Negotiating Religious Moderation and Legal Pluralism in Indonesia: A Socio-Anthropological Perspective

This study aims to investigate the relationship between religious moderation and the understanding of legal pluralism in Indonesia, focusing on how religious leaders perceive and negotiate these concepts in a pluralistic legal environment. The research employs a quantitative design using a Google Form-based questionnaire distributed to religious figures in Palembang City, South Sumatra Province—selected due to its high demographic heterogeneity. The findings reveal that while the respondents demonstrate a very high level of understanding of religious moderation, their comprehension of legal pluralism remains relatively low. This indicates an epistemic asymmetry between theological discourse and legal awareness within a plural society. The study contributes theoretically by bridging the concepts of religious moderation and legal pluralism through a socio-anthropological lens, offering a fresh perspective on the negotiation of religious authority and civic legal consciousness in Indonesian society. Practically, the study suggests that local governments and educational institutions should formulate targeted public policies—such as regional regulations and inclusive legal education programs—to strengthen legal pluralism as an essential foundation for harmonious coexistence. Nonetheless, the research is limited by its reliance on online data collection, which may restrict the generalizability of findings to communities with limited digital access, calling for future studies that adopt mixed-methods or ethnographic approaches.