Minako Sakai

Islamic orientations in contemporary Indonesia: Islamism on the rise?

Indonesia has approximately 240 million people, and more than 85% of the population are Muslims. Whilst incidents of religious intolerance have frequently been reported in the mass media, political Islam in Indonesia, represented by Islamic political parties, seems to have failed to gain popular support. Against this conflicting standing of Islam and Islamic organizations in Indonesia, this study focuses on Muslim religiosity and perceptions of the role of Islam in contemporary Indonesia. Based on our survey of 1500 Muslims in Indonesia in 2010, and case studies in regional Indonesia, this paper shows that, due to sociocultural change in regional Indonesia, and the diffusion of religious authority through media use, Indonesian Muslims are becoming less political Islamists, and more sociocultural Islamists who are attempting to advocate Islamic morality. This trend is in line with scholarly observations of post-Islamism prevalent in other parts of the Muslim world.

Limits to Religious Diversity Practice in Indonesia

Although religious diversity is legally supported in Indonesia, incidents of attacks on religious minorities and anxiety towards the practice of religious pluralism have continued to plague the country. This paper will analyse factors limiting the practice of religious diversity in post-Suharto Indonesia with a focus on two types of important grass-roots religious institutions. The first type is religious philanthropic organizations, which provide social services for natural disaster victims and the poor. The second type of religious institution is traditional Islamic schools known as pesantren salaf, one of most the important educational institutions for Islamic scholars. This paper will show that increased religiosity has contributed to the growth of socially-engaged religious organizations being used to address social problems, but these religious institutions are naturally developing their operational links within their own religious affiliations and communication beyond their religion is restricted because of mutual anxiety. This paper will also examine the challenge presented by traditional Islamic educational institutions. In order to protect Islam from secularism, these institutions are promoting theologically conservative Islamic teachings that curtail the practice of religious diversity at the grassroots level. Our case studies show that religious education has unintentionally limited the development of religious diversity in Indonesia.

Performing Muslim Womanhood: Muslim Business Women Moderating Islamic Practices in Contemporary Indonesia

ABSTRACT Islam is increasing its influence in contemporary Indonesia. What impact does this have on womens economic activity? In Indonesia there is a strong expectation that women should work. Working outside of the home, however, frequently poses a challenge for Muslim women, especially wives. The growing influence of Islamist (womens) groups in Indonesia strengthens conservative Islamic values to some extent. Nevertheless, a growing number of Muslim women in Indonesia are working to earn an income to meet their households needs. As traditional Islamic teaching prescribes that men should be the main breadwinners for their family, and Indonesian Family Law (1974) also stipulates that husbands are the head of the household, economically successful married women have been put into an awkward position. In view of this development, this article explores how Indonesian middle-class Muslim women have been negotiating between their Islamic values and economic necessity. The article shows that the need to generate an income has led to working Muslim women moderating their Islamic values, enabling them to justify extending their responsibilities into the public domain. We argue that working Muslim women are playing a key role in moderating Islamic theological interpretations and perceptions of Islamic womanhood in contemporary Indonesia.

Still remembering the origins: The continuity of syncretic Islamic practice among the Gumay (Gumai) in South Sumatra, Indonesia

ABSTRACT Over the last three decades, the influence of orthodox Islam in contemporary Indonesian society has become increasingly visible. The use of Muslim clothing, Islamic expressions and commodities has become prevalent in the everyday life of Muslims in Indonesia. Along with this change, some prominent localised forms of Islam are being gradually replaced by standard orthodox Islam. However, syncretic Islamic practices continue strongly in some regions in Indonesia. In this article I explore factors enabling syncretic forms of Islamic practice through a case study of the Gumay of South Sumatra. Drawing on a longitudinal ethnographic study of the Gumay people, I argue that the sustained importance of local Islamic authorities and the transmission of Islamic knowledge that are embedded in everyday kinship relations is the key, although school education and other external Islamic authorities are shaping the way Muslim Gumay see what orthodox Islam should be. Also important are the Indonesian government’s cultural policies, the political importance of ethnicity, and the popular use of new media as these have played a significant role in keeping such syncretic Islamic practices alive among the younger generations of the Gumay.

Narratives of Muslim Womanhood and Women’s Agency*

In Islamic teaching presented in the mass media, Muslim women tend to be portrayed as victims of patriarchal norms. Often covered in a full veil, and so without individuality, they tend to be depicted using a monochrome image across Muslim countries and regions. This is despite the fact that the social reality and expectations of Muslim women are diverse and contextual. Are Muslim women merely passive objects in constructing their role, despite the spread of social media and the Internet, the increased demands of earning disposable income for their families, and their migration to non-Muslim countries around the world? The collection of articles in Volume 27.3 of Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, a special issue entitled Narratives of Muslim Womanhood and Women’s Agency, guest edited by Minako Sakai and Samina Yasmeen, attempts to answer these questions. It closely examines women’s agency in negotiating their role in Muslim-majority societies and in a new place of settlement (Australia). These articles analyse Muslim women’s narratives in a wide range of economic, political, social and cultural milieux and their relationship to identity construction and portrayal in the new millennium. Narrative analysis has attracted attention since the publication of the seminal work by Scholes and Kellogg (1966), which clearly distinguished between empirical and fictional variants, and drew attention to the meanings inherent in oral or traditional narratives and the need to be mindful of these meanings. Subsequent progress in the field has resulted, among other trends, in the diversion of feminist analyses of narratives as ideological instruments from other analyses focused on narratives as purposive communication (Scholes, Phelan, and Kellogg 2006). Others point to narratives being inherently political in their message and portrayal of identities. In an era of heightened focus on Islam’s role in a globalized world and the identification of Muslim women as the signifier of difference, it becomes important to explore the extent to which Muslim women use or rely on narratives to portray their identities, and what this suggests about the diversity of experience, expectation and relationship to the socio-cultural and political milieux. Women’s agency as an analytical point is of great importance because the traditional approaches to understanding Islam and gender have relied on textual interpretations of key Islamic sources, such as the Qur’an, often proffered by male scholars. Responding