Between Ideological Polarization and Progressive Islam: Muhammadiyah's Responses to the Religious Right, the Political Left, and Post-Truth

Abstract

This article examines how Muhammadiyah responded to three distinct but intersecting ideological currents: the religious right, the political left, and post-truth politics. It uses qualitative historical-intellectual document analysis rather than a systematic literature review and includes only sources published by 2022. Official Muhammadiyah texts, organizational decisions, and scholarship on Indonesian Islam, populism, socialism, and digital disinformation are interpreted through a framework of selective ideological translation. The findings show an asymmetrical response. Muhammadiyah rejected communist atheism and class reductionism while retaining egalitarian, anti-exploitative, and welfare-oriented concerns through al-Ma'un praxis. It resisted Islamist absolutism, vigilantism, and majoritarian state projects while preserving purification, public morality, and Muslim solidarity within constitutional citizenship. Against post-truth, it developed an epistemic ethic centered on tabayyun, verification, expertise, and accountability, especially through Fikih Informasi. However, official moderation does not automatically govern decentralized members, schools, mosques, or digital networks. Muhammadiyah's resilience therefore depends less on occupying a fixed ideological center than on converting theological principles into credible institutions, public knowledge, and self-correcting organizational practices.