With the image of Islam being a bearded bomber who seeks to destroy the USA while he is not indulging in the honor killings of the wayward female members of his family, it is widely believed that Islam does not respect basic human rights. Islamophobes like the Dutchman Geert Wilders scan through the Qur’an and find verses that order the killing of apostates and infidels and the covering up of women to support their views. However a closer examination of the Qur’an and also a wider perspective of Islamic traditions would reveal that although some patriarchal and tribal expressions of Islam disregard human rights this situation is by no means the rule. For many Indonesian Muslims who have for generations experienced the fact that some members of their families might choose other religions, the notion that Islam should be expressed through the curtailing women’s rights and executing apostates is absolutely horrifying.

The valiant Cut Nya’ Dien of the Aceh wars at the end of the 19^th century is a famous national heroine and leader of men who was inspired by Islam. The formidable Eni Rukmini Sekarningrat, is a devout Muslim lady who was a frontline fighter in the independence wars against the Dutch in the late 1940s. Currently she is the Grand Mistress of the Panglipur pencak silat martial arts school, with students all over the world. At her 94 years of age she can still throw a young male fighter down with ease. Millions of other Muslim women in Indonesia are the main economic pillars of their families who have the final say in family decisions. These Muslim women are in no way anomalies, nor do they find inspiration from obscure sections of Islamic traditions, for they can look directly to the first mother of Muslims, who was the Prophet Muhammad’s Boss and later beloved wife and confidant, Khadijah.

The tradition of tolerance and gender equality in Indonesian Islam has in the recent years been systematically eroded by puritan and trans-national, well funded, propaganda. However, Islamism is not the only reason why we are seeing a rise in bigotry. Sudden and drastic changes in the economic rhythm of villages, caused by the introduction of genetically modified seeds and agricultural chemicals in fertilizers and pesticides, did not only created widespread unemployment in villages but also killed off many communal ceremonies related to the cycles of life, which traditionally were the vehicles of communal wisdom.

Before the “Green Revolution” in agriculture, the Javanese peasant, for example, would in her or his daily life be exposed to spiritual enlightenment through Islamic traditions, local myth and legends, and the Islamized versions of the Hindu Mahabharata and Ramayana. The Green Revolution, introduced at the beginning of the New Order regime, rendered village traditions connected to the old ways of life unpractical and uneconomic. Currently, most local myths and legends and Hindu epics have been forgotten. So in times of personal crisis the Javanese peasant currently has only Islamic traditions to refer to, and with trans-national Islamist funding and activism taking over many traditionalist mosques all over the country, often the only accessible spiritual guidance comes from Islamist activists.

Rapid industrialization during the New Order, characterized by the mushrooming of factories around big cities, further wrenched people from their cultural roots. It is no coincidence that the brothers who became the Bali bombers grew up in Lamongan, a small town at the edge of the industrial complexes of nearby Gresik, or that they were affiliated to Abu Bakar Ba’asyir’s school in Ngruki, in the industrialized district of Sukoharjo in the outskirts of Solo. Nor is it a coincidence that the bulk of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) thugs are unemployed and marginalized young men from Jakarta.

In areas where traditions are still relatively strong, such as in Yogyakarta, violent Islamism tends not to flourish, even though the headquarters of the Mujahidin Council that inspires the jihad recruitment website is in that city. The ideas and networks of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood which have morphed into the Prosperous Justice Party here, are also strongest amongst the urban educated, especially amongst those who study pure sciences rather than letters, who are alienated from both their deep traditions and the shallow consumerism of the mainstream culture.

Within Islam’s traditions and texts there are strong foundations for developing human rights based cultures than can be perfectly compatible with 21^st century values, but trans-national puritanical propaganda gets the upper hand when development uproots communities from their cultures and marginalizes people’s lives. Therefore any comprehensive effort to curb the growth of puritanical Islamism in Indonesia must also address the issue of cultural disenfranchisement brought about by rapid economic development and alien education systems and curriculums that give inadequate attention to local cultures and the universal humanities. We must find elements that exist within our cultures that may be enhanced to produce strategies that will preserve our traditional tolerance and compassion for all Creation.

Gamelan music is one such cultural element that can be explored with the aim of enhancing traditional tolerance. The use of gamelan orchestras to help people with learning difficulties and anti-social tendencies is explored with much more earnest in schools and prisons in the West than it is in Indonesia. Unlike Western musical instruments, the instruments in the gamelan orchestra cannot be played solo, and are not tools of self expression. To play well the gamelan orchestra one does not require musical, technical skills, because it is not possible to hit a false note. The gamelan orchestra is a tool of worship and community building, and to play well social and spiritual skills are more important than musical skills.

Sadly there are currently very few gamelan orchestras in schools and in communities outside of Bali, and when there are accessible orchestras, the method of teaching is reduced to rote learning. This kills the genius of the gamelan orchestra, which when used properly accommodates the young and old, poor and wealthy, intelligent and not so intelligent, in a communal effort to produce harmonious music. With such cultural gems as the gamelan orchestra, violent and bigoted expressions of Islam can only flourish in Indonesia if they are encouraged to.[]

This article is exclusively published by Center for Minority, Gender, and Human Rights.

