This study examines the identity transformation of Muslim communities in the Moluccas, Indonesia, through their involvement in the pela gandong ritual communication. The pela gandong ritual is a local tradition of kindred equivalence and social-community concern, where cross-religious populations (Muslim and Christian) have kinship ties. The study found that the Muslim community's participation in the ritual, which involved the use of religious symbols such as chanting the call to prayer and reciting the lafadz Rawi barzanji in the Immanuel Church, has led to a developed case of civic pluralism in the pre-conflict era. This cross-religious civic pluralism is seen as a necessary precondition for efforts to build theological pluralism.

1.   The study focuses on the identity transformation of Muslim communities in the Moluccas, Indonesia, through their involvement in the pela gandong ritual communication.

2.   The pela gandong ritual is a local tradition that involves cross-religious populations (Muslim and Christian) and is characterized by kindred equivalence and social-community concern.

3.   The Muslim community's participation in the ritual, which involved the use of religious symbols such as chanting the call to prayer and reciting the lafadz Rawi barzanji in the Immanuel Church, has led to a developed case of civic pluralism in the pre-conflict era.

4.   Cross-religious civic pluralism is seen as a necessary precondition for efforts to build theological pluralism.

Several ndings explain that the involvement of the Muslim community undergoes a process of communication rituals about the cross-religious pela gandong beliefs and values—including diversity, togetherness, equality, kinship, and social–community concern—symbolizing the involvement that demonstrates self-identity. Involvement is described as part of Islam, Indigenous communities, and cross-religious kinship. Muslim community involvement is quite diverse in its reasons and objectives.

The Muslim community was involved as study subjects in rituals intended to cel- ebrate the rst Advent in Immanuel Church. The Muslim community can under- stand and explore in-depth the ritual communication process based on their daily life experiences, which shapes the social world in which they believe and develop into reality in social life.

The identity transformation of the Moluccas Muslim community involved in ritual communication has its own mutually sustainable meaning. The communica- tion experience illustrates the meaning derived from the conscious experience of the community performing the cross-religious ritual communication, such as self-identity proof, human kinship, relationships, acceptance treatment, and worship labels. 

Pela gandong ritual communication emphasizes the meaning of symbols through ignorance, entrapment, and traditional and religious communication. This analy- sis shows the bene ts of cross-religious ritual communication studies in the digital era: modern technology and globalization a ect cross-religious pela gandong. The traditional values are transforming to build fraternal bonds of social identity. Cross- religious pela gandong as an inductive subject will enrich and develop social theory, especially the link with rituals that strengthen the scienti c foundation in the development and roots of social science.