THE INTERSECTION OF ISLAM AND POLITICS IN INDONESIA'S LOCAL AUTONOMY ERA
Abstract
The article examines the impact of local governance on Islam and politics in Indonesia, examining how decentralization of power has allowed local politicians to collaborate with Islamic organizations and parties to affect local policy. Local officials have been accused of Islamization, which entails promoting Islamic ideals and practices through governmental policy. The article examines the issue of mixing religion and politics, stressing that some Indonesians feel Islam should be crucial in the country's political landscape. In contrast, others believe religion and politics should be kept separate. After reviewing the many perspectives on Islam and politics in Indonesia, the article finishes by underlining the need for a more harmonious interaction between these two sectors. It emphasizes the existence of inter-religious conflicts in Indonesia, some of which have been fuelled by politicians' exploitation of sectarianism to further their interests. As a result, the paper suggests that politicians and policymakers adopt a more inclusive approach that respects religious diversity and encourages communication among different religious groups. This essay proposes that education and the media can promote inter-religious harmony and tolerance, resulting in a more peaceful and prosperous society.
References
Al-Aharish, Mohammad Hamid Mohammad. 2017. “Indonesian Islam and Social Challenges between Moral Cultivation and Intellectual Movement.” Journal of Indonesian Islam 11 (2): 551–58. https://doi.org/10.15642/JIIS.2017.11.2.551-568.
Ansor, Muhammad. 2014. “Being Woman in the Land of Shari’a: Politics of the Female Body, Piety and Resistance in Langsa, Aceh.” Al-Jami’ah 52 (1): 59–83. https://doi.org/10.14421/ajis.2014.521.59-83.
Arifin, Syamsul, Hasnan Bachtiar, Ahmad Nur Fuad, Tongat, and Wahyudi. 2019. “Minority Muslims and Freedom of Religion: Learning from Australian Muslims’ Experiences.” Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies 9 (2): 295–326. https://doi.org/10.18326/IJIMS.V9I2.295-326.
Assyaukanie, Luthfi. 2019. “Religion as a Political Tool Secular and Islamist Roles in Indonesian Elections.” Journal of Indonesian Islam 13 (2): 454–79. https://doi.org/10.15642/JIIS.2019.13.2.454-479.
Azra, Azyumardi. 2004. “Indonesian Islam, Election Politics and Beyond.” NIAS Nytt, no. 4: 12. http://search.proquest.com/openview/ebaa50f5dbd4e080da10939bc5c2a35d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar%5Cnhttp://www.niaslinc.dk/sites/default/files/files/NIASnytt-screen.pdf#page=12.
Bagir, Zainal Abidin, Asfinawati, Suhadi, and Renata Arianingtyas. 2020. “Limitations to Freedom of Religion or Belief in Indonesia: Norms and Practices.” Religion & Human Rights 15 (1–2): 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1163/18710328-bja10003.
Berg, Anna Lea. 2019. “From Religious to Secular Place-Making: How Does the Secular Matter for Religious Place Construction in the Local?” Social Compass 66 (1): 35–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768618813774.
BPS. 2021. “Indeks Demokrasi Indonesia (IDI) Menurut Indikator.” Jakarta.
———. 2022. “Statistik Politik 2022.” Jakarta.
———. 2023a. “Indikator Indeks Demokrasi Indonesia (IDI) Tingkat Pusat.” Jakarta. https://www.bps.go.id/indicator/34/2164/1/-metode-baru-indikator-indeks-dem.
———. 2023b. “Statistical Yearbook of Indonesia 2023.” Jakarta.
Burhani, Ahmad Najib. 2016. “Fundamentalism and Religious Dissent: The LPPI’s Mission to Eradicate the Ahmadiyya in Indonesia.” Indonesia and the Malay World 44 (129): 145–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2015.1135610.
Chalmers, Ian. 2017. “Countering Violent Extremism in Indonesia: Bringing Back the Jihadists.” Asian Studies Review 41 (3): 331–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2017.1323848.
