The Christian Science Monitor, October 05, 2005
In Indonesia, the struggle within Islam
By Tom McCawley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
JAKARTA, INDONESIA - Here in the world's largest Muslim country a war of ideas
within Islam is playing out on an unlikely stage: a bohemian arts community in a
crowded Jakarta side street. The patrons of the Utan Kayu Theater, including some of
Indonesia's leading novelists and writers, normally gather to discuss such topics as
avant-garde art or prewar Russian cinema.
But in recent weeks, a fierce debate over how Muslims should be allowed to worship,
marry, and even think has caught the theater in its crossfire. Hard-line Muslim groups
have been threatening to evict the Liberal Islam Network, a small group of intellectuals
known as JIL, from their offices in the theater complex by the beginning of the Islamic
fasting month of Ramadan - Wednesday.
The struggle, observers say, is not only over how to interpret Islam's 1,400-year-old
holy book, the Koran, but what role it will play in Indonesia's future. The tensions are
driving a rising confrontation between liberals and an alliance of conservative and
radical groups.
JIL's crime, according to the white-robed vigilante group the Islamic Defenders Front,
is spreading liberal ideas about Islam. "The intellectual fight has turned physical,"
says Nong Darol Mahmada, a female JIL member, telling of death threats by
telephone. "The hard-line conservatives are getting more powerful."
The Islamic Defenders, famous for attacking cafes with samurai swords, have also
tried to recruit nearby poor residents to help evict JIL and its supporters, including a
radio station and media think tank. JIL is preparing lawyers, and plans to seek
protection from the courts.
The threats from the Islamic Defenders follow a series of fatwas, or religious edicts,
from Indonesia's powerful Islamic scholar's council, the MUI. On July 29, the council
issued fatwas condemning "liberalism, secularism, and pluralism." The 11 fatwas,
read to a meeting of 400 Islamic scholars from across the country, also condemn
inter-faith prayers and marriages between religions.
Growing power of conservative Islam
JIL activists say that fatwas mark the growing power of ultra-conservative Islam, a
movement that unites both elected politicians and street vigilantes. Supporters of the
fatwas say they are following their duty to protect Islam from the threat of globalization
and Western ideas.
"The liberals think everything is open to interpretation," said Ma'ruf Amin, head of the
MUI's fatwa commission, "and that clashes with Islamic teachings."
Syafi'i Ma'arif, former chairman of Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, the
30-million strong Muhammadiyah, warned reporters that: "the fatwas will embolden
hard-line, power-hungry groups." Since July 29 an alliance of Muslim vigilante groups,
the Anti-Apostasy Movement, has stepped up a campaign to get rid of informal prayer
groups and churches, causing a total of 23 to close within a year.
Mobs have also attacked the houses and mosques of the 200-member Ahmadiyah, a
Muslim sect, declared by the fatwas to be "deviant," because they recognize their
founder to be Islam's last prophet instead of Muhammad. In an interview, the MUI's
Mr. Ma'ruf tut-tuts over the closures, condemning violence, but noting that "the
churches didn't have permits."
Since its arrival from the Middle East in the 11th century, Islam has nestled alongside
older Hindu, Buddhist, and animist practices. Only a tiny, violent fringe openly
supports terrorist attacks such as last weekend's suicide attack in Bali that left at
least 26 dead and 100 hundred injured.
Most of Indonesia's 193 million Muslims - 88 percent of the population - practice a
moderate form of Islam. Muslim Indonesians often give their children Hindu names,
and religious minorities such as Christians are protected under the constitution.
JIL's founders say the group was formed in 2001 to protect this spirit of tolerance
through its activism, radio broadcasts, and newspaper articles. "We just want to be
able to discuss religion in the same way you can discuss art or politics," says JIL
coordinator Hamid Basyaib.
JIL's mission statement says the group believes in ijtihad, or the application of reason
to interpreting Islamic texts. The use of ijtihad, Mr. Hamid says, has led its members
away from a literal interpretation of the Koran and toward support for the separation of
mosque and state.
The group has also offended conservatives by arguing that truth is relative and that
other religious faiths are equal to Islam. Even worse, say hardliners, is JIL's support
for the "freedom of belief," including the right not to be religious.
Mr. Hamid also rejects criticism that liberal Islam is an American import, claiming the
group draws on an ancient tradition of Islamic scholarship stretching to thinkers in the
14th century.
JIL part of wider liberal network
Mr. Ma'ruf says that JIL is just part of a much wider network that includes several
major state universities. He also warns liberalism has gained ground in the world's two
largest Muslim organizations, the 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the
30-million strong Muhammadiyah. "Some things, some passages, [in the Koran], are
beyond question," he says from NU's headquarters. "It is heretical to question the
literal word of God," he says.
But JIL activist Abdul Moqsith Ghazali claims the NU and the Muhammadiyah are
showing signs of shifting in a conservative direction, pointing to the influx of students
who graduated from Middle Eastern universities in the 1980s.
Senior members of both organizations supported the July 28 fatwas. "There's a rising
tide of Islamic conservatism [in Indonesia]" says Greg Barton, an associate professor
at Australia's Deakin University and scholar of Indonesian Islam.
"These people have been working for over a decade and only now are beginning to see
the fruits of their labors," says Mr. Barton.
Back at the Utan Kayu Theater, Ms. Nong breathes a sigh of relief, after promises
from nearby community leaders to support JIL. The group, along with the radio station,
is safe for the time being. "We've won in this neighborhood," she says. "But the war of
ideas will continue."
Copyright © 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
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