Journal of Indonesian Islam
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ISSUES OF COMPATIBILITY HUMAN RIGHTS AND ISLAM: The Experience of Egypt and Indonesia
Get PDFThis paper describes the plurality of Muslim responses to the modern conception of human rights, drawing in particular on Muslim interpretations of key human rights issues in the discourse of human rights and Islam -women’s rights, religious freedom and minority rights, and corporal punishment- in Egypt and Indonesia. The case studies of Egypt and Indonesia point to wide range of responses among Muslims to these issues, but also suggest that Islam is not incompatible with the modern conception of human rights. This paper argues that on the issues of human rights, Muslims do not share a single, monolithic stance. Instead, there is a variety of arguments based on various Islamic schools of thought and Islamic religious groups. As a result, the issues of human rights and their implementation have elicited a wide range of responses among Muslims
A REAL THREAT FROM WITHIN: Muhammadiyah’s Identity Metamorphosis and the Dilemma of Democracy
Get PDFThis paper will look at Muhammadiyah as a constantly metamorphosing organism from which have grown modernist-reformist, liberalist progressive, political pragmatist and potentially violent fundamentalist-radical Muslims. It will argue that the trajectory passed by and the victory of the radical-puritan element in the National Congress 2005 can potentially become an obstacle for Muhammadiyah's involvement in the process of implementing democratic values in Indonesia in the future. To keep watching Muhammadiyah’s trajectory is crucially important due to the fact that this organization is one of the powerful forces in the world toward the democratization process. In order to be on the right track of democracy, Muhammadiyah has to be able to cope with its internal disputes over democratic values. Only by means of coping with these internal disputes can this organization ensure its role in propagating and disseminating democratic ideas as well as practices in Indonesia
THE DIALECTICS OF SELF AND OTHER IN INDONESIAN RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE
No full textThe debates on religious issues that have been somewhat heated in Indonesia in recent times indicate that the country is now entering a new and interesting phase. One of the many issues that have attracted the younger Muslim scholars is the idea of what I call religious I-ness and otherness. It seems that within this issue one may find the explanation of how religious dogma should be interpreted within the context of Indonesian life on the one hand, and –on the other- how this explanation may in turn provide some type of answer for many problems that this country faces. This paper provides a discursive description of the current intellectual debate in Indonesia around the problem of religious I-ness and otherness that the diverse religious discourse in the country have tried to explore
الوسطية إزاء الراديكالية في الإسلام: السلوك السياسي لطائفة راديكالية من المسلمين في عهد حكومة رئيس الجمهورية الإندونيسية عبد الرحمن واحد
Get PDFThis article offers a brief account of the political turmoil which led to the abdication of President Abdurrahman Wahid. President Wahid faced serious challenges, particularly from his traditional opponents, the Muslim militants. They made efforts to deligitimize his government using street protests, provocative talk shows and writings which enabled them to create political unrest during Wahid’s short-lived government. The Muslim militants eventually thought that Wahid did not deserve political support from the Muslim community due to his controversial views. The political feud between Wahid and the militants actually is not as simple as it appears. The two belong to different “religious schools of thought”; the former represents contextual ways of thought, and the latter supports textual mindsets. While the first opens a space to dialogue between texts and contexts, the latter follows a one-way path, applying literally what has been stated in the prophetic and scriptural texts
EXERCIZING IJTIHAD Fatwa and Ifta in Indonesia Today
Get PDFBook ReviewBook title:Indonesian Islam: Social Change Through Contemporary FatawaAuthor:M.B. HookerNo. of Pages:X + 310Year:2003Publisher:Asian Studies Association of Australia, Allen and Unwin, and University of Hawaii Press Honolul
MUSLIM POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY: The Case of Indonesia
