Performing Religion in the Stadium
Football and the Dynamics of Interreligious Engagement in Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30651/ah.v11i2.28867Keywords:
football, sports, religious expression, media, interreligious engagementAbstract
This article aims to examine the complex relationship between football, public religious expression, social media, and interreligious engagement. The recent phenomenon of a China’s national club goalkeeper which performed like Islamic gesture in the stadium will be the main concern. Using a qualitative case study approach, this article argues that the performed public religious gestures and actions which are amplified in the social media platforms could potentially activate the questions of beliefs and identities. It also could intensify the occurrence of interreligious engagement. The research data are gained from the social media and existing library resources. Analyzing both positive and negative responses towards the contested Islamic gesture phenomenon, this article uses the theory of Public Value as has been grounded by Edoardo Ongaro and the theory of Contact Hypothesis by Gordon Allport. The study finds that the non-religious settings have been neglected in the mainstream discourse of interreligious engagement. It reveals also that the questions of belief become something constant to be asked when the religious gestures or practices are performed publicly in non-religious settings, especially by strangers.
References
Adams, Nicholas, Jürgen Habermas Rawls, Robert Audi, and Nicholas Wolterstorff. “Interreligious Engagement in the Public Sphere.” Understanding Interreligious Relations, 2013, 281–305.
Agarwal, Nitin, Merlyna Lim, and Rolf T Wigand. Online Collective Action: Dynamics of the Crowd in Social Media. Springer, 2014.
Allport, Gordon Willard, Kenneth Clark, and Thomas Pettigrew. “The Nature of Prejudice,” 1954.
Baker, William J. “Religion.” In Routledge Companion to Sports History, 2010.
Berger, Peter L. The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999.
———. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Open Road Media, 1990.
Casanova, Jose. “Private and Public Religions.” Social Research, 1992, 17–57.
Chidester, David. “Interreligious Football: Christianity, African Tradition, and the Religion of Football in South Africa.” In Global Perspectives on Sports and Christianity, 47–63. Routledge, 2017.
Colbran, Nicola. “Realities and Challenges in Realising Freedom of Religion or Belief in Indonesia.” The International Journal of Human Rights 14, no. 5 (2010): 678–704.
Eade, John. “Football Disasters and Pilgrimage: Commemoration through Religious and Non-Religious Ritual and Materiality.” Religions 15, no. 5 (2024): 518.
Galvagni, Lucia. “A Digital Spirituality for Digital Humans?” In Religion in the Age of Digitalization, 144–54. Routledge, 2020.
Gruber, Judith. “Can Women in Interreligious Dialogue Speak? Productions of in/Visibility at the Intersection of Religion, Gender, and Race.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 36, no. 1 (2020): 51–69.
Halafoff, Anna. “Encounter as Conflict: Interfaith Peace-Building.” Understanding Interreligious Relations, 2013, 262–80.
Hodgson, Marshall G S. Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam and World History. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Hoover, Stewart M. Religion in the Media Age. Routledge, 2025.
Husein, Fatimah, and Martin Slama. “Online Piety and Its Discontent: Revisiting Islamic Anxieties on Indonesian Social Media.” Indonesia and the Malay World 46, no. 134 (2018): 80–93.
Intan, Benyamin. “Religious Violence and the Ministry of Religion:‘Public Religion’in the Pancasila-Based State of Indonesia.” International Journal of Public Theology 13, no. 2 (2019): 227–46.
Intan, Benyamin F. “Religious Pluralism, Public Religion, and Principled Pluralism in Indonesia.” Transformation 40, no. 4 (2023): 334–49.
Jamieson, Kathleen Hall, and Joseph N Cappella. Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Johns, Mark D. “Ethical Issues in the Study of Religion and New Media.” In Digital Religion, 250–65. Routledge, 2021.
King, Anthony. The European Ritual: Football in the New Europe. Routledge, 2017.
Knott, Kim, and Elizabeth Poole. Media Portrayals of Religion and the Secular Sacred: Representation and Change. Routledge, 2016.
Lattu, Izak. “A Sociological Breakthrough of Interreligious Engagement in Everyday-Symbolic Interaction Perspectives.” Religió Jurnal Studi Agama-Agama 6, no. 2 (2016): 164–85.
Lattu, Izak Yohan Matrik, and Fatimah Husein. “Dialog Antaragama: Dari Dialog Ke Engagement: Pengalaman Mengajar Di CRCS UGM.” In Studi Antar Agama: Metode Dan Praktik. Yogyakarta: Gama Press, 2023.
