Dissemination of Religious Authority in 20th-Century Indonesia Research Project:
'Dakwah' in Urban Communities
The academic interest
of the 'Dissemination of [Muslim] Religious Authority in Twentieth-Century
Indonesia' Research Programme goes beyond the importance of its direct
object. The programme contributes to the encounter of various disciplines
and of scholars from Europe, Asia, and other continents, both Muslims
and non-Muslims. It stresses the significance of Asia in Islamic Studies.
The sub-programme on 'dakwah' offers ample room to confirm these claims.
* By JOHAN MEULEMAN
The concept of Muslim authority,
as understood in the context of this research programme, is a complex
one. On the one hand, it comprises the authority of persons among Muslim
communities. These persons belong to one or more of the categories of
'ulamå'1,
muftis, leaders of social and political organizations, intellectuals educated
in the Western tradition, or yet other social and intellectual groups.
On the other hand, the concept comprises the different types of written
and unwritten materials to which Muslims refer, such as hadiths, classical
works of religious sciences, fatwas, modern scholarly and popular lectures,
printed works, and Internet documents, as well as cassettes. Research
is done into the nature of these various types of authority, their foundations
and origins, their reproduction, transmission, and distribution. Transformations
in Muslim authority, such as shifts in the types of authoritative materials
Muslims reference or in the categories of persons that possess religious
authority receive particular attention.
'Dakwah'
One of the constituent elements of the programme concentrates
on dakwah organizations
and activities in twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Indonesia.
The Malay/Indonesian word dakwah,
from the Arabic da`wah,
is the general term for Islamic religious propagation. Although it comprises
efforts to convert non-Muslims, dakwah
primarily concerns activities aiming at strengthening and deepening the
faith of Muslims and developing their ways of life in conformity with
its principles. Dakwah
activities have been highly appreciated in Muslim societies all through
their histories. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, many movements
and organizations that have considered dakwah,
in one form or another, as their chief objective have developed all over
the Muslim world. They vary from small groups operating in limited circles
of various social positions to large, well-established organizations.
Some operate within the framework of international organizations such
as the Muslim World League and the Tabl^gh^ Jamå'at. From the doctrinal
point of view, they are situated closer to or farther away from mainstream
Islam. They may be totally private, sponsored by public authorities, or
part of the state apparatus. All referring to the Koranic objective of
'enjoining what is right and prohibiting what is reprehensible', their
activities range from preaching, distributing literature, organizing intellectual
discussions and artistic performances, to health care and projects of
social and economic development.
Notwithstanding the wide range of modern dakwah
movements in Indonesia, their organization, linkages, strategies, and
activities, as well as the social background of their respective adherents,
have received little systematic and comparative attention so far. The
same is true for the ideological variation that exists in the broad field
of dakwah. To fill
this gap, the research programme will develop an inventory and typology,
and on that foundation, it will analyse various aspects of urban dakwah.
This analysis will borrow from and contribute to more general
debates in contemporary social sciences and Islamic Studies. Among the
most relevant of these discussions are: civil society and its role in
social and political development, in which the Indonesianist, Robert W.
Hefner is a participant; transformations in the production, nature, and
position of traditional holders of religious authority, as studied by
Brinkley Messick, Dale F. Eickelman, and Fanny Colonna in Yemen, Morocco,
and Algeria, respectively; the interaction of global and local aspects
of Islam, as analysed in the case of Indonesia, by Azyumardi Azra and
Johan Meuleman; the way modern states give shape to Islam, as most recently
elucidated for Egypt by Gregory Starrett; and the continuous recentring
of Muslim authority as emphasized by Richard W. Bulliet.
Among the many questions to be addressed, two related ones
may be mentioned with some detail, namely, to what extent the various
dakwah movements
are competing or complementary and to what extent the recent development
of numerous new movements implies a redistribution of Muslim authority.
Competing
or complementing?
The largest religious organizations of Indonesia, the 'reformist'
Muhammadiyah and the 'traditionalist' Nahdlatul Ulama, were founded in
1912 and 1926 respectively. Both considered dakwah
as one of their main objectives. It has remained so up to the present
day, combined with a large array of social and educational activities.
During the Soeharto-led New Order regime, Islamic parties were forbidden,
but various new dakwah
movements developed. The Indonesian state, for its part, had always considered
guidance in the field of religion as one of its responsibilities. A ministry
of religious affairs had been created and public authorities initiated
or supported various dakwah
activities.
