The Attitudes of Indonesian Islamic Religious Leaders toward COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Handling

Ahmad Munjin Nasih, Achmad Sultoni, Titis Thoriquttyas, Khozin

Abstract

WHO has declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic that attacks 213 countries. Although extensive studies have been carried out on various topics of COVID-19, very little research has focused on exploring how the attitudes and contributions of religious leaders in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. To fill this void, the present study explores the attitudes of 175 Indonesian Islamic religious leaders towards COVID-19 and their responses to the government's policies. Islamic religious leaders were chosen from the two largest socio-religious organizations in Indonesia: Nadhlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah. Data were obtained using a semi-structured questionnaire distributed through an online Google form. Furthermore, the data collected was analyzed using quantitative descriptive analysis. This study offers the research novelty related to the attitude of religious leaders in dealing with the COVID-19 either in organizational dimension or government policies. The results of this study indicate the existence of diverse attitudes among Indonesian Islamic religious leaders towards COVID-19. The religious leaders’ responses were not always in line with the government policy and their organization in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Keywords: Islamic religious leader, COVID-19, government policy.


Full Text:

PDF


References


ABUBAKAR, I., & HEMAY, I. (2020). Pesantren Resilience: The Path to Prevent Radicalism and Violent Extremism. Studia Islamika, 27(2), 397–404. https://doi.org/10.36712/sdi.v27i2.16766

ALGAISSI, A., ALHARBI, N., HASSANAIN, M., & HASHEM, A. (2020). Preparedness and Response to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Lessons Learned from MERS-CoV. Preprints, 2020040018. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0018.v1

AL-TAWFIQ, J.A., & MEMISH, Z.A. (2020). COVID-19 in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and Saudi Arabia: Prevention and therapeutic strategies. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 55(5), 105968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105968

AMALIA, I., RIANI, W., & JULIA, A. (2016). The Influence of Religiosity Values on Happiness with Islamic Consuming Ethics as Moderator Variable. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 219, 76–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.04.044

ANDRIANI, L., & CHRISTOFOROU, A. (2016). Social capital: A roadmap of theoretical and empirical contributions and limitations. Journal of Economic Issues, 50(1), 4–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2016.1147296

ANIS, A. (2020). The Effect of Temperature upon Transmission of COVID-19: Australia and Egypt Case Study. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-28360/v1

ANSHORI, I., & MUHAMMAD, A.M. (2020). Muhammadiyah Cosmopolitan from Teoanthropocentris toward World Citizenship. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(5), 1523–1528.

ARIFIANTO, A.R. (2021). From ideological to political sectarianism: Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, and the state in Indonesia. Religion, State & Society, 49(2), 126–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2021.1902247

ATKINSON, W. (2016). Beyond Bourdieu. John Wiley & Sons.

BARRY, M., AL AMRI, M., & MEMISH, Z.A. (2020). COVID-19 in the Shadows of MERS-CoV in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health, 10(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.2991/jegh.k.200218.003

BÖHMER, M.M., BUCHHOLZ, U., CORMAN, V.M., HOCH, M., KATZ, K., MAROSEVIC, D.V., BÖHM, S., WOUDENBERG, T., ACKERMANN, N., KONRAD, R., EBERLE, U., TREIS, B., DANGEL, A., BENGS, K., FINGERLE, V., BERGER, A., HÖRMANSDORFER, S., IPPISCH, S., WICKLEIN, B., GRAHL, A., PÖRTNER, K., MULLER, N., ZEITLMANN, N., BOENDER, T.S., CAI, W., REICH, A., AN DER HEIDEN, M., REXROTH, U., HAMOUDA, O., SCHNEIDER, J., VEITH, T., MÜHLEMANN, B., WÖLFEL, R., ANTWERPEN, M., WALTER, M., PROTZER, U., LIEBL, B., HAAS, W., SING, A., DROSTEN, C., & ZAPF, A. (2020). Outbreak of COVID-19 in Germany resulting from a single travel-associated primary case. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3551335

BURHANI, A.N., & AHMAD, N.B. (2019). Between Social Services and Tolerance: Explaining Religious Dynamics in Muhammadiyah. Singapore: ISEAS Publishing.

