Representation of Indonesian Democratic Leaders by Jamā’ah Anṣāru Tawḥīd and Ḥizbut Taḥrīr as Radical Muslim Groups

This study aims (1) to describe how radical-muslim groups representate Indonesian democratic leader in Indonesia; (2) to identify the implication from the way they representate system of democracy. To get these aims, we collected data, i.e., postings on the websites they managed. We focus on Jamā’ah Anṣāru Tawḥīd (JAT) and Ḥizbut Taḥrīr Indonesia (HTI) as representatives of radical-muslim groups, indicated by democracy refusal. We analyze their postings by adopting Leeuwen's model of discourse analysis. We find that JAT representate democracy as a “religion”. For JAT, democratic leaders are “Islam apostates”, “kāfir”, “ṭaghūt”. Meanwhile, HTI regard democracy as an instrument for capitalists or colonialists. They regard Indonesia democratic leaders as a colonialist’s cat’s paw. We conclude that radical muslim groups have different perspectives and rationale in representing and delegitimizing leaders within democracy context. Language functions as a structure to oppose, delegitimize democratic leaders. Even more, the practice of language can be used to legitimize violence. For example, construction of “democracy as a religion” and “leader as a kāfir” legitimize sacred violence, e.g. terrorism. Keywords—radical-muslim groups; delegitimization; democracy; discourse analysis