Peaceful Islam and Nurcholish's lasting legacy

Peaceful Islam and Nurcholish's lasting legacy

Greg Barton, Melbourne

Indonesia, home to some of the most significant progressive
Islamic ideas in the modern period has lost one of its greatest
thinkers just when he was needed most.

The untimely death last week of Nurcholish Madjid (66), a
leading advocate for a tolerant and peaceful understanding of
Islam, after a long struggle with Hepatitis, has been noted not
only across Indonesia, where he was given a state funeral, but
also around the world.

He is remembered by many as the man who helped bring down
Soeharto, as the respected scholar who calmly walked into an
audience with the steely, authoritarian, great survivor and
boldly, but politely, told the old man that his time was up.
That moment, however, will not be Nurcholish's lasting legacy.
History will remember him best for his profound rethinking of
Islam eloquently set forth in hundreds of thousands of words of
lucid prose.

Nurcholish showed Muslims and non-Muslims alike that religion
does not need to be represented by political parties and defended
by political campaigns for it to shape the character of a nation.
His great contribution lies in his deeply original and
significant contribution to our understanding of how best
religious faith can contribute to our very plural modern world.

Although trained in a madrasah as an Islamic scholar,
Nurcholish transcended the boundaries of that intellectual
tradition and successfully combined traditional Islamic
scholarship, with its deep knowledge of the Koran, of Islamic
jurisprudence and of Sufi mysticism, with critical modern
thought.

The creative synthesis of intellectual traditions that
resulted gave him the tools to systematically rethink how Islam
should be lived in the modern world. Specifically, by employing
modern approaches to hermeneutics in the pressing task of
ijtihad, or reinterpretation of the Koran, Nurcholish was able to
demonstrate how best the core teachings of Islam can be applied
in this modern age, congruent with, but not limited by,
traditional understandings of Sharia, or Islamic law. He argued
cogently that true godliness, in an individual and in a nation,
come from inner transformation not from external force or
imposition of law.

Nurcholish rejected as profoundly mistaken the conviction of
modern Islamists that Islamist parties, and the imposition of
Sharia via state legislation, hold the key to achieving societies
and states that are more truly Islamic.

Instead he argued for, and put into practice, the power of
education to transform the individual, and through them the world
around them. His Paramadina foundation (which taught tens of
thousands of evening and weekend seminar attendees the basics of
Islam according to progressive and liberal perspectives) and the
related Paramadina school and Paramadina university (which strive
for high quality modern secular education) reflect this vision.

Central to his understanding of education and the pursuit of
knowledge is the role of dialogue and open exchange both within
the Islamic ummah and between ummah, or religious communities,
including between the 'Muslim world' and 'the west' and between
Muslims and followers of other faiths.

Although we should, by now, be well aware of the power of
religious ideas and religious thinkers to influence society and
inspire social movements we continue to underestimate their
influence, especially within the Muslim world. Sadly, if we do
give them consideration then we tend to think only of the
negative examples that interrupt our studied indifference.

Since that fateful September day four years ago we have been
obliged to pay attention to thinkers such as Sayyid Qutb and his
modern followers in al-Qaeda, Jamaah Islamiyah and elsewhere, and
to their embracing of what Samuel Huntington famously dubbed a
clash of civilizations mentality.

What we don't yet properly understand, but now need to begin
to recognize, is that it is progressive Islamic intellectuals
such as Nurcholish Madjid who have are persuading many, directly
and indirectly, towards a very different, less materialistic,
less political and wholly more peaceful understanding of how
faith can change the world.

Many people, Muslim leaders included, feel uncomfortable with
linking terrorism with a 'struggle of ideas'. Terrorists such as
those behind the London bombings, they argue, are simply
criminals and have nothing to do with Islam because anyone who
uses the violent means of terrorism cannot be a true Muslim. The
problem with this line of reasoning is that it ignores the
sociology of religious movements.

Ideas matter and writers have great power. If the powerful,
modern, ideas of jihadi Islamism are not met in the marketplace
of ideas with an equally vigorous, contemporary, articulation of
peaceful Islam then 'the center of gravity' of public discourse
will inevitably slide towards those ideas that appear most
powerful and relevant to the modern world.

The progressive interpretation of Islam developed by
Nurcholish Madjid and his friends, such as former president
Abdurrahman Wahid, represents a powerful alternative to jihadi
Islamism.

The writer is associate professor in Politics at Deakin
University in Melbourne, Australia, and is author of Abdurrahman
Wahid: Muslim Democrat, Indonesian President, Sydney: UNSW Press,
2002; and Indonesia's Struggle: Jemaah Islamiyah and the soul of
Islam, UNSW Press, 2004. He can be contacted at
gregjbarton@gmail.com