Get PDFThis article tries to scrutinize the complexity of dealing with the attempts at crafting democracy in Indonesia. It relates the issue of deploying religion among Muslim actors with the issue of state-market powerrelations. With regard to the failing attempts of democratization, the writer argues that the problem does not lie with religion and Islam as such, but with democratisation that has run aground for a number of reasons. The real challenge is to develop more independent means of political representation. In his opinion, quoting Demos’ survey, the major task in the country at large is to build popularly rooted and representative civic-political organisations. He goes on to argue that while Muslim politics may promote measures against corruption, and neo-liberal actors may foster the rule of the laws they have shaped, both tendencies neglect independent popular representation to promote politically equal control of public affairs
THE UPSURGE OF MEMORY IN THE CASE OF HAUL: A Problem of Islamic Historiography in Indonesia
Get PDFThis essay investigates the reasons behind the proliferation of haul celebrations in Indonesia. The study focuses on the construction of haul as a ritual forging collective memory among a particular group of people in the Muslim community. The writer adopts Pierre Nora’s theory of the upsurge of memory which is caused by the acceleration and democratization of history. These two factors bring about the construction of an object which forms the passage of memory among those attending haul. It will be argued that the haul is a social construction by a noble community to demonstrate its existence and domination over others in the Muslim community. It will also be argued that the haul was a reaction towards modernity in the Muslim world and the rise of alternative historiography. The influential position of the aristocracy was based on the construction of collective memory of the people in haul celebrations, which are held all over Indonesia
ITTIJĀHĀT JADĪDAH FĪ MAJĀL TA‘LĪM AL-LUGHAH AL-‘ARABIYYAH FĪ INDŪNĪSĪYĀ
Get PDFThe teaching of Arabic as a religious language in Indonesia should be differentiated from it being taught as a foreign language. From the advent of Islam until the beginning of 1990s, Arabic was always perceived in this country as a religious language. This mode of thinking implied that Arabic should be taught simply as a tool to understand religious text; a method that resulted in a great number of students being incapable of using Arabic as a language of communication. Toward the end of 1990s however, a new orientation in looking at the nature of Arabic began to take shape. According to this new orientation, Arabic is perceived not only as a religious language but also and this is more important as a foreign language. This view brings a new vision, and with it a new model, of the way that Arabic should be taught in this country. This paper discusses this new model and some of its aspects that we consider a breakthrough in reforming the method and approach of language-teaching. It argues that the new model constitutes a valuable contribution to the way that Arabic as a foreign language is taught in Indonesia
IS EDUCATION DETERMINANT? The Formation of Liberal and Anti-liberal Islamic Legal Thinking in Indonesia
Get PDFLiberalism and anti-liberalism are two increasingly prominent but staunchly opposing streams of Islamic legal thinking in Indonesia. This article analyses the formation of each of the two through an examination of the role of formal education. It focuses on organic intellectuals during two periods, the New Order and the reformasi. Challenging the strongly-held thesis of the determinant role of education, this article argues that both liberal and anti-liberal Islamic legal thinking in Indonesia is a result of not only the intellectual formation in the sense of academic training and access to education and knowledge, but also the sociological background and exposure in building a new epistemic community in an urban context. As a theoretical understanding of sociological background and exposure, the concept of epistemic community deserves to be taken as an analytical framework in addition to education for the analysis of the formation of the two contesting bents of Islamic legal thinking in Indonesia
SECULARIZATION IN THE MIND OF MUSLIM REFORMISTS: A Case Study of Nurcholish Madjid and Fouad Zakaria
Get PDFNurcholish Madjid (Indonesia) and Fouad Zakaria (Egypt) represent the two most influential Muslim thinkers concerned with the issue of secularization. This article is a comparative analysis of their ideas, which have triggered intellectual debate on the term “secularization” and its implications in the Muslim world over the last three decades. Positing the discourse on secularization and secularism as a means to confront the obscurantist Islamist tide, both scholars use it as a starting point to discuss important issues in the context of their respective countries about the necessity to reform the current social, political, cultural, and intellectual stagnancy. They differ, however, in perceiving the extent of the discourse of secularism. Using the term “secularization” very carefully, Madjid makes clear that it should not be understood as leading to secularism in Indonesia. Unlike Madjid, Zakaria, inheriting the secularism debate from his predecessors, is more oriented toward rescuing secularism before it totally disappears in Egypt