Page 104 of 111 Volume 1 Issue 2 December, 2021 E-ISSN 2797-8117 RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN INDONESIA Eva Solina Gultom 1 , Arie Toursino Hadi 2 1 English Literature Study Program, Halu Oleo University, Kendari, Indonesia 2 Oral Tradition Department, Halu Oleo University, Kendari, Indonesia Corresponding Author: email: eva_joshgroban@yahoo.com Abstract Blasphemy cases toward minority have been significantly rising in Indonesia. Religion has already become one of the aspects that urge sustainable conflicts among other pluralistic societies. Each side, the actors and the victims, have struggled to defend their truth without putting their conscience aside humanity or tolerance. This cost is too much comparing to what our nation did to fight for democracy. One of recent blasphemy issues that successfully went viral is a video showing a popular Islamic cleric, Abdul Somad telling a crowd that the Christian crucifix is the dwelling place for a genie. Surely, this video has sparked an angry reaction from Christians. However, this action met some contrary responses from our society. This study aims to analyze how religious sentiments could show its power or authority to affect social control that happened in Indonesia. This study applied Bourdieu‟s theory of social capital and power reflecting the strategies of resistance which may happen between pros and cons by combining some perspectives. Keywords: Bourdieu, Indonesia, Power, Religion, Social Control INTRODUCTION Starting from a massive movement of thousands of people who gathered in National Monument, Jakarta on November 4 and December 2, 2016 demanding the arrest of Basuki Tjahja Purnama or Ahok for insulting Islam, tens of hate speech cases involving religion are rising. Voice of America News published on January 26, 2019 entitled “Ahok Case Highlights Indonesia’s Blasphemy” mentioning there are some blasphemy law cases appeared, namely (1) Meiliana, a 44-year-old ethnic Chinese Buddhist, found guilty for insulting Islam after asking her neighborhood mosque in 2016 to lower the volume of its sound system used in the call to prayer; (2) On July 2018, nine members of the Ahmadiyyah religious minority who sought the law‟s abolition of the basis that it fuels discrimination and abuse of religious minorities; (3) On March