Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies
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The protection of civil rights for the Shi’ite refugees of Sampang, East Java: a systemic governance approach to restore the refugees’ Rights
Full text linkHundreds of victims of the 2012 Sunni-Shia conflict in Sampang are still living in refugee camps in Sidoarjo, East Java. They still keep the dream to return back to their home village in Sampang. Even though the majority of them have pledged to return to Sunnis in early November 2020, no one could guarantee that they can definitely return to their home village after the pledge. This article seeks to identify the factors that make it difficult for the Sampang Shia refugees to obtain their civil rights as well as to formulate strategic policies to restore these rights. This article indicates that the Shia refugees, who live in the refugee camp, have already got some of their civil rights back, including the rights to access health facilities, education and administration services. However, there are two fundamental civil rights that have not been fulfilled, namely the freedom of religion and the right to live back in their home village. It argues that two main factors prevent them from returning to their home village: strong resistance from the community and the weak role of the state. The article suggests that the government needs to employ a systemic governance approach to fully restore the civil rights of the Sampang Shia refugees
Islamic political supports and voting behaviors in majority and minority muslim provinces in Indonesia
Full text linkThis article focuses on relation between Islam and politics in Indonesia during the last two presidential election. The article looks at Islamic political support to Prabowo Subianto and its influence into the 2014 and 2019 Presidential election in the majority and minority Muslim provinces. Data collection was conducted by document study to texts of internet media, especially on the issues of Islamic political support to Prabowo Subianto and results of the 2014 and 2019 Presidential election in the chosen majority and minority Muslim provinces. This study reveals correlation between Islam and politics with results of the two previous Indonesian Presidential election, finding out that the Islamic political support has increased votes of the promoted candidates in majority Muslim provinces and reversely decreased votes of the candidate in minority Muslim provinces. The study shows that the Islamic political supports affect voting behaviors more in minority Muslim provinces than in majority Muslim provinces. These findings, in turn, highlight the importance of developing a strategy to manage religious political support in Indonesian elections
Converging Islamic and religious norms in Indonesia’s state life plurality
Full text linkIndonesia is characterized by a plurality of values that inspire the formation of the state and its constitution. The democratization after the reformation made some religious communities desire to express their teachings openly. For instance, they desired to implement religious norms, resulting in laws and regional regulations with religious nuances. This study aimed to examine the convergence of Islamic norms and norms of other religions into positive law. It also intended to examine the prospects for converging these norms amid religious plurality. Using a historical and normative approach model, the practice of converging Islamic norms and norms of other religions was found from the formation to the promulgation of Law No. 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage. However, this law often receives judicial reviews, especially concerning interfaith marriages. The latest product of legislation relating to the application of religious norms into positive law is Aceh Qanun No. 6 of 2014 concerning Jinayat. The Qanun is interesting in the study of the convergence of norms of Islam and other religions in Indonesia. Although the formation and promulgation involved only followers of Islam, the Qanun accommodated the teachings of other religions. Therefore, non-Muslims prefer submitting to the Qanun rather than voting for the Criminal Code. These two examples show the prospect of converging open religious norms in various legislations
The dialectic of fiqh understanding and the female Imam-Khatib tradition in Balingka, West Sumatra, Indonesia
