Negotiating Faith in the Digital Age: A Theoretical Analysis of Crypto-Islamic Discourse on Indonesian Social Media

This study examines the contested crypto-Islamic discourse on Indonesian social-media platforms, analysing how specific segments of digitally connected Indonesian Muslims negotiate cryptocurrency technologies within religious frameworks. By analysing Twitter/X, YouTube, and TikTok discussions through big data analysis, we reveal not uniform cultural adaptation but rather ongoing contestation among diverse voices with competing interests and interpretations. Our findings challenge essentialist notions of Indonesian Islam, demonstrating how appeals to cultural concepts such as moderation represent strategic deployments of recently constructed traditions rather than timeless characteristics. We propose the Dynamic Digital Religious Adaptation model, which conceptualises religious adaptation to financial technologies as a contested interplay between theological interpretation, authority reconfiguration, technological affordances, and socioeconomic context. This research illuminates how material interests and power dynamics shape religious discourse, with implications for understanding technological adaptation in religious contexts while acknowledging significant exclusions, including rural, lower-income, and less digitally connected Muslims.