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

1 9 8Islam i n World Cult u r e stain compromises would have to be made with respect to the interests of organizedIslamic religious and political groups who desired a more Islamicizedstate system. One of the most significant of these compromises was the establishmentof the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs in 1946. The ministrygrew out of the Office for Religious Affairs that had been established underthe Japanese occupation government. The movement for the continuation ofthis body, however, as well as its incorporation into the state structure of independentIndonesia, was at first rejected by the secular nationalists. Mountingpressure, however, convinced the government to grant a major concession toMuslim interests in the form of a national government ministry. Capitalizingon the one foothold that overtly Muslim interests had now been granted in theadministration of the Republic, leaders of the ministry transformed it from apolitical concession to Islamic interests into an active agent for the mobilizationand engagement of Muslims. In particular, it would come to play a keyrole in the advancement of formal and informal Muslim education andschooling nationwide.President Soekarno was in office for two decades: from independence inthe 1940s to the mid-1960s. In this period, the supporters of the Ministry of ReligiousAffairs faced a number of significant challenges and obstacles on theway toward realizing their objectives. Under Soekarno’s administration duringthe 1950s and early 1960s, the interests of the military, leftists, those who weremore Islamically oriented in politics, and others all hung in a delicate balance.A tense situation was further exacerbated by internal Muslim factional disputes,which had increased dramatically following a decision by the “traditionalist”Muslim organization, NU, to leave the Muslim political party, Masjumifollowing arguments over leadership positions in the Ministry of Religious Affairsin 1952. The appointment of a modernist to the head of the ministry wasviewed by many within NU as a political setback in terms of potential influenceover the official interpretation of Islam in schools, courts, and official publications.While Muslims contested such matters, other groups began to assertmore power in Indonesian politics and society. The most notable of these wasthe Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), whose rise to prominence on the nationalstage eventually ended in a failed coup, a wave of tragic violence, and arapid destabilization of Soekarno’s hold on power.The turbulent toppling of Soekarno’s government in 1965 was followed, especiallyon the islands of Java and Bali, by the killing of tens of thousands of Indonesians.Suspected leftists, among others, were targeted. In the wake of thisturmoil, a general named Suharto came to power as president and declared a“New Order” for Indonesian society. Especially after the horror of 1965, manycommitted Muslims turned away from direct mass mobilization politics underS u h a r t o ’s New Order. In addition, in the early years of the New Order, the newg o v e r n m e n t ’s drive to consolidate power resulted in a political disenfranchise-