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The history of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is part of the longstanding tradition of political Islam in Indonesia. Born in 1912 with the foundation of the Union of Muslim Traders (Sarekat Dagang Islam) this trend dominated the emerging nationalism in the Dutch East Indies for nearly twenty years. This initial momentum lies at the the origin of the two-dimensional Islamist project: to islamicise society by cleansing Islam of all practices considered to be impure; to mobilise the electorate by invoking Islamic values and their necessary implementation. Indeed, the birth and development of political Islam was closely linked to the reformist Muslim movement which in religious, cultural and social matters attempted to face the colonial challenge through a religious surge. In Indonesia, the Muhammadiyah, founded in 1912, and the Persatuan Islam, founded in 1923, provided most of the early generations of activists. During the decade after independence, militant Islam played a leading role in Indonesian politics. Between 1945 and 1960, the Masjumi party, which brought together most Muslim organisations, was one of the main government components and thereby constituted the matrix of political Islam in Indonesia to which the current generation of activists still refer. The discussions conducted within this party, especially the delicate compromises made between divine law and people's democracy, preconfigured the present debates conducted by Islamic parties. Like the current leaders of the PKS, this first generation of “government Islamists” was also confronted with economic and social modernity issues such as those related to the role of the West in this process. As the two following contributions remind us, its failure is mainly due to domestic reasons that in turn heavily influenced the way Indonesian Islam later considered these issues. Banned by President Sukarno and marginalised by the emerging New Order, the proponents of militant Islam had no choice but to withdraw from conventional politics. Here the organisational model of the Muslim Brotherhood (also repressed in several Arab countries) as well as the financial resources and literature made available to them by Wahhabi Islam networks contributed to the radicalisation of their discourse. The two terms Dakwah (preaching) and Tarbiyah (education) were therefore used to describe a movement based on the conviction that the re-Islamisation of Indonesian society was the essential precondition for its return to the political scene. Paradoxically, after the initial phase of repression, it was the New Order that favoured this agenda. From the early 1990s, some of the networks born from the Islamic revival were instrumented by a power lacking support and looking for scapegoats (Sino-Indonesian Christians...) on whom to deflect public anger. However, most student associations from the Tarbiyah movement did not let themselves be dragged into this trend and, true to their moral position, joined the opposition against the declining Soeharto regime. From this movement the Justice Party (PK) was born in 1998 (later transformed into the Prosperous Justice Party, or the PKS).
Describes the attitudes, aspirations and frustrations of the key players in Indonesian politics as they struggle to shape the future.
In 1998, Indonesia's military government collapsed, creating a crisis that many believed would derail its democratic transition. Yet the world's most populous Muslim country continues to receive high marks from democracy-ranking organizations. In this volume, political scientists, religious scholars, legal theorists, and anthropologists examine Indonesia's transition compared to Chile, Spain, India, and potentially Tunisia, and democratic failures in Yugoslavia, Egypt, and Iran. Chapters explore religion and politics and Muslims' support for democracy before change.
The political downfall of the Suharto administration in 1998 marked the end of the "New Order" in Indonesia, a period characterized by 32 years of authoritarian rule. It opened the way for democracy, but also for the proliferation of political Islam, which the New Order had discouraged or banned. Many of the issues raised by Muslim groups concerned matters pertaining to gender and the body. They triggered heated debates about women’s rights, female political participation, sexuality, pornography, veiling, and polygamy. The author argues that public debates on Islam and Gender in contemporary Indonesia only partially concern religion, and more often refer to shifting moral conceptions of the masculine and feminine body in its intersection with new class dynamics, national identity, and global consumerism. By approaching the contentious debates from a cultural sociological perspective, the book links the theoretical domains of body politics, the mediated public sphere, and citizenship. Placing the issue of gender and Islam in the context of Indonesia, the biggest Muslim-majority country in the world, this book is an important contribution to the existing literature on the topic. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of anthropology, sociology, and gender studies.
