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Volume 2, Number 1, July, 2020

p-ISSN: 2777-0915 | e-ISSN 2797-6068

THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS MODERATION AND THE

RELIGIOSITY OF THE KARANGWANGI VILLAGE COMMUNITY

Abdullah

Swadaya Gunungjati University

Email: abdullahkhudori[email protected]om

Keywords

religious,

moderation,

religiosity

Article Info

Accepted:

June, 11

2020

Revised:

July, 12

2020

Approved:

July, 14

2020

Abstract Religious moderation is the key to creating

tolerance and harmony, both at the local, national and global

levels. This study aims to examine the importance of religious

moderation and community religiosity in Karangwangi Village.

The research method used is a qualitative method using a

descriptive approach. Researchers will analyze the results of

observations and interviews related to religious moderation

and the level of religiosity in Karangwangi Village. Based on the

results of the research, it is necessary to have an attitude of

religious moderation and religiosity in religion as well as for

differences of opinion and not to force one's will by means of

violence. As well as needed religious figures and the role of the

Karangwangi village community to create a moderate and

religious attitude in all matters without any radical attitudes for

the realization of harmony and peace.

Introduction

Indonesia as a country that has the largest Muslim population in the world is an

important spotlight in terms of Islamic moderation. Moderation is the core

teaching of Islam. Moderate Islam is a religious understanding that is very relevant

in the context of diversity in all aspects, including religion, customs, ethnicity, and

the nation itself (Dawing, 2017).

Therefore the understanding of religious moderation must be understood

contextually, not textually, meaning that moderation in religion in Indonesia is not

moderate Indonesia, but a moderate way of understanding in religion because

Indonesia has many cultures, cultures, and customs (AJIB, n.d.).

This Islamic moderation can answer various problems in religion and global

civilization. It is no less important that moderate Muslims can answer loudly

accompanied by peaceful actions with radical, extremist, and puritan-based

groups who do everything they do with acts of violence (Fahri & Zainuri, 2019).

Abdurrokhim

The importance of religious moderation and the religiosity of the Karangwangi

village community 21

Islam and Muslims today face at least two challenges; First, the tendency of some

Muslim circles to be extreme and strict in understanding religious texts and try to

impose this method in the Muslim community (Effendi, 2020), even in some cases

using violence; Second, another extreme tendency by being loose in religion and

submitting to negative behavior and thoughts originating from other cultures and

civilizations. In their efforts, they cite religious texts (Al-Qur'an and Hadith) and

works of classical scholars (turats) as a basis and framework of thought, but by

understanding them textually and regardless of historical context. So that no

doubt they are like the generation that was born too late because they live during

modern society by thinking of the previous generation (Zamimah, 2018).

Heterogeneity or plurality/diversity is a necessity in this life. He is the sunnatullah

that can be seen in this world. Allah created this universe based on heterogeneity

in a framework of unity. Within the framework of human unity, we see how Allah

created the various tribes. Within the framework of the unity of a nation, Allah

created various ethnicities, tribes, and groups. Within the framework of the unity

of a language, Allah created various dialects. Within the framework of the unity of

the syari'at, Allah created various schools of thought as a result of their respective

ijtihad. Within the framework of the unity of the umma (ummatan wahidah), Allah

created various religions.

Diversity in religion is sunnatullah so that its existence cannot just be ignored

(Shobrina, 2014). In the face of a pluralistic society, the most powerful weapon to

control radicalism and clashes is through moderate and inclusive Islamic education

(Alam, 2017). In the realities of real life, humans cannot escape from conflicting

matters. Therefore, al-Wasathiyyah Islamiyyah appreciates the elements of

rabbaniyyah (divinity) and insaniyyah (humanity), combining maddiyyah

(materialism) and ruhiyyah (spiritualism), combining revelation (revelation) and

reason (reason), between saslahah ammah (al-jamāiyyah) and individual maslahah

( al-fardiyyah) (Almu’tasim, 2019).

This study aims to make religious diversity an important asset for the Indonesian

state, namely how the moderate means offered by Islam can unite Indonesia. The

condition of society, especially from the religious aspect, begins with ideological

reinforcement (Mubit, 2016). The behavior of religious communities tends to

highlight differences in diversity as a necessity and spreads a relationship between

religious communities. Religious moderation is the foundation for the birth of a

harmonious relationship among religious communities in the community, so a

strategy of strengthening religious moderation is needed which is expected to

make the community more mature to accept and acknowledge that differences

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are a necessity that needs to be well cared for in a society that has various

characteristics (Heriyanti, 2020). Meanwhile, religiosity is an individual

preference, emotion, belief, and action that refers to religion (Sari, 2020).

Religiosity has a positive influence on groups and individuals in the social and

educational fields because religiosity develops compassion, honesty, altruism,

happiness, quality of life, health, and mental health (Nurwahyudi & Haryanto,

2018).