Full text linkThis study aimed to determine the relationship between the fiqh understanding and women’s religious role in the tradition of female priests and preachers (imam-khatib) in Balingka, West Sumatra, Indonesia. A qualitative approach was used with data obtained through interviews with informants, including female priests (imam), religious scholars, village guardians, community leaders, and women figures in Balingka. Furthermore, documentation and observation were also used to collect data. The results showed a relationship between the dynamics of fiqh understanding and women’s religious role. A moderate fiqh understanding makes the practice of female imam-khatib persist, supporting its recognition, and acceptance. Conversely, radical fiqh thoughts make the tradition of female imam-khatib criticized and challenged. The shift in fiqh understanding brings this tradition to an end after lasting for almost a century in Balingka. The study of Islam socialized by the Salafis through television and internet media shifted the understanding of fiqh from a moderate to a radical style, bringing this tradition to an end. Consequently, women are marginalized from their religious roles and are subordinate to men’s roles
Understanding the values of Islamic economics and Javanese philosophy pertaining to the work ethic of Muslim merchants in Salatiga
Full text linkThe work ethic of Javanese Muslim merchants may originate from religious teachings and Javanese philosophical values. Islamic teachings and Javanese philosophy contain values that edify prudence, caution, precision, optimism, patience, trust in God, harmony, cooperation, and mutual help, which result in a particular work ethic. Muslim merchants in traditional markets, still maintain work ethic manifested by economic practices based on Javanese philosophical aphorisms and Islamic teachings. This study is aimed at analyzing Muslim merchants’ understanding of work ethic as a motive for their actions in manifesting Islamic teachings and Javanese philosophical values aligned with the purposes of sharia (maqasid sharia). Case samples for the study were collected in Salatiga’s traditional markets. The study used the qualitative approach. Max Weber’s social action theory and Abdul Madjid Najjar’s maqasid sharia were used in the analysis. The study results show that merchants’ work ethic begins with their understanding of Islamic economics and Javanese philosophy, which are internalized in their attitude, behavior, and action. The merchants’ behavior, containing substantial values of Islamic teachings and Javanese philosophy, suggests the existence of instrumentally rational, value rational, affectual, and traditional social actions. The merchants’ motivations are categorized as efforts to realize maqasid by maintaining values of human life, human self, society, and physical environment. The merchants’ attitude has fulfilled the indicators for safeguarding faith and rights, human self and intellect, social entity and posterity, and wealth and ecology
Consuming and disputing Aisha song: the quest for pleasure and Islamic romance in contemporary Indonesia
Full text linkThe increasing consumption of Islamic popular culture in Indonesia has marked the deepening Islamisation among the Muslim majority. Some scholars have observed the interplay between Islam and popular culture among Indonesian Muslim youths. However, only a few scholars have studied how a particular religious product has been debated and contested within a Muslim society. This article examines the conflicting responses over an Islamic song that describes romantic expression between the Prophet and His wife, Aisha. It focuses on three groups: popular preachers, progressive writers, and YouTube audience. This study found that while some Muslim preachers and progressive writers have criticized the song’s lyrics, most Muslim audience keep consuming the song and regard it as an ideal model of Islamic romance as expressed by the Prophet and His wife, Aisha. The various responses from the three groups represent the diversity of Indonesian Muslims with regards to Islam and popular culture. It also suggests that the Muslim consumers do not always follow the opinions of popular religious elites. The popularity of the song has resonated with the increasing aspiration among pious young Muslims who seek the basis of Islamic romance through the lives of the Prophet and His wife.
