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

Muslim Thought and Practice in Contemporary Indonesia 2 1 3Leaders of the Dewan Dakwah Islam Indonesia (DDII) advanced an appealnot long after that, arguing that the national Constitution should be amendedso that the “seven words” of the Jakarta Charter—“with the obligation of Muslimsto uphold the s h a r i ’ a”—would now be reinstituted. One can see significantpolitical stakes animating these discussions of religious ideals. The DDIIand allied Islamist groups argued that under their reading of Islamic law, awoman could not serve as head of state. Thus, according to them, the implementationof the shari’a would immediately have required the removal fromoffice of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who had become president followingWahid’s resignation in July 2001. In this context, Megawati’s own vicepresident, Hamzah Haz, who is himself openly sympathetic to the formalizationof Islam’s role in national politics, preferred, however, to speak about thepossible implementation of the shari’a only on a provincial, rather than a national,level.Even among the most pious and committed Muslims, however, in the post-Suharto era, most do not seem to be in favor of the implementation of a formalistconception of the shari’a. This includes much of the constituencies ofthe traditionalist NU, as well as the modernist Muhammadiyya, both of whichformally stated their opposition to movements to reintroduce the famous“seven words” of the Jakarta Charter to the national Constitution in a specialforum on religious issues held in the national assembly during February 2002.Overall, the range of contemporary perspectives on “Islamic law” shows itssalience as a political symbol and reveals the diversity of views that Muslimshave today in Indonesia on how to apply religious ideals to the realities ofcontemporary Indonesian life. Just as they have in the past, global, regional,local, and individual religious dynamics interact in contemporary SoutheastAsian Islamic systems to create a considerable range of Muslim approaches tosuch basic human questions in the modern world as democracy, social justice,religious authority, and cultural change, as well as to issues of pluralism anddiversity.I n d o n e s i a ’s rich history of cultural cosmopolitanism contributes to themaintenance of deep and long-standing traditions of diversity. Some of themost important values for many Indonesian Muslims include an awareness ofthe pluralism of contemporary global experience and a recognition of the diversitywithin the Indonesian nation itself. Although the great majority of Indonesiansare Muslims, there are considerable minority populations of otherfaiths, such as Protestant Christian and Roman Catholic communities in NorthSulawesi, in North Sumatra, and in the eastern islands, Hindu communities inBali, and Buddhist communities in many parts of the country, as well as a numberof small-scale traditions that face the challenges of globalization and pressuresto define themselves in terms of globalizing categories such as “religion.”Indonesian Islam itself is internally a very diverse phenomenon in its varia-