The preservation of Karangwangi Village, Depok District, Cirebon Regency, is not

only in its natural panorama but also the diversity of customs and cultures in it.

The religious beliefs of Karangwangi Village are very diverse, including the

presence of animism, then Islam and Christianity. Even though Karangwangi is a

very religious area, some Islamic scholars can provide guidance Karangwangi

community. This fact is what encourages the author to research to find out

religious activities which ultimately form a level of religiousness in society.

Therefore, this is the right reason why the author took the title of Religious

Moderation and Community Religiosity in Karangwangi Village. In addition, the

research site is easy to reach by researchers.

Research Method

This research is a qualitative research with the intention of being able to

understand deeply about religious moderation and religiosity in Karangwangi

village. Types of data come from primary and secondary sources. Primary source

means data obtained from respondents. Meanwhile, secondary data sources were

obtained from third parties, magazines, newspapers, books and the internet. The

informants in the research consisted of the Head of the Darul Hidayah Islamic

Boarding School Foundation, a religious extension agent in Karangwangi Village.

These informants were chosen because in moderation of religion and religiosity of

the people of Karangwangi Village, they were the subjects of the activity in

question.

In this study, data collection techniques were carried out through interviews and

literature review. Interviews were conducted with (a) the head of the Darul

Hidayah Islamic boarding school foundation, (b) 1 Islamic religious instructor, to

find out about the process of implementing religious moderation and the

religiosity of the Karangwangi village community. Data analysis in this study used

descriptive analysis, where data is collected and processed based on its tendency,

given meaning and then described or presented in a narrative form..

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The importance of religious moderation and the religiosity of the Karangwangi

village community 23

Result and Discussion

A. Research Results

The implementation of policies to strengthen religious moderation in increasing

religious harmony is the duty of fellow Muslims (Masithah, 2021). Besides, the

implementation of this task by Karangwangi Village is very relevant to social

conditions. Therefore, efforts to strengthen moderation need to be carried out

structurally and culturally so that the strengthening process can run well and

achieve good results.

Structurally, the implementation of strengthening religious moderation is carried

out in Karangwangi Village to communicate plans for strengthening religious

moderation with the village community. This is as stated by the Head of the Nurul

Hidayah Foundation in Karangwangi Village below:

"In order to strengthen religious moderation in the Karangwangi Village

environment, a regular recitation was carried out led by a religious leader on

December 12, 2020, involving the local community. In the event, religious

moderation is the same as the at-tawassuth principle, which means attitudes and

views that are not excessive, not extreme, and not radical. Every religion believes

that exaggeration in any matter from every aspect of life is not good, not only for

himself, even for others. In general, the findings of this study indicate that

moderate attitudes in religion have not become a common awareness to be used

as a basic model for initiating and building closer and more productive socio-

religious relations, both for religious purposes itself, as well as broader national

goals. Moderation is carried out as limited to the personal needs and beliefs of

religious adherents, it has not yet become a joint movement that can color the

perspective of society in general to create a harmonious life”.

According to researchers, in principle it has been responded well by the people of

Karangwangi Village, therefore in principle at-tawassuth on religious moderation

has been agreed to be implemented collaboratively involving religious leaders and

the community. The activity begins with a routine study to communicate the

implementation plan. In this case, it shows that Karangwangi Village carries out

policy procedures so that activities can be carried out properly. Good policy

implementation requires good communication between its components in

managing the technicalities and targets, for this reason, in principle, religious

moderation has a different perspective but the goal is the same.

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1. Dialogue at Interfaith forums

One of the activities carried out to achieve religious moderation is inter-religious

dialogue. The activity referred to involves representatives from various circles of

society consisting of religious and community leaders. In the interfaith dialogue

activity, the Head of the Nurul Hidayah Foundation in his remarks emphasized

that:

"The Prophet Muhammad SAW said that learning Islam starts from an early age

until keliang lahad, just like in our village we carry out congregational prayer

activities. There are several religions with different perspectives but the goal is the

same, namely to worship the creator. So it can be concluded that religious

moderation is the middle way. With religious moderation, a person is not extreme

and exaggerated when carrying out his religious teachings.

Therefore, it is hoped that the interfaith forum will be more intense in conducting

interfaith dialogue by strengthening religious moderation for each religious

community. Interfaith dialogue must emphasize the importance of religious

moderation as one of the strategic agendas in order to create harmony, because

without a well-established harmony, various village development programs will be

deadlocked. The model of strengthening religious moderation through interfaith

dialogue forums is very relevant to the social conditions in Karangwangi Village,

where the community has never experienced religious conflict. More than that,

religious moderation can be used as a cultural movement for the people of

Karangwangi Village which is rich in local wisdom or a culture of peace.

