In Indonesia the coming out of Islamic radicalism has once more disquieted public life. Since the US assault on Afghanistan following the September 11 terrorist acts, Islamic youth organizations... Show moreIn Indonesia the coming out of Islamic radicalism has once more disquieted public life. Since the US assault on Afghanistan following the September 11 terrorist acts, Islamic youth organizations have been staging anti-America protests throughout Indonesia's main cities, showing the world a face of Indonesian Islam different from the moderate one with which it is usually identified. The protests also show a different face of young Indonesian activists. This time they do not appear as the spirited bunch of the student movement that ousted Suharto in 1998, but as fiery campaigners for a jihad. Show less
The 12 October bombing in Bali that killed more than 180 people seemed to vindicate the claims of those who had been accusing the Indonesian authorities of deliberately ignoring the presence on... Show moreThe 12 October bombing in Bali that killed more than 180 people seemed to vindicate the claims of those who had been accusing the Indonesian authorities of deliberately ignoring the presence on Indonesian soil of Islamic terrorists connected with al-Qacida network. More sober voices commented that domestic power struggles, rather than international terrorism, might be responsible for this outrage. It was the largest, but by no means the first major bomb explosion in Indonesia. Show less
On 5 January 2001 the Japanese Asahi Shinbun newspaper reported that the Indonesian Department of Health had ordered P.T. Ajinomoto-Indonesia to withdraw its product, Ajinomoto, an artificial... Show moreOn 5 January 2001 the Japanese Asahi Shinbun newspaper reported that the Indonesian Department of Health had ordered P.T. Ajinomoto-Indonesia to withdraw its product, Ajinomoto, an artificial seasoning of monosodium glutamate (MSG), from the market because it contained pork. A few days later, the then Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, also an expert on fiqh, expressed to the Japanese Minister of Justice that he believed the Ajinomoto seasoning could indeed be consumed by Muslims. This seemingly trivial occurrence nonetheless became intertwined in the religious and political issues of Indonesia under the Wahid government. Show less
News coverage on Indonesia since the resignation of former President Suharto has been filled with images of sectarian violence and separatist agitation linked to 'fundamentalist' Islam. The ascent... Show moreNews coverage on Indonesia since the resignation of former President Suharto has been filled with images of sectarian violence and separatist agitation linked to 'fundamentalist' Islam. The ascent of Abdurrahman Wahid, former head of the 'traditionalist' Muslim clerics association, the Nahdlatul Ulama, to the Presidency of the nation at first suggested a shaky vigour in 'moderate' expressions of Islam. But as his second year in office begins, grave doubts loom as to the strength of the middle ground between so-called 'secular' and 'extremist Muslim' forces. Show less
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
Indonesia, with a population of more than 200 million, of which perhaps 80 percent is Muslim, is frequently portrayed in popular presses as 'the world's largest Islamic nation.' Typically, this... Show moreIndonesia, with a population of more than 200 million, of which perhaps 80 percent is Muslim, is frequently portrayed in popular presses as 'the world's largest Islamic nation.' Typically, this statement is then immediately qualified. But, portrayals often continue, 'the' Islam practised by Indonesians is different than that practised in the countries of the Middle and Near East. It is more tempered or syncretic, less dogmatic, doctrinal, or fundamentalist. If proof of this more 'relaxed' attitude to the strict observance of Islam is offered, more often than not it is not through what Indonesian scholars of Islamic law have written (which tends to be rather conservative) nor by attendance figures at Friday mosque services or the number of women who are wearing jilbab head covers (both of which are escalating at remarkable rates). Rather, commentators characteristically turn to the continuing popularity of pre-Islamic cultural forms in contemporary Indonesia Ð Java's celebrated shadow puppet theatre or wayang, with its stories based on the characters and situations of the Indic epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, above all. Show less