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Ever since our founding fathers decided to drop the “seven words” from the Jakarta Charter, there have been Islamist groups who have been struggling to get them back into the Constitution. These “seven words” were originally part of the Pancasila State philosophy, namely the first point; “Belief in One God”. The seven words that were dropped translate as … “and Muslims are obliged to implement Sharia.”  The reason for dropping these words in 1945 was to accommodate the feelings of the non-Muslim people of Eastern Indonesia.  After the “Reformasi” in 1998, Islamist groups tried to but could not gain enough support in Parliament to bring back the “seven words” in to the Constitution.  Amongst Islamic circles there were also discussions and debates on what really constitutes as Sharia. The problem with the State implementing Sharia is that there are as many interpretations of Sharia as there are interpretations of Islam.

After the “Reformasi” numerous Islamist groups that hitherto had been underground surfaced and began to openly, and eventually successfully, challenge the law that stipulated that every political party and mass-organization had to acknowledge the State philosophy, Pancasila, as their basic philosophy.  The most vicious attack on the Pancasila philosophy was probably the attacks carried out by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on the peaceful, pro-pluralism demonstration on the birthday of Pancasila last year. Although many people were seriously injured, the perpetrators of the attacks were given lenient sentences by judges, and had ministers and celebrities visiting them in their jail cells, where television crews followed them as if they were pop-stars.  Although the political efforts to have Sharia enshrined as the law of the land have subsided, the dream to make Indonesia a Sharia state has not been, and probably will never be, vanquished.

Some transnational political groups who want to make Indonesia a Sharia state, such as the Hizbut Tahrir (HT) are active and vocal in Indonesia, and our openness makes their development traceable. However the more shadowy transnational organizations like Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) or the Ikhwanul Muslimin (IM) do not trust the open and democratic atmosphere we have nurtured since 1998, and as they work underground their ups and downs are more difficult to follow.  The few indicators that we can observe to gauge their developments, such as relatively frequent the arrests made by the police of suspected JI terrorists, or the rare press appearances of IM’s leader here, the blind cleric Al Habsyi, can only give a blurred picture of the Islamic underground.  Al Habsyi, who is a staunch supporter of the FPI and was imprisoned for life by Suharto for his involvement in the bombing of the Borobudur in 1985 and pardoned  by Habibie in 1999, is recorded to mingle in high society.  Together with the support we have seen given by several cabinet ministers to HT’s activities and to FPI’s leadership, these things indicate that the Islamist ideology has sympathizers amongst the Indonesian elite.  The question is, to what extent does Islamism currently penetrate and influence the Indonesian elite?

Considering  how the FPI morphed from the Pam-Swakarsa militia formed by the then General Wiranto during the downfall of his master, Suharto, the question to ask is do the Indonesian elite really support Islamist ideas or do they court the Islamist only for practical political purposes?  The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) grew out of IM’s cells amongst university students but now that it hungers for power it is keen to shed the image of Islamism. Researchers have also discovered an interesting phenomenon in which the ruling classes in Java, which traditionally are associated with Javanese interpretations of Islam, have become keen to observe a more puritan expression of Islam. This is obvious in the long sentences of Arabic now habitually said in the openings of formal speeches and the building of prayer rooms in homes, replacing the traditional “empty room” traditionally reserved for the rice goddess Dewi Sri.  On the other hand the younger generation of Islamic scholars, children of respected leaders and heads of religious institutions, are keen to study English and the humanities in the West and have been the driving force behind the development of the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) in Indonesia.  Meanwhile, though several regions have adopted elements of Sharia in their bye-laws, there is serious discussion about the legality of districts adopting laws that might contradict our Constitution.  Indonesians also tend to vote for secular parties in general elections.

These phenomena indicate that although there is a growth of Islamism in Indonesia, and although most Indonesian Muslims are keen to observe their religion in their daily lives, the majority currently do not agree with the idea of having a Sharia based state.  This condition, summed up by the late Nurcholis Madjid in his slogan “Islam Yes, Islamic Parties, No”, baffles Islamists like Irfan Suryahadi Awwas, a senior member of the Indonesian Council of Mujahidin (MMI) who asks why Indonesian Muslims don’t want Sharia implemented by the State when they marry under the Sharia and want to be buried according to Sharia when they die.

This uniquely Indonesian condition is an asset that the newly elected government should employ to the full in its effort to implement the Constitution’s mission statement of playing an active role in building peace, within our borders and also in the wider Islamic world. The government should not be afraid of the hardcore and vocal Islamist groups who attack minorities and pose as if they are widely supported because they are not.   The implementation of universal values of justice and compassion in dealing with conflicts in areas such as Papua, where State violence continues to strengthen the separatist movement there, would strengthen the moral stature of our nation at home and abroad.  While our country is rife with poverty, corruption, injustice, and State violence, the form of peaceful Islam that has been developing over centuries here will remain impotent, unable to influence the world in any way, and the specter of Islamist Puritanism will continue to haunt us.[]

This article is exclusively published by Center for Minority, Gender, and Human Rights.

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