2. Socialization for the Community

The socialization activities were carried out through routine assessments on

Monday evenings Tuesday, Mr. Nudi when being interviewed said that:

"There are several characteristics of Rasulullah SAW that we must emulate.

Furthermore, these characteristics will be maximized if we build Islam according

to the principles: first, at-tawassuth or the middle attitude, secondly at-tawazun

or balanced in all respects. "

The statement above provides an illustration of how to position oneself as a form

of awareness of duties and functions as implementers in order to implement the

strengthening of religious moderation for the community even though this

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The importance of religious moderation and the religiosity of the Karangwangi

village community 25

strengthening of religious moderation has not been conveyed directly in the form

of special material on religious moderation. The socialization of religious

moderation to society is very important because society is the actor of religious

moderation itself.

In a pluralistic and diverse community life, the functions and duties of the

implementer are not just to convey, but must actually communicate this

strengthening of religious moderation with a heart to heart approach, and make

the values and norms that exist in society their bonds.

Thus the cultural approach becomes very effective for the success of this

socialization of religious moderation to the people of Karangwangi Village which

is so multicultural that in the end this religious moderation will emerge naturally

from the womb of the community as a hereditary and cultured consciousness.

B. Discussion

1. Definition of Religious Moderation

The definition of religious moderation, in KBBI, consists of two words, namely

moderation and religion. Moderation is "Mediating a problem, the host of the

show or often referred to as a moderator". The word moderation comes from the

English word 'moderation' which means moderate attitude, not exaggerating. In

general, the definition of moderation is an activity to organize, guide and mediate

interactive communication between several parties, both oral and written.

Meanwhile, according to the KBBI the word religion: namely "adhering to

(embracing) religion, worshiping; obedient to religion; good life (according to

religion) ".

In general, religious moderation is a creative effort to develop diverse attitudes

from various tensions such as between absolute truth claims and subjectivity,

between radicalism and secularism (Litiloly, 2020). So it is clear that religious

moderation is closely related to maintaining togetherness by having a tolerant

attitude, an ancestral heritage that teaches us to understand each other and share

feelings for each other who are different from us.

According to Faturrahman, simply the religious model is understood as the

attitude and behavior of always taking a position in the middle (wasathiyah),

always acting fairly, and not being extreme in religious practice. So, every member

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of society who adheres to religion, regardless of ethnicity, ethnicity, culture,

religion, and political choices must be willing to listen to one another, and learn

from each other to train the ability to manage and overcome differences between

them. For basic problems in every religion, every religious adherent must be firm

in his beliefs, believe in absolute and fundamental truth.

Based on the above view, it can be understood that religious moderation is a joint

effort in order to build a commitment to taking a middle attitude (wasathiyah) in

religion, acting fairly, not extreme left or right or being religious in moderation. As

for the main issues in every religion, every religious adherent must be firm in his

belief, believe in absolute and fundamental truth, but still respect each other's

interpretations and practices of religion in finding common ground for religious

teachings in building common interests in religious life, in the nation and society

patriotic.

2. Strengthening Religious Moderation

Strengthening religious moderation is very important to do. In the religious

moderation book published by the Research and Development and Training

Agency of the Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia, it is explained that

the purpose of strengthening religious moderation is so that it is structured as a

national program, so that it becomes a good point of view for each individual and

institution. .

The following are two main strategies undertaken by the Ministry of Religion in

strengthening and implementing religious moderation:

"First, the dissemination of ideas, knowledge, and understanding of religious

moderation to all levels of society. The form of socialization is directed at what,

why is religious moderation necessary and how to apply it in personal, social,

national and state life Second, institutionalizing and implementing religious

moderation, which means translating religious moderation into institutions,

institutions, structures, or units that specifically think about strategies

implementation of this concept in order to become measurable and sustainable

programs and activities.

From the explanation above, it can be understood that strengthening religious

moderation can be implemented both culturally and structurally. Culturally, the

socialization of religious moderation is carried out by paying attention to or

accommodating the culture or culture of the community, while structurally it is

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The importance of religious moderation and the religiosity of the Karangwangi

village community 27

through institutionalization. This effort was made to provide support for the

Ministry of Religion to create programs as an effort to create harmony, social

harmony, and suppress religious conflicts, so that we find common ground

between religious adherents to maintain the integrity of the community

environment.

3. Definition of Religiosity

Religiosity is a personal relationship with the divine person who is Almighty, Most

Loving and Most Merciful (God) which results in the desire to please that divine

person by carrying out His will and avoiding what he does not want (the

prohibition). Something that produces good treatment to others in response to

love and obedience to that divine person, who from the beginning loved and

cherished His created people.