This book explores the relationship between transnational and local Islam as expressed in public discourse and policy-making, as represented in the local press. It does so against the background of local governments in majority Muslim regions across Indonesia promoting and passing regulations that mandate forms of social or economic behaviour seen to be compatible with Islam. The book situates the political construction of Islamic behaviour in West Sumatra, and in Indonesia more generally, within an historical context in which rulers have in some way engaged with aspects of Islamic practice since the Islamic kingdom era. The book shows that while formal local Islamic regulations of this kind constitute a new development, their introduction has been a product of the same kinds of interactions between international, national and local elements that have characterised the relationship between Islam and politics through the course of Indonesian history. The book challenges the scholarly tendency to over-emphasise local political concerns when explaining this phenomenon, arguing that it is necessary to forefront the complex relationship between local politics and developments in the wider Islamic world. To illustrate the relationship between transnational and local Islam, the book uses detailed case studies of four domains of regulation: Islamic finance, zakat, education and behaviour and dress, in a number of local government areas within the province.
Since the unraveling of Western colonialism in the mid-twentieth century, Muslim nations have struggled to reconcile Islamic ideas and political movements with the state. In Indonesia, in particular, Islam and the state have long been at an impasse. While the ritual dimension of Islam has been allowed to flourish, political Islam has been defeated by various means. Islam and the State in Indonesia probes the nature and effects of this mutual suspicion in a country in which 87 percent of the people are Muslims. Author Bahtiar Effendy addresses the problem of the Islam-state relationship in Indonesia in light of the fact that Islam--contrary to stereotypes--is a religion open to many interpretations and expressions by its followers. As Professor Effendy contends, there is no legitimate political reason to place Islam in opposition to the modern political system. Rather, the tension derives from the way Islam is articulated socio-culturally, economically, and politically in Indonesia. Islam and the State in Indonesia documents the background of this hostile relationship and analyzes the efforts of a new generation of Muslim political thinkers and activists to overcome it. The book also examines the state's recent moves toward accommodating political Islam. This book is groundbreaking both in its illumination of the past and in its insights into a way out of historic problems. It will be of great interest to students, scholars, journalists, government officials, and others seeking to understand this complex and divisive arena.
Politically, Islam in Indonesia is part of a rich multi-cultural mix. Religious tolerance is seen as the cornerstone of relations between different faiths - and moderation is built into the country's constitutional framework. However, the advent of democracy coupled with the impact of the South-East Asian economic collapse in 1997, and the arrival of a tough new breed of Middle Eastern Islamic preachers, sowed the seeds of the current challenge to Indonesia's traditionally moderate form of Islam. This volume explores the extent to which moderate Indonesian Islam is able to assimilate leading concepts from Western political theory. The essays in the collection explore how concepts from Western political theory are compatible with a liberal interpretation of Islamic universals and how such universals can form the basis for a contemporary approach to the protection of human rights and the articulation of a modern Islamic civil society.
In most Islamic societies, freedom of religion or belief is not a reality for religious minorities. Indonesia, home of the biggest Muslim population in the world, is a positive exception in this regard. The country was always a role model for the peaceful co-existence of diverse religious and cultural traditions, but in recent years, Islamic fundamentalist groups challenge the country’s tolerant and pluralistic identity. This book inquires the development of freedom of religion or belief from a political, legal and religious perspective. It analyzes the laws and mechanisms that protect the rights of minorities and traces the role of the country’s most important Islamic organizations and the influence they have on national policy-making. It finally points out possible future developments and how the government can counter the threat of militant Islamism and preserve Indonesia’s tolerant traditions.
As with many newly democratic countries, Indonesia faces common problems such as crisis of leadership, ethnic and communal conflicts, and the clash of Islam and the West. Indonesia, Islam, and Democracy: Dynamics in a Global Context brings fresh insight to the growing influence of Islam which is often ignored by foreign observers. Azyumardi Azra, a noted historian, breaks away from the common analysis of the current political situation and uncovers the lineages of the influence of Islam in Indonesian politics since the collapse of the Suharto era. Azyumardi Azra is Professor of History and Rector of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta. An internationally recognized scholar, he has presented papers in numerous conferences at home and abroad and has lectured at various universities such as NYU, Harvard, Oxford, Columbia, Leiden, Melbourne, Kyoto, Hawaii, at Manoa and many others. He is an honorary professor at Melbourne University (2004-9) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. In April 2005 he was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa in Humane Letters from Carroll College, Helena, Montana, USA. He has written eighteen books, the latest is The Origin of Islamic Reformism in Southeast Asia.