Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

Muslim Thought and Practice in Contemporary Indonesia 1 9 7Following the surrender of the Japanese, Muslim groups that had acquireda more organized power base and more sophisticated political tactics playedan important role in the early formation of the independent Republic of Indonesia.The most influential of these organizations for later Indonesian historywas Masjumi, which was founded in 1943 to be an umbrella organizationfor various Indonesian Islamic groups under the Japanese occupation. Thisgroup had originally brought together Muslims of all orientations, rangingfrom traditionalists to modernists. Such organizations put in place the Islamicpolitical movements of contemporary Indonesia while launching the politicalcareers of some of its most important figures. The conversations that began inthis time about how to realize ideals of Islam, law, the state, and society continuetoday in Indonesia, as national and global conditions continue tochange.Muslim Communities of Nation-Building in Contemporary IndonesiaBefore the Japanese surrender, Indonesian Muslims had asserted the politicalwill for self-rule in an independent Indonesia. Right after the war, Indonesiansvigorously resisted Dutch attempts to regain political control over their country. At the same time, Muslims began to imagine the shape of a new Indonesianstate, including sorting out how Islam would be configured into the nationalpolitical picture. In June 1945, the nine members of Soekarno’sA d v i s o ry Council came to a compromise on a draft for the Preamble to theConstitution, a document that came to be known as the Jakarta Charter (PiagamDjakarta). The issues relating to Islam are critical to the political landscapeof Muslim Indonesia to this day (Anshari 1997).In the disputes over the Jakarta Charter, the principal orientations to Islamand the state in Indonesia were delineated. The charter included the controversialpronouncement that the Republic was to be founded on a set of principles,known as Pancasila, the first of which was “the belief in God, with the obligationsfor adherents of Islam to practice Islamic law.” The second clause inthis phrase, referring to Islamic law ( s h a r i ’ a ) , was later struck from the Preambleout of regard for Christian populations of the eastern archipelago. SomeIndonesians saw this move as a testament to the triumph of nationalist overcommunitarian religious ideas, consistent with the nonsectarian political ideologyof President Soekarno. Others in the Muslim community, however,viewed the decision as a compromise of their aspirations for an autonomousMuslim-majority nation as well as a betrayal of their own participation and sacrificein the struggles that led to autonomy.As Muslim resentment mounted over the wording of the final version of thePreamble, the nationalist government of the new Republic realized that cer-