Public activities carried out on social media may trigger religious identity based social riot. Such social unrest is observed to have surfaced initially as religious rage channeled via social media. It is, indeed, a fact that various issues on religion, which is regarded as sacred, hallowed, and revered, are discussed freely on social media, and it may very easily incite social turbulence. In the case of vihara burning and rioting in the city of Tanjung Balai, North Sumatera, Indonesia, a social (...) riot was instigated by users of social media who mutually provoked resentment against one another, there was also the Budha statue which posed as a latent triggering factor threatening inter-religious relations within societal culture fond of congregating. This article discusses the case of vihara burning which had occurred in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatera, Indonesia, where in research data were acquired through in-depth interviews with several informants active on social media, community figures, and police personnel. (shrink)

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has issued an illegitimate fatwa against smoking in mosques because it endangers the health of worshippers and interferes with the comfort of worshippers. This study aims to investigate smoking behaviour in mosques and violations of fatwas from ulama and governor regulations. This study follows a cross-sectional design conducted by interviewing 531 Muslims who have prayed in the mosque for the last 14 days and observed the compliance of the mosque in implementing a smoke-free policy in (...) 315 mosques. Frequency distribution and cross-tabulation were carried out using JASP 16 software using cross-tabulation. The results of this study indicate that the implementation of the smoke-free policy for mosques in Medan has been violated many times (57.8%), especially the violation regarding smoking in mosques (32.1%); cigarette butts were still found in the yard of the mosque (44.1%). Violations of the policy of fatwa smoke-free areas occurred in public mosques (61%) and muhammadiyah mosques (46.5%). Smoking behaviour in mosques was seen in the last 2 weeks, namely smoking behaviour carried out by worshippers (57.6%), smoking behaviour carried out by mosque administrators (39.2%), smoking behaviour carried out by community leaders in mosques (19.4%) and smoking behaviour that ulemas carried out in mosques (14.3%). Worshippers must comply with the rules against smoking in mosques because it can endanger the health of other worshippers. Cigarette smoke in the mosque will make other worshippers uncomfortable to worship so that it can damage the solemnity of the congregation to worship in the mosque. Contribution: This study is expected to explain smoking behaviour in mosques, violations of smoking behaviour in mosques that violate the ulama’s fatwa regarding smoking behaviour in mosques and the governor’s regulation on smoking behaviour in mosques. (shrink)