M. Hasyim Syamhudi
IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya, DPK. IAI Nurul-Jadid Paiton Probolinggo
The reciprocal connection between religion and family life makes the topic of religious intermarriage of particular importance in the sociology of religion. This study was conducted to examine social phenomena of interreligious marriage which become popular among Moslems Chinese society in Probolinggo. The main purpose of this study will try to find, why Moslems Chinese society in Probolinggo perform interfaith marriage, which was all the long associated to be forbiden in both Islamic legal system and possitive common law of Indonesia. In this research the researcher has difficulties to get proper information about religious behavior, especially about interfaith marriage problems. To solve this problem, the researcher asked for help from the leader of Persatuan Imam Tauhid Indonesia (PITI) Probolinggo, Mr. Irem Grok Sing to get access to main informans.This qualitative research used Berger’s theory of social reconstruction process to explain phenomena. Interreligious marriage as a social discordance in Probolinggo Chinese Moslem community was predicted will expand faster. So there was need some dialogue between religious ideal concepts. In Islamic law, this phenomena can be understood as an actualization of the rahmatan li al-‘alamin mission.
Keywords: Interreligious marriage, sociciology of religion, Tionghoa Islamic ideal concept.