According to Suhardiyanto, a good personal relationship with this divine person

enables people to see God's goodness in others, an attitude that after growing and

developing in a person will produce love not only for God but also for God's fellow

creatures, both humans and nature. other creations so that in everyday life as their

fruit for humans will grow or emerge mutual respect, love each other, and love

arises in their natural environment, so that mutual prosperity, and inner and outer

can be realized. In Suhardiyanto's view, Religiosity is a unity between authentic

faith and faith.

4. The Concept of Religiosity

According to Glock & Stark (1994) as written by Ancok (1994) the concept of

religiosity is a brilliant formula (Fauzan & Tyasari, 2012). This concept tries to see

a person's diversity not only from one or two dimensions, but tries to pay attention

to all dimensions. Religion in Islam is not only manifested in the form of ritual

worship, but also in other activities. As a comprehensive system, Islam encourages

its adherents to be religious as a whole. There are five dimensions of a person's

religiosity that can be measured to determine whether someone is religious or

not, namely, the dimension of belief, the dimension of religious practice (ritual

and obedience), the dimension of experience, the dimension of religious

knowledge, the dimension of practice or consequences.

The explanation of the five dimensions of religiosity as written by Ancok (1994) is

as follows:

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First, the Dimension of Faith, which contains expectations in which religious

people hold fast to certain theological views and acknowledge the truth of these

doctrines.

These two dimensions of religious practice include worship behavior, obedience

and things people do to show commitment to their religion. This dimension of

religious practice consists of two important things, namely, Ritual, which refers to

the spirit of the rite, formal religious acts and sacred practices that all expect

adherents to carry out. Obedience, obedience and ritual are like fish with water,

although there are important differences. Whereas the ritual aspect of

commitment is very formal and peculiar to the public, all known religions also have

a relatively spontaneous, informal, and distinctively personal set of personal acts

of offering and contemplation.

The three dimensions of experience contain and pay attention to the fact that all

religions contain certain expectations, although it is not correct to say that

someone who is well religious will one day attain subjective and direct knowledge

of the ultimate reality. This dimension relates to religious experiences, feelings,

perceptions, and sensations that a person experiences or is defined by a religious

group that sees communication, although small, in a divine essence, namely with

God, the ultimate reality, with transcendental authority.

The four dimensions of religious knowledge, this dimension refers to the hope

that religious people have at least a minimum amount of knowledge about the

basics of belief, rites, scriptures and traditions.

The Fifth Dimensions of Practice or Consequences, this dimension refers to the

identification of the consequences of one's religious beliefs, practices,

experiences, and knowledge from day to day.

So, if you look at the concept of religiosity according to Glock & Stark's version,

although not completely the same, the dimension of belief (ideological) can be

aligned with faith, which refers to the level of Muslim belief in their religious

teachings, especially in fundamental and dogmatic teachings. Such as beliefs

about God, angels, prophets / messengers, the Bible of God, heaven and hell, as

well as qadha and qadar. Meanwhile, religious practice (ritual) is aligned with

shari'ah, which indicates the level of Muslim obedience in carrying out ritual

activities as recommended by their religion. For example, prayer, fasting, zakat,

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The importance of religious moderation and the religiosity of the Karangwangi

village community 29

hajj, reading Al-quran, prayer, zikir, qurban worship, iktikaf in the mosque during

the fasting month, and others.

The practice dimension (consequential) is aligned with morality, which refers to

the level of behavior of Muslims motivated by the teachings of their religion,

namely how individuals relate to their world, especially with other humans.

In Islamic teachings this dimension includes behavior like helping, cooperating,

giving, prospering and developing others, upholding justice and truth, being

honest, forgiving, protecting the environment, maintaining mandate, not stealing,

not corruption, not cheating, not gambling, not drinking intoxicating drinks,

adhering to Islamic norms in sexual behavior, striving for a successful life according

to Islamic standards, and so on. The dimension of knowledge (science) refers to

the level of knowledge and understanding of Muslims about the teachings of their

religion, especially regarding the main teachings of their religion, as contained in

their holy book.

Conclusion

The results of this study conclude that structurally in the context of implementing

the strengthening of religious moderation in the Karangwangi Village

environment, it must communicate the plan to strengthen religious moderation

with the village community. According to researchers, in principle it has been

responded well by the people of Karangwangi Village, therefore in principle at-

tawassuth on religious moderation has been agreed to be implemented

collaboratively involving religious leaders and the community.

In a pluralistic and diverse community life, the functions and duties of the

implementer are not just to convey, but must actually communicate this

strengthening of religious moderation with a heart to heart approach, and make

the values and norms that exist in society their bonds. Thus the cultural approach

becomes very effective for the success of this socialization of religious moderation

to the people of Karangwangi Village which is so multicultural that in the end this

religious moderation will emerge naturally from the womb of the community as a

hereditary and cultured consciousness.

Abdurrokhim

30 http://devotion.greenvest.co.id

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Abdullah (2020)

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