the field of religious imagery, and the adaptation of religiously-themed narratives and tropes. This articlebased on a long-term ethnographic study of television producers in Indonesia and the social institutions that influence themexplores the strategies and goals behind the industry's handling of the imagined religious audience. It asserts that the tension of appeasing cultural conservatives has been redirected by the industry into content that appeals to the much larger demographic of moderate Muslims, through the adaptation of narrative conventions and stylistic forms that draw on an array of global media traditions. It examines new genres and conventions invoked by producers in their efforts to both placate and mobilize religious sentiment among Indonesia's culturally heterogeneous population, arguing that these practices promote a successful, commercial Islam that largely comports with neoliberal subjectivity.

Entertainment in muslim media : unsettled problem

2009

Artikel ini akan membincangkan persoalan "masalah yang tidak selesai" berkaitan perbincangan hiburan dalam media Islam. Status dan kedudukan hukum tentang muzik, nyanyian, tarian, teater, filem dan lain-lain keseronokan estatika selalunya wujud kekeliruan dalam minda khalayak Muslim disebabkan oleh perbezaan hujah yang dikemukakan oleh sarjana Muslim khususnya dalam bidang Fekah. Hujah mereka tentang halal dan haram hiburan dalam Islam, sikap orang-orang Islam terhadap hiburan dan eksperimen ke arah melaksanakan "hiburan Islam", di Malaysia dan Iran, akan dibincangkan dalam artikel ini. Kekurangan dari segi usaha membangunkan hiburan Islam dan ketidakupayaan untuk memberi alternatif Islam kepada bidang keseronokan estatika adalah antara masalah utama yang dihadapi oleh komuniti Islam dalam era globalisasi kini.

Islam and stardom in Malay cinema: from Ibu Mertuaku to Salam Cinta

2019

Perceived as promoting values associated with capitalism, such as individualism and consumerism, stardom often exists in opposition to the principles found at the core of many of the world’s main religions. But stardom also shares similarities with religion, as stars can become new, secular objects of worship, even being referred to as screen gods and goddesses. This paper explores the interactions between stardom and religion by focusing on the relationship of the figure of the star with Islam in the context of Malay cinema. It examines the representation of stardom in a number of “stardom films”—films about fame—each taken from a different historical period. The films analyzed in the article include Ibu Mertuaku (P. Ramlee, 1962), a classic film of the “golden age” of Malay cinema in which the celebrated actor P. Ramlee plays a famous musician, Layar Lara (Shuhaimi Baba, 1997), which contrasts the attitudes and motivations of actors of that period with those of the performers from...

Indonesian Celebrities Conversion: the Quest for Meaning and Social Environment

Ulumuna, 2020

Religious conversion has often triggered a heated debate that pushes forward scholarly investigation. This paper is not based on a theological study of conversion, but a psycho-social exploration that aims to examine religious conversion among Indonesian celebrities and seeks factors that influence the conversion. This qualitative study selects five Indonesian celebrities who converted to Islam. All data and information were gathered from YouTube and the websites on entertainment and celebrity news. The study unveils that religious conversion is not a simple one-way process. Instead, it is a long process of search of meaning and identity, shaped by interpersonal relations and social interactions. Before conversion, the converts had made personal and colleague relationship with their Muslim friends and known Islam as it was manifested in everyday life through TV program, the call for Islamic prayer (adhān), neighborhood. The fact that Islam is the majority religion in the country has...

Indonesian Muslim Youth Identity Construction in Indonesian Religious Films

2020

This paper seeks to describe the development of cultural sociology studies from a media perspective as a response to technological developments and globalization to see today's screen culture. Interestingly, it examines the encounters of American, European, Asian and Muslim cultures through Indonesian screen culture. The researcher chose the film Ayat-Ayat Cinta, as a study material because it got the attention of contemporary Indonesian Muslim audiences, making it interesting to observe. This research examines the workings of Indonesian popular religious films in shaping public opinion regarding the rise of post-Islamism by educated young Indonesian Muslims. The integration between Islam and consumption of popular culture is significantly studied in this study. Through text observation, This research finds that the relationship between religion and popular culture is not a simple cause and effect relationship. Through the perspective of semiotics and the theory of reality const...

Ria Ricis and New Platform of Islamic Pop Culture

Not only change the landscape of popular culture, but the presence of social media also reshapes the structure and the agency. Nowadays, social media can turn ordinary people to celebrities. Using Instagram and YouTube, Ria Ricis has become a piety celebrity who shows her Islamic identity through Islamic performance by wearing the veil in a casual way and earns money from her uploaded videos in social media. Based on a case study of this figure, this paper raises questions related to Islamic popular culture in Indonesia: How does Indonesian define their public sphere currently amid the growth of social media usage? How does Indonesian Muslim respond to social media as a part of digital technology amidst Islamization in the post of an authoritarian regime? What is the possibility of tension for that young Indonesian Muslim as micro-celebrity while facing the three factors related, Islamic identities, enjoyment, and economic benefits? This paper argues that the new media platform has not only affected Indonesian Muslims' lifestyles, but also the way in which they negotiate Islamic values, secular life, and economic interest.