The language of fatwa: Understanding linguistic violence in the Indonesian ulama council’s fatwa on Ahmadiyah

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the linguistic violence in the Indonesian Ulama Council’s fatwa texts on Ahmadiyah. The data in this study is in the form of words, phrases, sentences, and discourses from the MUI fatwa texts in 1980 and 2005 on Ahmadiyah. Some words contain linguistic violence such as “deviant”, “infidel”, and “a state threaten”. This study concludes two forms of linguistic violence in those fatwas: the subtle and abusive forms of violence. In the subtle form, the language is operated to dominate other parties. In addition, the language is also used as an offensive and abusive expression carried out consciously in a discourse. This is used to attack other parties and as a tool to hurt others.