Indonesia's moderate muslims

Indonesia's moderate muslims

Mun'im A. Sirry, Project Syndicate

Islam in Indonesia, whose 200 million people constitute the
world's largest community of Muslims, is increasingly viewed as
very different from the Islam practiced in the older Muslim
communities of the Middle East. Indeed, one distinguished
scholar, Bassam Tibi of Gottingen University, has described
Indonesia as "a model for religiously and ethno-culturally
different communities to live together in peace and mutual
respect."

Some historians argue that Indonesia's moderate form of Islam
reflects the way in which foreign traders introduced it, as early
as the fourteenth century. Then, the coastal culture already
incorporated egalitarianism, dynamism, and inter-dependence,
which affected the ideology and practice of Islam. In addition,
Indonesian Islam had strong Sufi influences, which emphasize the
spiritual rather than the legal elements of the faith.

Similarly, Giora Eliraz of Hebrew University argues that the
Islamic ideas that arrived in Indonesia from the Middle East
changed, becoming more inclusive and pluralist in character,
owing to the influence of the great nineteenth-century Egyptian
reformer Muhammad Abduh. In Egypt, Abduh's progressive ideas
gained support from only a tiny group of reformers. In Indonesia,
however, Abduh's vision of Islamic modernity sparked the creation
of the country's largest modernist Muslim organization,
Muhammadiyah, which represents mainstream moderate Islam in
Indonesia.

This history of moderation continued unabated through the
twentieth century, embraced by both traditionalists and
modernists. The traditionalist organization Nahdlatul Ulama
(NU), for example, had issued a fatwa (religious decree) in the
1930s declaring Dutch colonial rule to be legitimate. The early
leaders of Muhammadiyah focused more on the spiritual improvement
of individual Muslims, rather than public enforcement of Islamic
law.

Most importantly, this orientation toward moderation has
consistently drawn support from Indonesias leading intellectuals.
A remarkably creative and dedicated group of young religious and
social thinkers and activists chose in the 1960s and 1970s --
during the early days of Soeharto's secular New Order regime --
to reject the idea of an Islamic state.

At the height of the New Order's political repression of Islam
during the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new pattern of thinking
emerged among younger intellectuals. Their "reform movement"
(gerakan pembaruan), is perhaps best summed up in Nurcholish
Madjid's 1972s dictum: "Islam yes, Islamic party no." This new
generation successfully took the idea of an Islamic state off the
political agenda.

By the late 1980s, Soeharto's own stance towards Islam was
changing. Government concessions to religious sentiment included
the promulgation of Islamic family law in 1989, the establishment
of the Indonesian Muslim Intellectual Association in 1990,
lifting the ban on schoolgirls' wearing the jilbab (head cover)
in 1991, the founding of an Islamic bank (Bank Muamalat) in 1992,
and abolition of the state lottery. These measures persuaded
Indonesia's Muslims that they could live in accord with Islamic
teaching without Indonesia becoming an Islamic state.

The state established a wide network of educational
institutions that support this moderate tendency. There are now
27 branches of the State Islamic University, which integrate
Islamic and general studies for undergraduate and graduate
students.

Indonesian students and scholars actively seek to engage new
ways of understanding Islam and exploring its relevance for
Indonesia. For the past two decades, increasing numbers of
Indonesian students have been drawn to study in the West. As a
result, they have come to see Islam as a dynamic process of
understanding the world, rather than a static faith that cannot
change. Those who studied in the West appear well equipped to
present an "Islam" more adaptable and amenable to social change.

Indeed, many Western-educated students now occupy the highest
academic and political positions in Indonesia. They work actively
to develop a different image of Islam -- an Islam compatible with
modern human achievements, including democracy, human rights, and
vibrant civil societies.

It is neither exaggeration nor overly optimistic to say that
Indonesia's experience could pave the way for the emergence of
what might be called a "moderate Islamic network," one that
forges strong links with the West.

The writer is an Indonesian Muslim scholar and the author of
several books, including Resisting Religious Militancy.