Educational Legal Politics of Halal Tourism Governance: Institutional Configuration and Religious Moderation in the Special Region of Yogyakarta

Abstract

Introduction: Yogyakarta has long been known as a city with a high degree of interreligious tolerance, yet that image has begun to be eroded by social friction arising around the halal tourism programme. This problem is inseparable from the absence of policy and regulation specifically governing the organisation of halal tourism in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. This study explored educational legal politics of halal tourism governance: institutional configuration and religious moderation in the special region of Yogyakarta. Methods: This study uses the library research method with normative-juridical and socio-legal approaches. Results: the legal politics of halal tourism in Indonesia remains conservative-elitist in character, that the institutional constellation of central and regional government has not been integrated within a single binding regulatory framework, and that the actualisation of the halal tourism programme holds potential to become a bridge for religious moderation if designed through an approach of acculturating religious values and local wisdom, rather than mere marketing branding. Conclusion: The concept of the legal politics of halal tourism in Indonesia has, to this day, not been built on a complete and participatory framework. Existing regulation is sectoral in nature and scattered across various legal umbrellas not specifically designed for halal tourism, producing a legal product that tends to be conservative-elitist in character, minimal in public involvement, and prone to multiple interpretations in its implementation on the ground