Defining Radicals: Comparison Between Language Style Used in Social Media Between Government-Approved and Radical Moslem Group

Abstract

Lately, there is a rise on Muslim radical groups topic in Indonesia. Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) is one of a group deemed as the militant group that endangers Indonesia's unity according to the official statement by Wiranto, Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, on behalf of Indonesian government position towards the HTI status. Albeit their radical nature, their lives are quite modern in the opposite. It is proven by the usage of social media like Twitter and Facebook as their means of communication. Twitter is one of the most efficient methods of communicat ion to this religious group followers, as well as other Islamic religious groups such as MUI and NU. This research is intended to find the differences of content regarding language style used by HTI and those government approved Muslim groups in Indonesia (MUI and NU). The tweets were extracted, then compared based on commonly used words and phrases. The purpose of this approach is to know the difference between government-approved religious groups' tweets and the tweets of the so-called radical group by the government. It has found that there are some differences in language style used by each Muslim group which could be used to detect similar militant groups in the future.