The role of Islam in Indonesia and global terrorism

Jusuf Wanandi Cofounder and member Board of Trustees Centre for Strategic and International Studies Jakarta

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, with almost 200 million Muslims in a total population of over 220 million people. It is also recognized as a moderate Muslim country. It is not a Muslim state based on Islam. It does not implement sharia as the law of the land. Furthermore, it is not a theocracy. However, Indonesia is not a completely secular state in the Western sense, because it sanctions five official religions and has a government department of religious affairs to support all recognized religions. Religion is seen as having an important role to play in society and is regarded as an individual choice and a private matter by most Muslims.

Islam in Indonesia is regarded as moderate as it is willing to coexist with other religions, it is open-minded and believes that democracy is a natural political system, while human rights, including equality of women, are very much part of the teachings of Islam. Its believers also think that the private sector and the market place should be the defining factors of the economy, but that social justice is important for the market system to be acceptable.

In the last few years, however, especially at the end of the Soeharto era and especially after he had resigned, more aggressive and even extreme Muslim groups emerged and in some instances defined the Muslim agenda in the country. Therefore, the question has arisen among foreign analysts and observers whether groups like Laskar Jihad, the Islam Defenders Front (FPI)) and others are turning Indonesia's Islam into a more radicalized version of Islam, which will define the future of Islam in Indonesia.

Concurrently, the question has also been raised as to whether mainstream Islamic groups, which constitute the majority, such as Nahdlatul Ulama, mainly active in the rural part of Java, or Muhammadiyah, which wants to upgrade Muslims through social and educational activities in the urban centers, have lost their leadership and influence among the Muslim community and are fighting rearguard actions against the much smaller but militant and extreme groupings.

The questions are not really valid, because those extremist groups are small and in fact negligible in influence, but they have been very vocal and active. Combined with the weak government that has existed in Indonesia since Soeharto's downfall, those groups indeed look very threatening. But, most importantly, they have not contributed anything substantial to the intellectual debate on Islam's future in Indonesia.

Islam in Indonesia is moderate, because it was introduced gradually (over several centuries since the 12th) and peacefully (through trade by traders from Gujarat, Southwestern India). As such it had to absorb elements of earlier layers of existing religions and cultures, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and, to a lesser extent, Confucianism, and become a syncretic mix through acculturation processes.

Further modernization of Islam has taken place through its educational system. One has been the pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) of NU, that have sent their students abroad to centers of excellence of Islamic studies, including Al Azhar in Cairo, since the mid-18th century. Later, through IAIN (State Institute for Islamic Studies) they were sent to centers of Islamic study in the West.

For the past 30 years Muhammadiyah has also contributed to the efforts and now has 14,000 conventional schools that also offer religious teaching, as well as 60 universities.

In all these modernization efforts, former president Abdurrahman Wahid has done pioneering work. Although political Islam, in its many groups and manifestations, has always been active and influential in modern Indonesia, it also has had its ups and downs. There are small groups that want to establish a Muslim state through insurgency. Others have tried this through the constitutional process. In 1957 to 1958, through the Constituent Assembly, all the Muslim parties tried to establish Islam as the basic principle of the state. Having only 43 percent of seats, they were defeated by the opposition.

Since then, there was a setback to the influence of political Islam in Indonesia until mainstream leaders decided to separate Islam as a religion from practical politics in the 1980s. Both NU and Muhammadiyah decided to withdraw officially from practical politics, that is from being part of the United Development Party (PPP), although their members were allowed to join any political party. That is how they tried to reconcile Islam, as a socio- cultural phenomenon, with nationalism and modernization. And this established trust between mainstream Muslim and the populace at large.

Both endeavors, in the field of education and the separation of religion from politics, have contributed to a moderate, open, democratic and peaceful Islam in Indonesia. The political discourse is led by modern thinkers, who are well versed in Islamic thinking, both in NU and Muhammadiyah.

Previously, the debate on this took place between Muslim leaders and non-Muslim leaders or nominal Muslims. This time it was amongst Muslim leaders themselves. And overwhelmingly the "moderates" among them rejected the proposal to make sharia a positive law. This was done in a transparent and democratic way and was most impressive.

So, there is ample reason why most mainstream Islamic community leaders are assured that the majority of Indonesian Muslims are moderate, open, democratic and peaceful. And if there are extremist or radical Muslim groups, they are small and non- influential. And they are not necessarily linked to global terrorism. But if these groups are against the law, they should be punished accordingly. What is important is not to make them into heroes. Therefore, the rule of law and implementation of human rights will be important norms to be established in the effort against global as well as national terrorism.

Mainstream Muslim leaders are more worried about the depth of the crisis, which is all-encompassing, and about the weakness of the national leadership to overcome the crisis. They are worried that Indonesia will becomes a failed state if the crisis is not overcome soon. They recognize that only part of the problem is related to global terrorism. The best that Indonesian Islam can do in fighting global terrorism is by becoming a model for what Islam really entails, namely democracy, openness, moderation and peace.

And some analysts argue that it is now time to show to Middle Eastern Islam that Islam has to be reinvented, led by the former periphery, namely Southeast Asia Islam. This is because the Middle East has been bogged down in the conservative traditions of eight to nine centuries ago and is unable to adjust to the challenges of the 21st century.

The new leadership of Southeast Asian Islam should give new impetus to the old center of Islam to be able to change and adjust to future challenges. Indonesia, as the largest and most populous Muslim country in the world, should be in the vanguard of these changes. It has the intellectual leadership as well as the political will to be able to do that.

However, her capacity is still limited due to the crisis. Therefore, international assistance and support to overcome the deep and multifaceted crisis are important for Indonesia to be able to play its important role in the Muslim world.