“Almost all the preachers denounce or criticize modernity itself. The ustadhs and preachers of Rodja criticize the Internet, technology, and television — at the same time that they use it for their work — because, according to them, it can make people disobey Allah.”
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| Radio Rodja in Bogor, Indonesia’s leading Salafi station (K. Varagur/VOA) |
Source/Credit: Voice of America
By Krithika Varagur | April 19, 2017
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — On the drive from Jakarta to Bogor, a hilly regency about an hour south of the Indonesian capital, the polyphonic aural landscape gradually converges on a single voice that’s broadcast from storefronts, food carts, and houses: Radio Rodja, the country’s leading Salafi station.
In 2005, Radio Rodja started as a community production in Cileungsi, a small Bogor town, and obtained an AM frequency two years later, from where it became the most popular of the dozens of Salafi radio stations in Indonesia. In recent years, it has also live-streamed content about 20 hours a day on its website to reach listeners across the country.
The majority of its content is Quran recitations and lectures on theology, conduct, health, and lifestyle. Salafism is a fundamentalist movement, originating in Saudi Arabia, that extols the norms of early, eighth-century Islam and rejects modern cultural “innovations.” It is pointedly quietist, or discouraging political action or extremism, by design, but nevertheless, the rise of Salafi conservatism has caused frictions in diverse and tolerant Indonesia.
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