Volume IV: Society, Culture, and Local Ecological Wisdom

Governing Religious–Political Boundaries: Religious Moderation as Civic Infrastructure for Inclusive Cultural Resilience in Indonesia

  • M. Pasqa UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Indonesia

Keywords

religious moderation; religious-political boundary governance; politicization of religion; inclusive cultural resilience; electoral politics; Indonesia.

Abstract

In democratic elections, religious identity can enrich public debate or be turned into a test of political belonging. This paper asks how religious moderation can govern the boundary between legitimate religious participation and exclusionary political membership, and whether it builds inclusive cultural resilience rather than surface calm. Treating Indonesia as a strategic Malay-Islamic case, it compares the 2019 and 2024 elections through interviews with electoral and religious-affairs authorities and analysis of official documents. The shift between the two is best read as de-escalation without demonstrated transformation: overt religious politicization became less visible while the capacity to convert religious difference into a political boundary persisted in subtler, networked forms. Moderation interrupts this process through four mechanisms, boundary detection, public-ethical translation, cross-boundary brokerage, and relational repair with institutional learning, but currently works more as episodic containment than durable change. The paper repositions moderation as an accountable practice of boundary governance and treats resilience as an outcome to be demonstrated, not inferred from harmony.

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