The Uses of Religiouss Symbols to Represent Islam (a Study on Religious Soap Opera "Bukan Islam KTP")

This study is entitled THE USES OF RELIGIOUS SYMBOL TO REPRESENT ISLAM (A Study on Religious Soap Opera Bukan Islam KTP). The background of the research is based on the facts of the arbitrary use of symbols to represent Islam shown on Indonesian televisions. The pattern of the use of religious symbols, either verbal or non-verbal symbols are generally explicit, but when examined using appropriate methods, they are actually contained some implicit meanings. The purpose of this study was to discover about how Islam is represented on television religious soap opera using religious symbols and to find out the dominant ideology behind the representation techniques. To analyze the soap operas consist of twenty episodes, the researcher used a semiotic approach by John Fiske on television codes. The results of this study are: (1) the use of verbal symbols to represent Islam potentially creates multiple interpretations when they are spoken by different characters. (2) Some religious terminologies are often used by antagonist player to express anger and disappointment. (3) The soap opera is dominated by verbal violence used by both protagonist and antagonist players, while antagonist player use violence both in verbal and non-verbal forms. The findings about ideology embedded in the soap opera are: (1) capitalist-materialistic ideology, (2) ideology of patriarchy, and (3) violence domination