When examining the relationship between the older, established
religious organizations, the more recent ones, and the state from the
viewpoint of dakwah,
one is reminded of Bulliet's analysis of the contemporary Islamic resurgence
in his Islam. The View from
the Edge, developed basically in the context of Iran. Bulliet
views contemporary Islamic resurgence as a contest between three parties:
secular governments; 'ulamå'
and lay people striving to preserve and reinforce the established religious
tradition _ Shiism in Iran, Sunnism in most other countries; and new Islamic
organizations developing along the social edges created by massive urbanization
and by the development of secular state education. Bulliet's model is
useful for the analysis of recent developments in Indonesian dakwah.
However, it should be amended at two points. Firstly, Indonesia's government
is only secular to a certain extent. The official principle that Indonesia
is not a secular state, but one based on Pancasila
or the 'Five Pillars', of which the first one is the belief in a unique
God, has been taken seriously by all Indonesian regimes, and the New Order
regime always stressed the importance of the spiritual dimension of its
national development policy. Secondly, although in Indonesia one can distinguish
a group of 'ulamå'
and other persons who act as the defenders of the Sunnite tradition, they
adhere to several sub-traditions, each with their own organizations.
As to what extent Bulliet's contention that the development
of Islam may be understood as a contest between the state, the established
religious tradition, and more recent groups at the 'edge' of Muslim society
holds true for Indonesia, this is a question that will receive much attention
in the research programme. Preliminary research suggests that the relationship
between the various Indonesian dakwah
movements and organizations is generally of a complementary nature rather
than one characterized by competition or even conflict. The multiplicity
of dakwah movements
is in conformity with the pluralistic tradition of Indonesian Islam. However,
tensions have existed. They can mostly be attributed to a combination
of difference in religious understanding and jealousy between organizations
with adherents from different social classes.
Preliminary study leads to a similar conclusion concerning
the relationship between private dakwah
organizations and the New Order state. Government officials and agencies
basically coordinated, stimulated, and completed private initiatives.
However, matters were complicated because the public authorities, besides
their policy of stimulating private initiatives of spiritual development,
considered the preservation of public order and stability one of their
main objectives. This often led to intervention against religious activities
that were considered a threat to public order or the harmonious relations
between different communities.
Dakwah
& the redistribution of Muslim authority
The development of Islamic reformist organizations in Indonesia
since the beginning of the twentieth century has undermined the monopoly
of religious authority held by the 'ulamå'.
Various social and political activists not educated in the traditional
religious sciences have obtained positions of authority within the Muslim
community. Among them are quite a few graduates of technical colleges
or of domestic and foreign social science faculties. During the New Order
period, this tendency was radicalized. Part of the role and authority
of the established socio-religious organizations has been taken over by
more recent dakwah
organizations. The Indonesian market has become flooded with translations
of contemporary Middle Eastern booklets explaining how Muslims should
distinguish themselves in behaviour and clothing. At the same time, translations
of contemporary works of Muslim thought and social and political analysis
in Western languages have also attracted increasing numbers of Indonesian
readers. Therefore the trend is not towards one particular type of new
references. Nor is the tendency simply to move away from old forms of
authority to new ones. In 1999, the wave of democratization resulted in
the leader of the largest organization of 'ulamå'
being elected state president. One of the most prominent examples of recent
dakwah organizations,
the Forum Komunikasi Ahlu Sunnah
wal-Jamaah (FKAWJ 'Communication Forum of the Followers
of the [Prophetic] Tradition and the Community'), strongly implanted in
university campuses, is led by a council of 'ulamå'.
The guerilla activities of the ill-famed Laskar Jihad, which originated
from the FKAWJ, are justified by fatwas obtained from Middle Eastern 'ulamå'.
This militia, incidentally, was one of the fiercest adversaries of that
'ålim who had
become president. These few examples show the complexity and interest
of the research programme, which will combine the analysis of texts and
of social mechanisms and, therefore, will contribute to the development
of a new, multidisciplinary approach in Islamic Studies. *
Dr
Johan Hendrik Meuleman is an IIAS research fellow, a lecturer at Leiden
University in the framework of the Indonesian-Netherlands Cooperation
in Islamic Studies, and a professor of Islamic History at IAIN Syarif
Hidayatullah, Jakarta. E-mail:
j.h.meuleman@let.leidenuniv.nl