Lim, Merlyna. Social Media and Politics in Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Ludwig, Frieder. “Football, Culture and Religion: Varieties of Interaction.” Studies in World Christianity 21, no. 3 (2015): 201–22.
Martelli, Stefano. “Religions and Sports: Are They Resources For the Integration of Immigrants in the Host Society?” Italian Journal of Sociology of Education 7, no. Italian Journal of Sociology of Education 7/3 (2015): 215–38.
Mukminin, Amirul. “Religious Education in the World Largest Muslim Country’s Public Schools: Past and Current Policies, Challenges, and Policy Recommendations.” LOGOS-A Journal of Religion, Philosophy, Comparative Cultural Studies and Art, no. 113 (2022): 201–7.
Müller, Floris, Liesbet Van Zoonen, and Laurens De Roode. “The Integrative Power of Sport: Imagined and Real Effects of Sport Events on Multicultural Integration.” Sociology of Sport Journal 25, no. 3 (2008): 387–401.
Neumaier, Anna, and Gritt Klinkhammer. “Interreligious Contact and Media: Introduction.” Religion. Taylor & Francis, 2020.
Ongaro, Edoardo, and Michele Tantardini. “Bringing Religion into Public Value Theory and Practice: Rationale and Perspectives.” Administration & Society 56, no. 8 (2024): 972–1000.
Parker, Andrew, and J Stuart Weir. “Sport, Spirituality and Protestantism: A Historical Overview.” Theology 115, no. 4 (2012): 253–65.
Sabri, Fahruddin Ali. “Membangun Fiqih Toleransi: Refleksi Fatwa-Fatwa Terhadap ‘Aliran Sesat’ Di Indonesia.” AL-IHKAM: Jurnal Hukum & Pranata Sosial 13, no. 1 (2018): 145–66.
Scholes, Jeffrey, and Raphael Sassower. Religion and Sports in American Culture. Routledge, 2014.
Shidiq, Akhmad Rizal, Arief Anshory Yusuf, and Dharra Widdhyaningtyas Mahardhika. “Comparing Religious Intolerance in Indonesia by Affiliation to Muslim Organizations.” Pacific Affairs 96, no. 1 (2023): 5–34.
Sterchele, Davide. “The Limits of Inter-Religious Dialogue and the Form of Football Rituals: The Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina.” Social Compass 54, no. 2 (2007): 211–24.
Syamsuddin. “Polres Malang Dan Keluarga Korban Kanjuruhan Gelar Doa Bersama,” 2024.
Thomas, Oriel. “Promoting Cross-Cultural Engagement among the Pastors in the Greater New York Conference,” 2014.
Ugba, Abel. “Playing and Praying in the Premiership: Public Display of Beliefs in English Football.” In Global Perspectives on Sports and Christianity, 146–58. Routledge, 2017.
Vries, Hent De, and Lawrence Eugene Sullivan. Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World. Fordham Univ Press, 2006.
Widianto, Eko. “Teriak Histeris Pecah Di Saat Doa Bersama Keluarga Korban Tragedi Kanjuruhan Tengah Berlangsung,” 2023.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Wildan Ulumul Fahmi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if accepted for publication, copyright of the article shall be assigned to Al-Hikmah journal and Faculty Of Islamic Religiuos Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya as publisher of the journal.
Copyright encompasses exclusive rights to reproduce and deliver the article in all form and media, including reprints, photographs, microfilms and any other similar reproductions, as well as translations. The reproduction of any part of this journal, its storage in databases and its transmission by any form or media, such as electronic, electrostatic and mechanical copies, photocopies, recordings, magnetic media, etc., will be allowed only with a written permission from Al-Hikmah journal and Faculty Of Islamic Religiuos Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya.
Faculty Of Islamic Religiuos Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya, the Editors and the Advisory Editorial Board make every effort to ensure that no wrong or misleading data, opinions or statements be published in the journal. In any way, the contents of the articles and advertisements published in the Tadarus are sole and exclusive responsibility of their respective authors and advertisers.
Rights of Authors
The Al-Hikmah Jurnal And Faculty Of Islamic Religiuos Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya recognize the retention of the following:
- Patent and trademark rights and rights to any process or procedure described in the article.
- The right to photocopy or make single electronic copies of the article for their own personal use, including for their own classroom use, or for the personal use of colleagues, provided the copies are not offered for sale and are not distributed in a systematic way outside of their employing institution (e.g. via an e-mail list or public file server). Posting of an article on a secure network (not accessible to the public) within the author’s institution is permitted.
- The right, subsequent to publication, to use the article or any part thereof free of charge in a printed compilation of works of their own, such as collected writings or lecture notes.