CRAWFORD, J., BUTLER-HENDERSON, K., RUDOLPH, J., MALKAWI, B., GLOWATZ, M., BURTON, R., MAGNI, P.A., & LAM, S. (2020). COVID-19: 20 countries’ higher education intra-period digital pedagogy responses. Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching, 3(1), 9-28. https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2020.3.1.7

DESHWAL, V.K. (2020). COVID-19: A Comparative Study of Asian, European, American continent. International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development, 3(2), 436-440. Retrieved from http://www.ijsred.com/volume3/issue2/IJSRED-V3I2P63.pdf

EBRAHIM, S.H., & MEMISH, Z.A. (2020a). COVID-19: Preparing for superspreader potential among Umrah pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. The Lancet, 395(10227), e48. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30466-9

EBRAHIM, S.H., & MEMISH, Z.A. (2020b). Saudi Arabia's measures to curb the COVID-19 outbreak: Temporary suspension of the Umrah pilgrimage. Journal of Travel Medicine, 27(3), taaa029. https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa029

GHAISANI, A.P., HANDAYANI, P.W., & MUNAJAT, Q. (2017). Users’ Motivation in Sharing Information on Social Media. Procedia Computer Science, 124, 530–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.12.186

HAMAYOTSU, K. (2013). The Limits of Civil Society in Democratic Indonesia: Media Freedom and Religious Intolerance. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43(4), 658–677. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2013.780471

HARDIANTO, H. (2019). Reposition of Historical Pesantren, Madrasah and Integrated Islamic School. Edumaspul: Jurnal Pendidikan, 3(2), 75–86. https://doi.org/10.33487/edumaspul.v3i2.106

HARKER, R., MAHAR, C., & WILKES, C. (2016). An introduction to the work of Pierre Bourdieu: The practice of theory. Springer.

HARTLEY, D.M., REISINGER, H.S., & PERENCEVICH, E.N. (2020). When infection prevention enters the temple: Intergenerational social distancing and COVID-19. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 41(7), 868-869. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.100

HASANAT, M.W., HOQUE, A., SHIKHA, F.A., ANWAR, M., HAMID, A.B.A., & TAT, H.H. (2020). The Impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) on E-Business in Malaysia. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(1), 85-90. Retrieved from https://asianjournal.org/online/index.php/ajms/article/view/219

HEFNER, R.W. (2000). Civil Islam: Muslims and democratization in Indonesia. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

JAMWAL, A., BHATNAGAR, S., & SHARMA, P. (2020). Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Current Literature and Status in India. Preprints, 2020040189. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0189.v1

JOHNSON, H.C., GOSSNER, C.M., COLZANI, E., KINSMAN, J., ALEXAKIS, L., BEAUTÉ, J., WÜRZ, A., TSOLOVA, S., BUNDLE, N., & EKDAHL, K. (2020). Potential scenarios for the progression of a COVID-19 epidemic in the European Union and the European Economic Area, March 2020. Eurosurveillance, 25(9), 2000202. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.9.2000202

KANG, Y.J. (2020). Characteristics of COVID-19 Infection in Korea from the Mass Infection Perspective. Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, 53(3), 168-170. https://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.20.072

LEE, V.J., CHIEW, C.J., & KHONG, W.X. (2020). Interrupting transmission of COVID-19: Lessons from containment efforts in Singapore. Journal of Travel Medicine, 27(3), taaa039. https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa039

LUCCHETTI, G., RAMAKRISHNAN, P., KARIMAH, A., OLIVEIRA, G.R., DIAS, A., RANE, A., SHUKLA, A., LAKSHMI, S., ANSARI, B.K., RAMASWAMY, R.S., REDDY, R.A., TRIBULATO, A., AGARWAL, A.K., BHAT, J., SATYAPRASAD, N., AHMAD, M., RAO, P.H., MURTHY, P., KUNTAMAN, K., KOENIG, H.G., & LUCCHETTI, A.L. (2016). Spirituality, Religiosity, and Health: A Comparison of Physicians’ Attitudes in Brazil, India, and Indonesia. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 23(1), 63–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-015-9491-1

MAGAL, P., & WEBB, G. (2020). Predicting the number of reported and unreported cases for the COVID-19 epidemic in South Korea, Italy, France and Germany. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.21.20040154

MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.kemkes.go.id/index.php?lg=LN02

MOGI, R., & SPIJKER, J. (2020). The influence of social and economic ties to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/sb8xn

MOHD HANAFIAH, K., & WAN, C.D. (2020). Public knowledge, perception and communication behavior surrounding COVID-19 in Malaysia. https://doi.org/10.31124/advance.12102816.v1

MOUSAVI, S.H., SHAH, J., GIANG, H.T., AL-AHDAL, T.M., ZAHID, S.U., TEMORY, F., PAIKAN, F.M., KARIMZADEH, S., & HUY, N.T. (2020). The first COVID-19 case in Afghanistan acquired from Iran. The Lancet: Infectious Diseases, 20(6), 657-658. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30231-0