David Kloos. 2014. “In the Name of Syariah? Vigilante Violence, Territoriality, and Moral a Uthority in Aceh, Indonesia.” Indonesia, no. 98: 59–90. https://doi.org/10.5728/indonesia.98.0059.
Duncan, Christopher R. 2007. “Mixed Outcomes: The Impact of Regional Autonomy and Decentralization on Indigenous Ethnic Minorities in Indonesia.” Development and Change 38 (4): 711–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00430.x.
Faguet, Jean Paul, Ashley M. Fox, and Caroline Pöschl. 2015. “Decentralizing for a Deeper, More Supple Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 26 (4): 60–74. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2015.0059.
Formichi, Chiara. 2015. “(Re) Writing the History of Political Islam in Indonesia.” Sojourn 30 (1): 105–40. https://doi.org/10.1355/sj30-1d.
Gedacht, Joshua. 2016. “Islam and Politics in Indonesia: The Masyumi Party between Democracy and Integralism.” Asian Studies Review 41 (2): 322–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2016.1202177.
Hadiz, Vedi R., and Khoo Boo Teik. 2011. “Approaching Islam and Politics from Political Economy: A Comparative Study of Indonesia and Malaysia.” Pacific Review 24 (4): 463–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/09512748.2011.596561.
Hasan, Noorhadi. 2014. “Between the Global and the Local: Negotiating Islam and Democracy in Provincial Indonesia.” In In Search of Middle Indonesia: Middle Classes in Provincial Towns, edited by Gerry van Klinken and Ward Berenschot, 171–98. Leiden and Boston: BRILL and KITLV Press.
Hefner, Robert W. 1997. “Islamization and Democratization in Indonesia.” In Islam in an Era of Nation-States: Politics and Religious Renewal in Muslim Southeast Asis, edited by Robert W. Hefner, 75–128. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824863029.
———. 2002. “Global Violence and Indonesian Muslim Politics.” American Anthropologist 104 (3): 754–65. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2002.104.3.754.
Hosen, Nadirsyah. 2005. “Religion and the Indonesian Constitution: A Recent Debate.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 36 (3): 419–40. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463405000238.
Hudalah, Delik, Tommy Firman, and Johan Woltjer. 2014. “Cultural Cooperation, Institution Building and Metropolitan Governance in Decentralizing Indonesia.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38 (6): 2217–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12096.
Laskowska, Natalia. 2016. “Contemporary Indonesian and Malaysian Interpretations of ‘No Compulsion in Religion.’” Indonesia and the Malay World 44 (129): 249–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2015.1129161.
Latief, Hilman, and Haedar Nashir. 2020. “Local Dynamics and Global Engagements of the Islamic Modernist Movement in Contemporary Indonesia: The Case of Muhammadiyah (2000-2020).” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 39 (2): 290–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/1868103420910514.
Lele, Gabriel. 2012. “The Paradox of Distance in Decentralized Indonesia.” Jurnal Ilmu Sosial Dan Ilmu Politik 15 (3): 220–31. https://doi.org/10.22146/jsp.10916.
Lukito, Ratno. 2019. “Shariah and the Politics of Pluralism in Indonesia: Understanding State’s Rational Approach to Adat and Islamic Law .” Petita 4: 1–18.
Mavelli, Luca. 2013. “Between Normalisation and Exception: The Securitisation of Islam and the Construction of the Secular Subject.” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 41 (2): 159–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829812463655.
Mujani, Saiful, and R William Liddle. 2009. “Muslim Indonesia’s Secular.” Asian Survey 49 (4): 575–90.
Mukrimin. 2012. “Islamic Parties and the Politics of Constitutionalism in Indonesia.” Journal of Indonesian Islam 6 (2): 367–90. https://doi.org/10.15642/JIIS.2012.6.2.367-390.
———. 2013. “Integrated or Fragmented Governance? Indonesia’s Decentralization.” International Journal of Kybernology 1 (1): 84–90.
