Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Indonesia

This review of Robert F Hefner's book begins with the relevance of this book's cover to the current pros and cons regarding school uniforms and their relation to religion. This book was published when issues and religious symbols strengthened in the electoral process in Indonesia, at least in the 2014 elections and the DKI Regional Head Elections. Even though the proponent of this issue lost, the influence of Islam in the way of life of the state is getting stronger. In historical terms, Islam has always been an important factor in socio-political life since the Dutch East Indies to Indonesia today. Studies on the Dutch East Indies (Indology) to studies on Indonesia (Indonesia studies) always place Islam as a strong variable. Starting from Snouck Hurgonje to Cliford Geertz who was a pioneer in the study of Islam and their work became a reference for subsequent studies. Hefner's edited book contributes to showing the role and influence of Islam in contemporary Indonesia, especially after the reformation. Although not specifically reviewing Islam and Indonesia, all existing analyzes on democracy, law, politics, and socio-cultural aspects related to media, entertainment and ethnicity are closely related to Islam, as well as gender and plural society.

Salafisme di Papua, Indonesia: Sebuah Kajian Mengenai Kelompok Salafi-Wahhabi Ja'far Umar Thalib

The study of Salafism in Indonesia has been narrated its presence, development, activities and ideology in Java. In-depth research on Salafism in Papua is relatively inadequate. This article aims to fill the gap by studying Salafism, specifically the Salafy group of Jafar Umar Thalib (JUT) in Jayapura City and Keerom Regency, Papua. In addition, the responses of local community and Nahdhatul Ulama (NU) Papua toward JUT group will be reviewed. This article is based on the author's field research in Papua in 2018. The main data was collected from interviews, observations and publications related to Salafi-Wahhabi groups. Meanwhile, to explore the perceptions and responses of stakeholders, local communities and organisations, the authors interviewed informants from local residents and leaders of the Papua and Keerom NU Region. This article argues that the presence of Salafism tends to disrupt community harmony and peacebuilding in Papua. Such understanding provides a holistic view of how Salafism has sought to shape its narrative in Papua and NU Papua has rejected the narrative, which has received less attention from researchers in the past.

Penafsiran Politik Kolonel Bakri Syahid dalam "Al-Huda: Tafsir Qur'an Basa Jawi"

Alquran itu kitab terbuka, yang bisa didekati oleh siapapun dengan latar belakang apapun dan untuk kepentingan apapun. Sisi sosial-kemasyarakatan dan aktivitas pembaca akan mewarnai tafsirannya. Kian dekat seorang mufassir dengan lingkaran kekuasaan misalnya, maka karya tafsirnya (dipastikan) kian pro status quo. Tafsir karya Kolonel Bakri Syahid berjudul "al-Huda: Tafsir Qur'an Basa Jawi", seorang mufassir militer, apresiatif terhadap kebijakan Orba; menyokong Negara Demokrasi Pancasila, BIN/BAKIN, UUD 1945, Pelita 1 s.d. V, ABRI/TNI, negara relijius yang “bukan negara agama dan bukan negara sekuler”, pembangunan dan ketahanan nasional, juga ibadah politik, ibadah ideologi dan ibadah militer. Ini menguatkan tesis political reading of scripture-nya Tim Gorringe, abuse of quranic verses-nya Azyumardi Azra, juga political interpretation of the qur’a>n-nya Stefan Wild. Inilah corak baru dalam penafsiran: al-lawn al-siyasi (corak politik).

Islam Nusantara: The Conceptual Vocabulary of Indonesian Diversity

This article focuses on the concept “Islam Nusantara” in debates about Islam in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia. Descriptive and prescriptive, the term is a call for acknowledging and accepting the diversity of Islamic practice and belief in Indonesia. I make three arguments. First, while the concept and term “Islam Nusantara” is new in its current variant – closely tied to a particular group of thinkers within the NU – most of what the term describes is neither new nor as locally specific to Southeast Asia as the term suggests. The term encapsulates a thousand-year-old practice of plurality and ideals of pluralism that has been historically more typical for Islamicate societies than modern readings often acknowledge. Second, while it describes a lived reality, “Islam Nusantara” has also become a normative call for renewed pride in and support for diversity of practice and belief. It is a call issued in a deeply competitive landscape in which a variety of actors link religion to politics in new and intense ways, but at the same time “Islam Nusantara” continues to contain some remnants of the foundational vision of the Nahdlatul Ulama. One question that the proponents of the term need to work out is its normative relationship to pluralism – itself a complicated and contested term. The third argument pertains to the normative ambitions of those promoting the concept. I argue that in order to fully expand and make good on its potential, the concept needs to reach beyond Java-centric notions of Islam.

