In the centre of Tebu Ireng, Indonesia's most famous Islamic boarding school, is a mosque-graveyard complex which includes the grave of Hashim Ashari, the founder of Tebu Ireng who is remembered... Show moreIn the centre of Tebu Ireng, Indonesia's most famous Islamic boarding school, is a mosque-graveyard complex which includes the grave of Hashim Ashari, the founder of Tebu Ireng who is remembered and revered as both a Sufi master and an Indonesian national hero. Around this physical and spiritual centre, a number of new spaces (schools, a telecommunications office, computer labs, and banks) have emerged. It is argued here that the very landscape of Tebu Ireng spatializes the kinds of relationships that the school's leaders argue that Muslims should have with the State, secular science, and the global market place. Show less
Social, political, and economic turmoil now make it easy to forget that just two years ago Indonesia stood out amongst ethno-linguistically plural nations for its successful nationalist and... Show moreSocial, political, and economic turmoil now make it easy to forget that just two years ago Indonesia stood out amongst ethno-linguistically plural nations for its successful nationalist and developmentalist dynamic. And as recently as the mid-1990s, I ndonesian modernization seemed to be unimpeded by religious tension. Show less
The collapse of the Soeharto regime has undermined the three legitimatory pillars of the Indonesian state: the much acclaimed economic development of the country is thwarted; the alleged... Show moreThe collapse of the Soeharto regime has undermined the three legitimatory pillars of the Indonesian state: the much acclaimed economic development of the country is thwarted; the alleged preoccupation of the Indonesian government with economic and political equity has been recognized as the rhetorical decorum of 'crony-capitalism'; and the lauded socio-political stability has finally erupted in social unrest and perturbation, gradually dissolving the 'social glue' provided by Indonesia's 'civil religion', the pancasil a philosophy. The repressed ghosts of nationalist imagination - political Islam and the disruption of centre-periphery relations - walk again. Apart from gender, 'religion' became an issue in the run for presidency. Show less