MUNIZ-RODRIGUEZ, K., FUNG, I.C.-H., FERDOSI, S.R., OFORI, S.K., LEE, Y., TARIQ, A., & CHOWELL, G. (2020). Transmission potential of COVID-19 in Iran. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.08.20030643

NASUTION, R. (2017). Kyai Sebagai Agen Perubahan Sosial dan Perdamaian dalam Masyarakat Tradisional. Sosiohumaniora, 19(2), 177-184. http://dx.doi.org/10.24198/sosiohumaniora.v19i2.10346

OH, S., & SYN, S.Y. (2015). Motivations for sharing information and social support in social media: A comparative analysis of Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, and Flickr. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(10), 2045–2060. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23320

OSATUYI, B. (2013). Information sharing on social media sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 2622–2631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.001

PARK, S.W., SUN, K., VIBOUD, C., GRENFELL, B.T., & DUSHOFF, J. (2020). Potential roles of social distancing in mitigating the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in South Korea. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.27.20045815

PUNG, R., CHIEW, C.J., YOUNG, B.E., CHIN, S., CHEN, M.I., CLAPHAM, H.E., COOK, A.R., MAURER-STROH, S., TOH, M.P.H.S., POH, C., LOW, M., LUM, J., KOH, V.T.J., MAK, T.M., CUI, L., LIN, R.V.T.P., HENG, D., LEO, Y.S., LYE, D.C., LEE, V.J.M., & SINGAPORE 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK RESEARCH TEAM. (2020). Investigation of three clusters of COVID-19 in Singapore: Implications for surveillance and response measures. The Lancet, 395(10229), 1039–1046. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30528-6

RIDDELL, P.G. (2002). The Diverse Voices of Political Islam in Post-Suharto Indonesia. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 13(1), 65–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410210299

ROBBINS, D. (2020). The work of Pierre Bourdieu: Recognizing society. Routledge.

SAGLIETTO, A., D’ASCENZO, F., ZOCCAI, G.B., & DE FERRARI, G.M. (2020). COVID-19 in Europe: The Italian lesson. The Lancet, 395(10230), 1110-1111. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30690-5

SALIM, N., CHAN, W.H., MANSOR, S., BAZIN, N.E.N., AMARAN, S., FAUDZI, A.A.M., ZAINAL, A., HUSPI, S.H., KHOO, E.J.H., & SHITHIL, S.M. (2020). COVID-19 epidemic in Malaysia: Impact of lock-down on infection dynamics. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.08.20057463

SINGH, R., & ADHIKARI, R. (2020). Age-structured impact of social distancing on the COVID-19 epidemic in India. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.12055.pdf

SINGHAL, T. (2020). A review of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). The Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 87(4), 281-286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-020-03263-6

SIRKECI, I., & YUCESAHIN, M.M. (2020). Coronavirus and Migration: Analysis of Human Mobility and the Spread of Covid-19. Migration Letters, 17(2), 379–398. https://doi.org/10.33182/ml.v17i2.935

TOSEPU, R., GUNAWAN, J., EFFENDY, D.S., LESTARI, H., BAHAR, H., & ASFIAN, P. (2020). Correlation between weather and Covid-19 pandemic in Jakarta, Indonesia. Science of the Total Environment, 725, 138436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138436

TUITE, A.R., NG, V., REES, E., FISMAN, D., WILDER-SMITH, A., KHAN, K., & BOGOCH, I.I. (2020). Estimation of the COVID-19 burden in Egypt through exported case detection. The Lancet: Infectious Diseases, 20(8), 894. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30233-4

TURNER, B.S. (2007). Religious Authority and the New Media. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(2), 117-134. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0263276407075001v

WILTERDINK, N. (2017). The Dynamics of Inequality and Habitus Formation: Elias, Bourdieu, and the Rise of Nationalist Populism. Historical Social Research, 42(4), 22-42. https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.42.2017.4.22-42

WONG, J., GOH, Q.Y., TAN, Z., LIE, S.A., TAY, Y.C., NG, S.Y., & SOH, C.R. (2020). Preparing for a COVID-19 pandemic: A review of operating room outbreak response measures in a large tertiary hospital in Singapore. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie, 67, 732–745. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12630-020-01620-9

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/

WORLDOMETER. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.worldometers.info/

ZHANG, J.H., ZOU, W.C., & JIANG, X.Y. (2019). One Religion, Two Tales: Religion and Happiness in Urban and Rural Areas of China. Religions, 10(9), 532. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10090532

ZULKIFLI, Z. (2013). The Ulama in Indonesia: Between Religious Authority and Symbolic Power. MIQOT: Journal of Islamic Studies, 37(1), 180-197. http://dx.doi.org/10.30821/miqot.v37i1.79


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.