———. 2018. “Decentralisation and Ethnic Politics: A Reflection of Two Decades of Indonesia’s Decentralisation.” Komunitas: International Journal of Indonesian Society and Culture 10 (2): 233–45. https://doi.org/10.15294/komunitas.v10i2.12752.
———. 2021. Power Sharing: Local Autonomy and Ethnic Politics in Sulawesi Indonesia. First. Malang: Pustaka Learning Center.
Mukrimin, Lahaji Lahaji, and Andi Akifah. 2018. “Democratisation, Decentralisation and Islam: A Reflection of Two Decades of Indonesia’s Local Autonomy.” Al-Ulum 18 (1): 41–63. https://doi.org/10.30603/au.v18i1.283.
Munabari, Fahlesa. 2017. “Reconciling Sharia with ‘Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia’: The Ideology and Framing Strategies of the Indonesian Forum of Islamic Society (FUI).” International Area Studies Review 20 (3): 242–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/2233865917699066.
Muslimin, J. M. 2015. “Shari’a, Indigenous Wisdom and Human Rights: A Brief Review of Human Rights Enforcement in the Context of Indonesian History.” Journal of Indonesian Islam 9 (2): 123–50. https://doi.org/10.15642/JIIS.2015.9.2.123-150.
Nastiti, Aulia, and Sari Ratri. 2018. “Emotive Politics: Islamic Organizations and Religious Mobilization in Indonesia.” Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 4 (2). https://doi.org/10.1355/cs40-2b.
Nurdin, Ahmad Ali. 2016. “Revisiting Discourse on Islam and State Relation in Indonesia: The View of Soekarno, Natsir and Nurcholish Madjid.” Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies 6 (1): 63–92. https://doi.org/10.18326/ijims.v6i1.63-92.
Parker, Lyn. 2017. “Intersections of Gender/Sex, Multiculturalism and Religion: Young Muslim Minority Women in Contemporary Bali.” Asian Studies Review 41 (3): 441–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2017.1332004.
Sakai, Minako, and Amelia Fauzia. 2014. “Islamic Orientations in Contemporary Indonesia: Islamism on the Rise?” Asian Ethnicity 15 (1): 41–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2013.784513.
Salim, Arskal. 2015. Contemporary Islamic Law in Indonesia: Sharia and Legal Pluralism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Schäfer, Saskia. 2015. “Renegotiating Indonesian Secularism through Debates on Ahmadiyya and Shia.” Philosophy and Social Criticism 41 (4–5): 497–508. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453714565502.
Sirry, Mun’im. 2020. “‘Contending Modernities’ in Indonesia: An Introduction.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 31 (2): 129–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2020.1773090.
Sona, Federica. 2020. “Reformulating Transnational Muslim Families: The Case of Sharīʿah-Compliant Child Marriages.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 40 (1): 84–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2020.1744840.
Suryana, A’an. 2017. “Discrepancy in State Practices: The Cases of Violence against Ahmadiyah and Shi’a Minority Communities during the Presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.” Al-Jami’ah 55 (1): 71–104. https://doi.org/10.14421/ajis.2017.551.71-104.
Umam, Ahmad Khoirul, and Akhmad Arif Junaidi. 2011. “The Shadow of Islamic Ortodoxy and Syncretism in Contemporary Indonesian Politics.” Al-Ulum 11 (2): 343–56. http://journal.iaingorontalo.ac.id/index.php/au/article/view/79.
Warouw, Nicolaas. 2016. “Negotiating Modernity: Women Workers, Islam and Urban Trajectory in Indonesia.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 27 (3): 283–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2016.1177974.
World Bank. 2003. “Decentralizing Indonesia: A Regional Public Expenditure Review.” World Bank. East Asia Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit. Vol. Report No. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-014-0173-7.2.
Copyright (c) 2023 Al-Ijtima`i: International Journal of Government and Social Science
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-SA) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal (See The Effect of Open Access);
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work;
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.