Robert W. Hefner

Islamizing Java? Religion and Politics in Rural East Java

Scholarly discussion of Javanese society has consistently linked variation in Islamic orthodoxy to differences of socioeconomic class, political behavior, and social conflict. In the most widely known sociological formula, Clifford Geertz distinguished three varieties of Javanese Islam and correlated each with a particular social class. Abangan , or Javanist Muslim, tradition was described as a syncretic blend of animist, Hindu-Buddhist, and Islamic elements that was predominant among the mass of rural Javanese. Santri tradition was identified as a more orthodox variant of Islam, especially widespread among merchants and wealthier peasants. Finally, priyayi tradition was identified as an elite heritage strongly influenced by the Hindu-Buddhist values of earlier Javanese courts and linked to Javas traditional gentry and the administrative bureaucracy that replaced it in the modern era (Geertz 1956; Geertz 1960:5–6).

Religious Resurgence in Contemporary Asia: Southeast Asian Perspectives on Capitalism, the State, and the New Piety

Large portions of East and Southeast Asia are in the throes of a historically unprecedented upsurge in religious observance and association. Many of the new varieties of religiosity are inore popular, voluntary, and laity based than the religions of yesteryear. Many are also marked by the heightened participation of women, and an emphasis on inner-worldly well-being as well as otherworldly transcendence. Focusing on Southeast Asia, but with references to developments in China, this article examines the social and moral genealogy of eastern Asias religious vitalization. Many analysts have emphasized the influence of postcolonial secularisms, neoliberal disciplines, and ascendant civil societies in the religious resurgence. Although these factors have indeed played a role, the macro-narratives of the state, capital, and democratization often give insufficient attention to the micro- and meso-passions of self family, and neighborhood, all of which have contributed to the popularization and proximatization of once restricted spiritual disciplines. essay concerns a development taking place across a broad swath of contemporary Asia: an unprecedented upsurge in religious ritual, association, and observance. The resurgence defies a century of forecasts by secularization and modernization theorists of religions imminent privatization and decline. The event also has distinctive social characteristics. Chief among these is that the new varieties of religion tend to be more popular, voluntary, and laity based than the established religions of yesteryear. Many are also marked by the heightened participation of women, although typically not by explicit normative affirmations of gender equality. Last but not least, some of the new movements also appear preoccupied less with otherworldly transcendence than with inner-worldly well-being. Of course, not all of Asia is being swept into this raging religious torrent, and not all new varieties of religion are popular, prosperity minded, or woman friendly. Two generations ago, Japan was a pioneer of laity-based, peace-and-prosperity religions (Davis 1992; Hardacre 1984; Metraux 1996).

Print Islam: Mass Media and Ideological Rivalries among Indonesian Muslims

On December 30, 1996, a few dozen protesters gathered to demonstrate outside the offices of Indonesias leading Islamic newspaper, Republika, in the southern suburbs of the capital city of Jakarta.1 The protesters were from a coalition of some eighteen Muslim organizations, all with spiritual ties to the Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia (Indonesian Counsel for Islamic Predication, or DDII), one of Indonesias leading organizations for reformist Islam. On this occasion there was little of the tension characteristic of the groups earlier protests against the Muslim daily. Some months earlier, on April 17, 1995, the protest had become so heated that newspaper staff feared the demonstrators might ransack the building (a charge that the DDII leaders dismiss as ludicrous).2 This time the demonstrators were careful and orderly, behaving as if they were playing parts in a scripted affair. They carried banners and chanted slogans, and presented Republika officials with letters of protest detailing their objections to the Muslim dailys coverage. They also carried copies of the articles they viewed as having offended the Muslim community, and photocopies of letters sent earlier in the month by leading reformist personalities (most, again, with cordial ties to the DDII) expressing similar outrage at Republikas reporting.

Balanced development : East Java in the new order

With a population nearly twice that of Malaysia and a diverse economic base, East Java is a substantial economy in its own right, even though its administrative status is merely that of a province of Indonesia. This book deals with various aspects of the economic and social development of this important region of South-East Asia since the late 1960s.

The Integrative Revolution Revisited

Abstract Contrary to the predictions of modernization theorists, social relationships grounded in assumed ties of blood, race, language, and religion remain a powerful force in both developing and industrial nations. Contemporary theories of political and economic development are inadequate for understanding the role of these “primordial ties” because, in rejecting modernization theory for its shortcomings, they have abandoned systematic consideration of cultural and symbolic phenomena. A reevaluation of the work of Edward Shils and Clifford Geertz, and an examination of recent developments in anthropology and history suggest new ways in which the dynamic role of cultural and symbolic processes in development can be understood.

