The roles of Islamic Faith-Based Organizations on countermeasures against the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

This study aimed to examine the strengths of Indonesia's two largest Islamic Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) and the challenges experienced while performing activities on countermeasures against COVID-19 in Indonesia. In-depth interviews, focused group discussions, and document analysis were used to collect data. The participants (informants) were administrators of a special Islamic FBOs unit that handles COVID-19 programs at central and regional levels and the beneficiaries of Islamic FBOs COVID-19 programs, selected using expert sampling. As part of data collection, an interview guideline was set to explore the participants' strengths and challenges in performing various programs for overcoming the pandemic. The data was analyzed using the thematic content analysis. The results showed that Islamic FBOs had special units that performed various countermeasures against COVID-19, including primary prevention like delivering health education and psychological consultation, and secondary prevention, mainly treating the pandemic, managing its prevailing conditions, and minimizing its economic impact, and supporting its vaccine. Moreover, the large members and participants, organizational structures involving grassroots levels, and financial support from the organizations' reputable philanthropic agencies were their strengths in performing those activities. However, coordination in the organization from central board to branch level was considerably challenging, especially where the coordination path was long. The insufficient information technology facilities also made the process difficult online. Therefore, profound religious FBOs served indispensable contributions and potencies in directing the community and minimizing the impact of the pandemic and other disasters in terms of health and social-economic welfare.