The shades of Indonesian political Islam in reforms

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.