THE STUDY OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN INDONESIA

In Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country in the word, issues of religion-state relations have long loomed large, in part because of zig-zag shifts in this countrys politics and associated challenges for religious tolerance, social freedoms, and citizenship. Although it is only in the past decade that research on Indonesia has been explicitly reframed in relation to religious freedom, issues directly relevant to the topic have long figured in studies of Indonesian politics, constitutionalism, and religious violence. The significance of this research lies in the way in which it shows that research must take into account competing models of human flourishing.

Indonesia, Islam, and the New U.S. Administration

T here are many reasons to recommend that Indonesia should figure prominently in the next administration’s foreign policy deliberations, not least with regards to questions of Islam, democracy, and religious freedom. With its 255 million people, 87.2 percent of whom officially profess Islam, this Southeast Asian country is the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world. Indonesia is also the world’s largest Muslim democracy, having made a transition to electoral democracy in 1998–1999 after 32 years of authoritarian rule. Although it still has serious shortcomings with regards to the rule of law and the protection of religious freedoms (Crouch 2014; see below), Indonesia’s achievements with regards to press freedoms, labor rights, literacy rates, and women’s education and employment have by all measures been far-reaching and impressive (Robinson 2009). Even in such specialized fields as Islamic education—Islamic schools educate about 15 percent of the school-age population—Indonesia stands out. With its mix of Islamic sciences, general studies, and courses on women’s rights and civic education, the country’s network of State Islamic Universities and Colleges (UIN/ IAIN) is arguably the most dynamic and pluralistminded in the world (Azra, Afrianty, and Hefner 2007; Jackson 2007). Topping all this off, 45 years of growth have turned this country into Southeast Asia’s largest economy and one of the global south’s economic powerhouses. No less significant, the country’s growth has been relatively well distributed, driving down poverty rates and fueling the growth of a huge middle class. Notwithstanding its strategic importance and record of achievement, Indonesia has long remained something of a second-tier concern in US policy circles. The country loomed largest in US foreign policy vision during the Cold War years of the late 1950s and 1960s. At that time, Indonesia had the largest Communist Party in the non-communist world (Mortimer 1974), and was widely regarded as the domino most likely to fall if Vietnam “went communist.” A failed leftwing officers coup on the night of September 30, 1965 put an end to that anxiety, and also to the Indonesian Communist Party, which was outlawed and its ranks decimated during six months of military-coordinated killing in 1965– 1966 (Cribb 1990). With the transition to the authoritarian “New Order” government (1966– May 1998; Hefner 2000), Indonesia came to be regarded as an independent-minded but quietly consistent US ally. However, its relative political stability once again relegated Indonesia to the policy background, and its place in Asian affairs

Sharia Law and Muslim Ethical Imaginaries in Modern Indonesia

The understanding of sharia is always sociologically and epistemologically contingent, because it is mediated through a complex and variable array of religious authorities, popular ethical imaginaries, and media of preservation and transmission. This chapter discusses trends in sharia imaginaries in modern Indonesia, beginning in the early twentieth century but ultimately focusing on developments in post-Soeharto (i.e. post May 1998) Indonesia. The central current of modern Indonesian sharia imaginaries has shown the distinctive imprint of two organizational and epistemic contingencies. These are the history and content of Muslim education in this Southeast Asian country, and the growth and pervasiveness of Islamic social welfare associations. These two ordinary-looking circumstances have had an extraordinary influence on the expectations mainstream Indonesian Muslims bring to the task of understanding God’s commands.

GLOBAL POLITICS AND THE QUESTION OF SHARI'A: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WINTER 2012 ISSUE

What type of law is shari‘a? Does Islam require its implementation by the state? Can the shari‘a be compatible with modern democracy and pluralist citizenship? Or is the law effectively human-rights-restricting with respect to women, non-Muslims, and Muslims who profess a non-conforming variety of the faith? These are among the questions addressed in the Winter 2012 issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs, a special issue on “The Rise of Shari‘a: Implications for Democracy and Human Rights.”

SHARI'A POLITICS AND INDONESIAN DEMOCRACY

Recent Indonesian history offers a panoply of trends with regards to the politics of Islamic law. On one hand, since the 1940s Indonesia has witnessed campaigns by small but militant Islamist groups dedicated to a notably unreformed and anti-liberal version of Islamic law. On the other hand, Indonesia also has one of the largest and most sophisticated traditions of pluralist Muslim scholarship anywhere in the world. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Indonesias State Islamic Colleges generated an array of sophisticated scholars who, while well-versed in the Islamic sciences and fiqh, provided forceful arguments in support of the compatibility of Islamic law with democracy, citizen rights, and the rule of law.