Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies

1-35

Authors: Muhammad Ali

Based on some historical and anthropological accounts, this article examines a dynamic interplay between Islam and local tradition in Indonesia with special reference to Java and Sulawesi. It explains how local Muslims differed in their interpretation and application of Islam. It looks at processes of religious change as a world religion interacts with local forces. The “localization” of Islam was a constant feature in the expansion of Islam beyond the Arab homeland, including Southeast Asia. Based on the framework of ‘practical Islam’ , rather than ‘normative Islam’ , and on the framework of both accommodation and conflict between shari’ah and adat as a whole system, rather than as separate entities, it provides a greater variety of Islamic beliefs and experiences. Comparatively , Javanese people have been more diverse than Sulawesi people in terms of religious spectrum; Muslims in Java have incorporated animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam into their culture system. Stories about the nine saints show how early Islamic preachers sought to accommodate Islam with local traditions. In Sulawesi,Dato ri Bandang and the other teachers, representing the elite aristocracy who attempted to Islamize the kingdoms and the people alike and Syeikh Yusuf , representing a strict kind of Islam, show diversity but tends to suggest a less diverse picture, when compared to Java. Despite internal diversity in Java as well as in Sulawesi, Java has remained more open and tolerant with cultural diversity,whereas Sulawesi has increasingly become more legalistic.

69-93

Authors: M. Hilay Basya

In 2005 The Council of Indonesian Ulama (MUI) issued a controversial fatwa. The fatwa states that it is prohibited for Muslims to develop the ideas of religious pluralism. The fatwa had provoked heat debate among Indonesian Muslim scholars. For the opponent of the fatwa, the modern Indonesian state should be supported by the ideas of pluralism. They are disappointed with the fatwa, since it would diminish religious pluralism in Indonesia. On the other hand, the protagonist of the fatwa said that the MUI has done good decision. The ideas of pluralism are seen by them would threaten Islamic faith. They believed that those who campaigned for the idea of pluralism are the agent for “western” interest. The debate regarding the MUI’s fatwa banning Muslims to adopt pluralism ideas indicates that the concept of pluralism campaigned by some Muslim scholars is not monolithic. This paper would like to explore various conceptions of religious pluralism among Indonesian Muslim scholars.

123-149

Authors: Zuly Qodir

Argument in this paper draws upon Habermasian understanding of the distinction between private and public sphere. Public sphere is understood as open space that various social and cultural forces seek to define and occupy by ways of rational interests and public reason. Such attempts take place on daily basis and taken by groups of different backgrounds and interests. Private sphere, in contrast, is conceived of as having domestic or individual characteristics and, more or less, non-political. It is within this framework that the continuing presence of multiple variants of political Islam in Indonesia has been a manifestation of contestation over public sphere. Diverse variants of Indonesian political Islam reveal the difference between actors and issues in the dynamics of their contention. However , evidence makes clear that variants of both political and popular Islam have been more dominant than other Islamic variants such progressive and neotraditionalist Islam. This study argues that mode of Islamic articulations in Indonesia is now more diverse as the it has developed not only in the articulatory forms of modernist, revivalist and traditionalist but also progressive, neo-traditionalist and popular Islam.