Islam on the air: the struggle for salafism through radio in Indonesia
Full text linkIndonesian Islam has become the point of contestation of ideologies, particularly between the so-called globally-inspired and locally- rooted views of Islam. This article deals with the Salafism struggle in da’wah on the airwaves through the radio as locally rooted in Indonesia with a special reference to the Salafi radio highly popular in Batam of Riau, Hang Radio. It analyzes two main issues, first on the growth of religious thinking in Indonesian Islam and its relationship with media propaganda, and second on the Salafi struggle for Islamic identity by means of broadcasting through radio. It argues that through the radio the Salafists implement their ideology as part of their socio-religious identity in a public sphere. Through a hermeneutical-phenomology analaysis, this article finds thatthe Salafism struggle of Islamic identity by means of radio is fragmented rather than cohesive and solid. Moreover, this struggle is not immune to capitalism. Above all, this struggle is also influenced by transnational and local elements
Islamic revival and cultural diversity: pesantren’s configuration in contemporary Aceh Indonesia
Full text linkThis study aims at investigating the extent to which pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Aceh, Indonesia have flourished in encountering multicultural situations in the post-disaster of a massive tsunami and post-separatist-military conflict through the lens of Islamic revivalism. A decade and a half after the gigantic natural disaster in 2004 and the protracted bloody conflict, Aceh underwent various changes in social, economic, political, educational, and religious areas. In the educational and religious sectors, a pivotal metamorphose took place in pesantren as a means of Islamic revival, where this Islamic boarding school has transformed into multicultural institutions. Using a qualitative design, this study observed a small number of pesantren in Aceh, interviewed their key stakeholders, and analyzed pesantren documents. The findings show that pesantren cultures in contemporary Aceh differ from previous monolithic traditional Islamic schools in curriculum, characteristics, typology, and affiliation. This change is a unique mark of an Islamic revival following the influx of the plural Indonesian and of the world communities to Aceh after the catastrophe and violence with their heterogeneous aids and cultural settings. In addition, the implementation of shari’a (Islamic) law in this special province after both tragedies confirmed the work of the Islamic revival, though many nationalists sharply criticize this sectarian and exclusive law within multicultural countries like Indonesia. However, in this situation, pesantren in Aceh expressed a positive commitment to celebrating cultural diversity through ethnicity respect, religious tolerance, and Indonesian unity rather than endorsing the idea of an Islamic state
Islamic orthodoxy-based character education: creating moderate Muslim in a modern pesantren in Indonesia
Full text linkPesantren (Islamic boarding school) has been contributing to build moderate character for Muslims in Indonesia towards globalization. However, amid peaceful Islam disseminated in the country, nowadays, radical Muslim movement challenges this character. This study aims to describe the construction of turats (traditional Muslim virtues), which has been taught in pesantren as an orthodox teachings legacy, to create young Muslim with moderate attitude through character education. It will also highlight about how and why character education with Islamic orthodoxy content is necessary to be inculcated in pesantren to produce moderate Muslim. Qualitative research was employed in this study, with a case study approach. In doing so, data collection was carried out through interviews, observation, and documents analysis techniques. The results demonstrated that the moderate character building based on the modernization of turats is derived from the renowned dogma of the ushul fiqh (traditional Islamic Jurisprudence); al muhafadhatu 'ala al-qadim as-sholih wal akhdu bi al-jadid al-ashlah (maintaining good tradition and employing the new-better one). It also revealed that within 24 hours pesantren learning activities, this jargon is disseminated to the students through the concept of Islamic guidance. In this concept, moderate character values infused to the student’s activities are rooted to the Qur'an (Muslim holy book) and Hadits (Prophet’s wisdom) as the religious foundation, the founding fathers’ vision (historical foundation), the pesantren mission (institutional foundation), and the contextual experience (empirical foundation) as well as the dynamic challenges of the globalization. The entire character education process paves a pivotal way to the moderate Muslim generation creation
Critique of radical religious paradigm: an epistemological analysis from principles of Islamic thought
Full text linkAs one important factor enabling Islamophobia, radicalism has been a global issue endangering personal safety and public security. It is strongly associated with incorrect understanding of religious doctrines. This paper aims to present a critique of religious paradigm promoted by the radical groups from principles of Islamic thought (usul fiqh) perspective. Using epistemological analysis to uncover the nature of their religious understanding and its justification, this study argues that radical religious paradigm is characterized with monolithic, textual, and rigid interpretation of the sacred texts. According to the radical groups, the sources of Islamic laws or teachings are restricted to only the Quran and the hadith, leaving no space for alternative interpretations. They do not give a place for ra’yu (reason) in determining the laws or teachings. In the other hands, usul fiqh maintains that the sources of the Islamic laws or teachings are not restricted to only the two said sources; it also gives a place for ra’yu (reason). From usul fiqh perspective, the sources can also be found in the form of isyarah (signalling) and ruh (spirit) of the Quran and the hadith. In this sense, usul fiqh refuses the literal interpretation proposed by the radical groups since not all of the texts in the Quran and the hadith can be understood literally