Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies

165-190

Authors: Najamudin

The transnational communities, or in other terms, the migrant communities who went to the US and the UK, or to any other European states had strong belief in their religion in which they might not be contaminated by the secular ideology in the Western countries. In this respect, the phenomenology of religion in international relations is a relatively new and surprising. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating the implications of the emergence of trans-national religious groups for international relations. The paper will argue that the rise of trans-national religious groups has produced a profound impact on international relations. The factors that influenced this transformation in international relations is the contemporary processes of globalization which scholars argue, are pivotal to bringing religion to the centre stage of international relations. In order to deepen the understanding of this process, two case scenarios will be analyzed, namely, the Sikh Diasporas and the imagined Islamic community, the umma. In this paper, it has been argued that the rise of trans-national religious actors may affect state sovereignty in one way or another. Under secular ideology, the role of religion is marginalized from the public sphere, in particular, the domain of politics and religion is being obviously separated. This separation, according to both groups, is problematic. It is therefore, the emergence of Islamic and Sikh communities is considered by some liberal democratic countries like India as a peril to its state sovereignty. In Islamic doctrines, the Muslims hold a principle in din wa dawla,the unity of state and religion, while in Sikhism, the Sikhs have to trust miriand piri, the unification of religious and political institution.

215-240

Authors: Ai Fatimah Nur Fuad

Islamic identity has been a central issue since the emergence of Islam in the seventh century. Muslims have been interacted with many symbols of religious identity since this early time of Islam. Every generation of Muslims has their own way to show their religious identity. Muslims in Britain are also still continuing to search for religious identity. They seek to re-evaluate their identity and construct a sense of what it means to be a Muslim in Britain today. This article would like to elaborate several discussions on Muslims’ identities in Britain. There are two different opinions on this issue. The first opinion comes from Muslims who believe that a Muslim individual should choose to be either a Muslim or a British. They argue that national values differ from religious norms. The second, however, states that one Muslim can be both a Muslim and a British at the same time. For them, there is no contradiction between being a Muslim and being a British citizen. They argue that nationality and faith can be combined in Muslim individuals who live in Britain.

267-291

Authors: Muhammad Kholid Muslih

In view of Ahlus Sunnah of the Companions have an important and strategic place in Islam; because through them the entire teachings of Islam brought by Prophet came to his people. The Friends, who directly witnessed the revelation with the explanation and elaboration and implementation, are also the most important part of the chain of transmission of knowledge and revelation in Islam. That's why the Companions occupies an important position in the hearts of the Sunnis. This is totally different from the attitude of Shiite 12 Imams; because of the influence of the doctrine of the Imamate is believed to be one of the pillars of Islam, Shiite 12 Imams have a negative attitude toward friends. With descriptive methodology of critical analysis of this paper tries to disentangle attitude of Shiite 12 toward Imams.

1-27

Authors: Pramono U. Tanthowi

The political development in Indonesian during the first decade of reform era witnesses a resurgence of Muslim politics, which had been facing a political impass during the 1970s and 1980s. In contrast to current political development in the Arab World, the resurgence of Muslim politics in Indonesia has been marching hand in hand with democratization. The blossoming of tens of Islamic political parties by no means that they speak with a single voice. Rather, political Islam is now represented by parties with more diverse platforms. Those parties are not only varied in their commitment to an Islamist agenda but also strongly divided on this agenda. Yet, they all welcome and uphold “Muslim” aspirations. As far as their performance in the 1999 and the 2004 elections is concerned, there was a significant decline for Muslim politics compared to the first democratic election of 1955. The results reflected the minority appeal of Islamism, regardless of both the fact that the majority of the Indonesians are Muslims and the fact that there has been increasing Islamic revivalism within Indonesian society.

53-77

Authors: Mohammad Rokib

Natural disasters, which occur regularly in Indonesia, have inspired many volunteer groups to emerge from different groups of society, including religious group. This paper focuses on the experiences of the religious volunteer group called Santana (Islamic student’s response to disaster) in East Java region. The group is part of Islamic education institution (pesantren) that emphasizes religious aspects and attempts to realize religious values in everyday life. The group gives religious meaning to the experience of disaster and the efforts to help disaster victims. The aim of this study is to describe Santana’s response to natural disaster as not only a natural but also a cultural phenomenon. This study reveals a large number of religious symbols referring to disaster as natural and theological phenomena. Referring to the religious text, disaster victims are categorized by Santana as weak people (mustad’afin). It has inspired this group to engage in their social activism. Their commitment to the religious tenets involves not only giving material aid but also promoting spiritual empowerment. This gives insight into the dynamic of how religious groups manifest their religious values by providing both material and spiritual aid.

109-131

Authors: Abbas Mansur Tamam

In the contemporary Islamic discourse, the position of approach and method lies is very important in the context of producing the orientation of Islamic thoughts.