The shades of Indonesian political Islam in reforms

Karim Raslan, Lawyer, Writer, Kuala Lumpur

Who will win the hearts and minds of Indonesia's 200 million Muslims?

The struggle is often presented in stark terms as nothing less than a clash between two forces with "liberal" Islam on the one hand and "literal" Islam on the other. For once the simplistic characterization is not entirely inaccurate.

The internationally celebrated scholar, Nurcholish Madjid and Azyurmadi Azra the Dean of the leading Indonesian seminary, IAIN (State Academy of Islamic Sciences) Syarif Hidayatullah are among the leading moderates. The two men are known for their willingness to address the challenges of modernity, their tolerance of other faiths as well as their sensitivity to gender rights.

There are also a number of young generation figures - such as the Nahdlatul Ulama's irrepressible head of human resource development Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, and the academic Lutfi Assyaukanie.

On the other hand there are ultra-conservative leaders such as Hidayat Nur Wahid of the Justice Party and Ja'afar Umar Thalib of Laskar Jihad. These two men wish to see the wholesale imposition of the Sharia Law.

As the world's most populous Muslim nation and Southeast Asia's silent giant, Indonesia's fate will inevitably impact on the rest of the region. The vision of a radicalized ummah stretching from Aceh in the northwest to Irian Jaya in the east, straddling sensitive shipping lanes and controlling vital natural resources scares many western strategists.

Certainly there is no fondness between the two groups. Recently, the Laskar Jihad leader was quoted in the Indonesian newsweekly Gatra as saying: "The difference between us and them (the liberals) is the same as between the followers of Islam and non-believers."

However, the moderates are not running scared. Whilst the majority of Indonesians are middle-of-the road in terms of religious practices, the republic's liberals have in fact achieved a critical mass.

Part of the reason is that under Soeharto's New Order regime, the religious establishment -- both the NU and the Muhammadiyah steered clear of government. The NU with its roots in the privately owned pesantrens (religious schools) of East Java has had a long history of autonomy. This feistiness stretches back to the days of Dutch colonialism. Conversely the loose-knit structure has, at times undermined the effectiveness of the NU.

The arm's length relationship has meant that both organizations with an estimated membership of thirty million members apiece have managed to retain their credibility in the eyes of the people.

The NU also directed a great deal of their energies towards education. Unencumbered by political ambition NU kiyai (or scholars) such as Abdurrahman Wahid (or Gus Dur) focused on the pursuit of knowledge. They spent time trying balance western enlightenment ideas with traditional Islamic precepts. Having been on the receiving end of the Soeharto government the NU developed a passionate and enduring commitment to human rights.

As Ulil says of the thirty million strong association: "Whilst the NU is committed to tradition, it has demonstrated a surprising readiness to embrace new ideas. This is due in part to the feudal but benign leadership of Gus Dur."

In this respect Indonesia is extremely unusual. Elsewhere in the Islamic world, the religious establishment has often sacrificed its independence in working hand-in-glove with the authorities. At the same time liberal-inclined writers and thinkers are generally embattled and isolated. In Egypt, for example Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz was even the subject of a brutal assassination attempt in 1994.

Indonesia's liberals are not going to be victims. They are mobilizing. They think strategically. They understand the media and they plan for the future. A good example is the work being conducted by the Jaringan Islam Liberal -- the Islamic Liberal Network (islamlib.com). The group has focused on shaping public opinion. They appear on TV and radio shows, they write very regularly and syndicate their commentaries in newspapers across the archipelago.

The country's liberals are not effete, western-educated secularists. Most of them have emerged from pesantrens. They are fluent in Arabic and trained in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). Their background gives them the confidence to debate substantive religious issues. They do not retreat from confrontation. As Ulil says straight-forwardly: "We come from within the tradition. We can challenge the conservatives head-on."

Exposed to a wide range of classical works by many different Islamic scholars including all the great legal traditions (the Maliki, the Hanbali, the Hanafi and of course, the Shafi'i), most of the students have developed an innate understanding of the "internal dissension" and dialogue that lies at the heart of Islamic jurisprudence. In short they realize that there is no "one" answer for any given question.

Their scholarship is prodigious and detailed. As deeply committed Muslims they approach the Holy Koran with enormous respect, intense piety and intellectual rigor. Some have combined their profound knowledge of the Holy Koran and the Sunnah with a stint in leading western universities such as Canada's McGill and the Netherlands' Leiden. Newly-learnt philosophies and techniques such as hermeneutics and semantics are then employed in their research.

Moreover they've grasped a fundamental truth -- that Islam is a religion that emphasizes both correct thought (iman) and correct action (amal). To their mind, reform movements cannot merely tinker around with policies and procedures. Instead, the core challenge is nothing less than a revisitation of the meaning and the application of Holy Koran.

Furthermore they believe that modernity -- human rights, democracy, science and technology can be reconciled with Islam and that the two are not opposing forces. As Ulil Abshar Abdalla explains, "In exploring these values, we are drawn to the spirit of criticism and questioning that is a hallmark of centuries of Islamic discourse."

A recent example is Wajah Baru Relasi Suami Isteri (The New Face of Husband/Wife Relations) -- a re-examination of a respected kitab kuning (or religious text) from the 1800s. Composed by Sheikh Nawawi, the text has become a stalwart teaching material in pesantrens across the archipelago. However for many progressives it represents some of the most misogynistic attitudes.

A study group led by Ibu Sinta Nuriah, the wife of former President Abdurrahman Wahid set out to re-appraise the book and redress the in-built gender bias of the original. The reinterpretation of C19th text is tackled diligently and line-by- line. Each and every hadith cited in the original is scrutinized and verified according to long-established rules of exegesis and authentication.

As Nasarudddin Umar, a Professor at IAIN argues "Sheikh Nawawi's book is very Arabic in culture. This needs to be addressed along with the discrimination of women in the original. One must never forget that the ultimate goal of the Shariah is always Justice and Peace." Whilst the struggle between the forces will be prolonged there is no doubt that in Indonesia, at least the liberals and their opponents are evenly matched.