A breakthrough decision

In a historic decision made at an annual policy-making meeting in Bali on Sunday, Muhammadiyah, the country's largest modernist Muslim organization, accepted pre-Islamic traditions as a reality. Muhammadiyah chairman Dr. Ahmad Syafii Maarif said in Denpasar on Sunday that the organization would now be more flexible in accommodating local cultures. In the past the organization has treated local cultures, which vary from one ethnic group to another, as either anathema or nonexistent in the Islamic domain. Muhammadiyah, which many regard as a "puritan" group, has tried to purify Islamic teaching from local elements. "In spreading Islam in an ethnic community, we should realize that we cannot change the people's mind-set instantly," Dr. Syafii said.

The decision looks like a switch in the way of thinking of Muhammadiyah leaders. In line with other modernist Muslim thought, this moderate organization has rejected all local concepts and thinking, and even ways of life, which it deems to be antagonistic, or not in line, with Islamic teaching. Since its establishment in 1912, Muhammadiyah has proclaimed its puritan and reformist ideas, and produced modern contributions to religious thought in Islam.

In its daily workings since its foundation, it has proclaimed its commitment to the Koran and the hadith. The last mentioned is the second source of Islamic guidance and consists of documented accounts of the teachings and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad that are not found in the Koran but were recorded for posterity by his close companions and members of his family.

Muhammadiyah has since watched and rationally opposed what anthropologists term local genius. One of the features of the old traditions is the commemorations marking the third, seventh, 40th, 100th and 1,000th day of the death of a family member. This tradition, which Muhammadiyah leaders and members tend to frown upon, is still widely found on the island of Java, and is said to characterize abangan Muslims. (Abangan being a popular pejorative word for those who fail to live up to strict Islamic precepts).

Those opposed to Muhammadiyah's mind-set say the organization is too much influenced by the Western way of thinking, and forgets local traditions and cultures. And in its religious thinking, Muhammadiyah has been much too verbal and formal, and tends only to refer to the interpretations and thinking of the early Islamic era.

However, in reality, since 1912 Muhammadiyah has been regarded by most Muslims here as a force for renewal and modernization in the Islamic community. In an interview with the Post last week, Dr. Syafii said the organization had left behind its conventional approaches to religious, social and political problems so as to adjust to a fast-growing, pluralistic society. If it is sometimes involved in politics, it is "high-politics", a political movement based on ethics, morality and independence.

Speaking about the current crisis, he said, "We are now living in a period where people live in a situation of social, political and economic imbalances. Everybody is already sick and tired of seeing political leaders bickering with each other ... They are like spoiled children."

He also assuages our fears about radicalism and extremism in Muslim society today: "I can assure the outside world that radical and extremist Islam is not the mainstream movement in Indonesia. They are only small minority group within the overall Muslim community in the country."

The members and executives of Muhammadiyah are called on to widen their circles of communication and to open more dialogs with people of different religious, social and cultural backgrounds. They are asked to build better relationships, and to share and seek solutions to the nation's problems with everybody, even atheists.

Such far-reaching thinking will hopefully assist the efforts of the organization, which works in the educational and charitable fields, to overcome its old problems, such as concerns over the quality of its 12,000 of schools spread across this vast archipelago.

For the future, we may predict that the organization will be more acceptable to increasing numbers of local ethnic groups as it will no longer oppose their traditions.