Saudi Arabia and Indonesian Networks: On Islamic and Muslim Scholars

This article studies Saudi Arabia–trained Indonesian Islamic scholars, both past and present. It also discusses Saudi Arabia’s non-Islamic studies Indonesian Muslim scholars. Since past centuries, Muslims on the Malay–Indonesian archipelago has journeyed to the Arabian Peninsula, especially Hijaz, either for pilgrimage or learning. This legacy continues nowadays. While many alumni of Saudi Arabia’s Islamic educational institutions–formal and informal–have contributed significantly to the development of Islamic and Muslim cultures and education in Indonesia, some chose to stay, teach, and pass away in Makkah. The study shows that, unlike popular beliefs and opinions, Saudi Arabia-trained Indonesian Islamic scholars vary in terms of religious orientations, political affiliations, social networks, and academic backgrounds. For example, some scholars tend to be ultraconservative and militant, while others are inclined to be progressive and moderate. While the presence of Indonesian Islamic scholars has declined significantly in Saudi Arabia since the last four decades, new tiny Indonesian Muslim scholars specializing in non-Islamic studies began to emerge and teach in some universities in the Kingdom. This article, among others, aims at examining the plurality, complexity, and shifting dynamics of Saudi Arabia’s Indonesian Islamic and Muslim scholars as well as their major roles and contributions in the spread and development of Indonesia’s Islam and society.

الإسلام في إندونيسيا : بين الأصالة والإنحراف

Some people think that Islam in Indonesia is just a thin skin that covers religious teachings, beliefs and local traditions that exist in the Archipelago. Islam in Indonesia does not really touch the substance, the core of teaching, but merely a cloth from the teachings and traditions that already existed long before in the country. Therefore, Islam has no role in changing the situation of Indonesian society both from a social, economic and political perspective. This paper aims to counter those perception, and argues that Islam in Indonesia in terms of substance has no different from Islam in the Arab world, even though the Archipelago is not the place where the revelation descended, but the preachers who introduced Islam in the Archipelago were mostly preachers from the Arab world. Those preachers (da'i) with their intelligence, were able to spread Islam throughout the Archipelago in a relatively short time, without resistance from local religious adherents. This success could not be separated from the da'wah strategy of the da'i, namely by making local traditions as media for da'wah. So that the population of the Archipelago voluntarily embraced Islam. Substantially, there are no different between Islam in Indonesia and Islam in the Arab lands. The only distinctiveness lays on the da'wah strategy, namely by accomodating local traditions.

Bahasa dan Kekuasaan dalam Historiografi Islam Marshall G.S. Hodgson

Historian has been preserving a historical unity and continuity as a truth. There is an assumption that history has a ‘constant’. This paper explains and proves otherwise. This writing understands history is in fact filled with various ruptures, differences, and deviations. This uncertainty has taken place when ‘language’ becomes a focus of the study of history. In his L’Archeologie du savoir (1969), Michel Foucault (1926-1984) rejected the preconception of history as unity and continuity. He believed the history as a journey with various ruptures, differences, and irregularities that reveal uncertainty. This reversal has taken place when language as the focus’ study in the history of knowledge. Foucault has called this method as the Archaeology of Knowledge. This is the question which this paper is going to respond: “How does Michel Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge, the analytical philosophy of language, elucidate the diversity within Marshall G.S. Hodgson’s history of Islam?” These three below mentioned questions respectively reflect a three-fold dimension of the diversity in Foucault’s thoughts as explained in his L’Archeologie du savoir (poststructuralism-structuralism, postmodernism, and philosophy of history). First, how does Hodgson, as a structuralist, write the history of Islam by way of developing system of discourses to reveal meaning; at the same time, as a poststructuralist, he reveals incoherence of discourses and its plurality of meanings? Second, how do we understand that the social structure in the history cannot be simply detached from the chains of power as a constitutive dimension of discourse? Third, how do we comprehend, that in every stages of history, they have its distinctive episteme and diversity of thoughts that support the formation of discourses? This research is essentially to explain the three perspectives of Foucault’s philosophy. At the same time, the three approaches in Hodgson’s writing on the history of Islam are also being explored. Both points of convergence and of divergence have become the whole study of this paper.

