ISLAMIC MODERATION AS A PESANTREN-BASED PEACEBUILDING FRAMEWORK: A CASE STUDY OF WASATIYYAH VALUES AND PEACEFUL SOCIAL PRACTICES IN EAST JAVA ISLAMIC BOARDING SCHOOLS

Abstract

This article develops a pesantren-based peacebuilding framework by examining how wasatiyyah values are transmitted, embodied, and translated into peaceful social practices in East Java Islamic boarding schools. While recent studies have discussed religious moderation as a state policy, educational discourse, or individual attitude, fewer studies have explained how moderation becomes a lived peacebuilding mechanism within pesantren communities. Addressing this gap, the study uses a qualitative document-based multiple case study design. It synthesizes peer-reviewed studies, policy documents, and published case materials on pesantren in East Java, especially cases that discuss kyai authority, turath-based learning, habituation, bahtsul masail, student discipline, community engagement, and moderation-oriented Islamic education. Thematic coding was applied to identify mechanisms through which wasatiyyah values are converted into peaceful social practices. The findings indicate that pesantren-based peacebuilding operates through four mutually reinforcing mechanisms: epistemic moderation through turath literacy, moral moderation through adab and habituation, relational moderation through kyai authority and peer solidarity, and civic moderation through community engagement and conflict-sensitive social practice. The evidence-weighted thematic synthesis shows that kyai leadership, turath-based literacy, and habituation are the strongest mechanisms, while interfaith exposure and digital resilience remain underdeveloped. The article contributes a conceptual-empirical framework that moves Islamic moderation beyond policy rhetoric by locating it within pedagogical culture, daily practice, and local peacebuilding. It argues that pesantren can function as grassroots peace infrastructures when wasatiyyah values are institutionally embedded, pedagogically mediated, and socially practiced.