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The increasing activism of moderate Muslim groups in promoting religious moderation and countering radicalism has garnered significant scholarly attention. However, there remains a paucity of comprehensive studies exploring the role of education grounded in local cultural practices, such as humor, in this context. This article aims to analyze the utilization of humor-based platforms on social media by moderate Muslim organizations to advance religious moderation and reinforce the portrayal of a tolerant and peaceful Indonesian Islam in virtual public spaces. It argues that humor functions not merely as a vehicle for entertainment but as an effective educational tool capable of de-escalating tensions and conflicts without inciting violence, by employing humorous language. This study employs Virtual Ethnography to observe the online activism of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Garis Lucu and Muhammadiyah Garis Lucu platforms, particularly in their engagements with similar humor platforms operated by radical Islamic groups. The findings reveal that humor platforms can effectively disseminate discourses on religious moderation while also providing a critique of the religious narratives propagated by radical groups through the use of memes that are both humorous and respectful. Moreover, these platforms have evolved into deliberative public spaces where diverse religious groups can engage in dialogue over various contemporary religious issues. The emergence of these humor platforms has successfully contributed to the representation of Indonesian Islam as witty, inclusive, and fundamentally opposed to radicalism.
Amal et al. (Thu,) studied this question.