Exploring the Reality and Aspirations of Muslims

Islam in Indonesia has played an important role in socio-political development in its recorded history. However, it is also true that there have been various theological and political debates and disagreements in the umat. The implementation of syari’at Islam is one of the major subjects of such discussions. The emergence of liberal movement in the post-Suharto era also brought about the difference of opinion among Muslims. In other words, the umat has never been united as a single entity in Indonesia. This “divided” umat faces several challenges in the present day in Indonesia. That includes terrorism committed by militant Muslims. In addition to the effort to prevent terrorism, it is equally important to de-radicalise perpetrators of such violent and barbaric acts. Despite some discrepancy in the umat, we see several attempts and cooperation of Muslims to make former terrorists reintegrated in the society. This paper shows how the re-radicalisation programme for former terrorist executed. The author also intends to examine the socio-political development of the umat in modern Indonesia with regard to subjects of syari’at Islam and liberal movement. Based on these examinations, sociological analysis on religion is also presented in the paper.

Defending Islam Nusantara at the Frontline

Since the promulgation of Islam Nusantara in the 33rd congress of Nahdlatul Ulama, Islamic moderatism has been glorified by its advocates as the religious movement in dealing with social and political changes. This moderate ethos has been inculcated to most Indonesian Muslim by many elites, particularly to nahdliyyin (NU people), to distinguish with the radical and conservative trend of religiosity. This study examines the understanding of wasatiyyah among the youth of nahdliyyin which is organized in a new group called the ‘Pejuang Islam Nusantara’ (PIN, Defenders of Islam Nusantara). Triggered by the criticism and black campaign on Islam Nusantara, this community has a cultural mission to explain and respond the complexity of Islam Nusantara to public both online and offline. This study attempts to capture the worldview of religiosity and political standing point of young generation of nahdliyyin confronting with radical Muslim and Islamist groups by the 2019 presidential election. While the campaign for Islam Nusantara as part of moderatism project of Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) has been challenged by its opponents, the non-structural agents of nahdliyyin takes initiative to strengthen the campaign by cultural events and educative programs. This study focuses on the youth movement in applying and campaigning Islam Nusantara at grass-root level of the changing Indonesian Muslim constellation.

Keberagaman Semu dan Dilema Minoritas di Kota Banda Aceh

This study examines the understanding of the concept of diversity (pluralism and multiculturalism) in the city of Banda Aceh; the capital city of Aceh Province which is now more than 800 years old. Can the city be classified as a diversity-friendly city as it is embedded for Pematang Siantar, Manado, Kupang, or Bali, which are among the most diversity friendly regions and are tolerant to other religions and beliefs? This study adopts socio-qualitative with an ethnographic approach to present arguments about the diversity in the city of Banda Aceh. The analytical instrument seeks to empathize with Banda Aceh's value of inductivity, as well as its "particularistic" dimension so that it can be understood emphatically. This article seeks to test the hypothesis of whether or not Banda Aceh City government has sufficiently promoted the culture of minority groups, not only protecting them from violence and granting the right to live and do business. By using observation and in-depth interview techniques, this paper also shows the enigmatic side of minority groups, including the exclusion of “subaltern” groups: the weakest minority and can be called the minority of the minorities. The most apparant of this minority group is the Chinese gets a wider portion of the discussion, compared to other minorities. This is because of the complexity that this community enjoys which shapes their lives with other minority groups and builds the concept of encounters with local communities in Banda Aceh. The diversity values of this city experienced a dynamic change. In the last fifteen years, the diversity was best promoted in the city of Banda Aceh during the governance period of Mawardy Nurdin who served as mayor of Banda Aceh from 2007-2014.