Islam Nusantara: The Conceptual Vocabulary of Indonesian Diversity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47776/islamnusantara.v3i1.163Keywords:
Diversity, Islam, Ambiguity, Southeast Asia, PluralismAbstract
This article focuses on the concept “Islam Nusantara†in debates about Islam in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia. Descriptive and prescriptive, the term is a call for acknowledging and accepting the diversity of Islamic practice and belief in Indonesia. I make three arguments. First, while the concept and term “Islam Nusantara†is new in its current variant – closely tied to a particular group of thinkers within the NU – most of what the term describes is neither new nor as locally specific to Southeast Asia as the term suggests. The term encapsulates a thousand-year-old practice of plurality and ideals of pluralism that has been historically more typical for Islamicate societies than modern readings often acknowledge. Second, while it describes a lived reality, “Islam Nusantara†has also become a normative call for renewed pride in and support for diversity of practice and belief. It is a call issued in a deeply competitive landscape in which a variety of actors link religion to politics in new and intense ways, but at the same time “Islam Nusantara†continues to contain some remnants of the foundational vision of the Nahdlatul Ulama. One question that the proponents of the term need to work out is its normative relationship to pluralism – itself a complicated and contested term. The third argument pertains to the normative ambitions of those promoting the concept. I argue that in order to fully expand and make good on its potential, the concept needs to reach beyond Java-centric notions of Islam.
References
Asad, Talal. “The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam.†Qui Parle 17, no. 2 (2009): 1–30.
Aspinall, Edward, and Ward Berenschot. Democracy for Sale: Elections, Clientelism, and the State in Indonesia. Cornell University Press, 2019.
Aspinall, Edward, and Noor Rohman. “Village Head Elections in Java: Money Politics and Brokerage in the Remaking of Indonesia's Rural Elite.†Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 48, no. 1 (2017): 31–52.
Badrun. “Islam Nusantara as Strategy for Indonesian Nasionalism Inauguration.†ADDIN 13, no. 2 (2019): 247–70.
Bauer, Thomas. Die Kultur Der Ambiguität. Eine Andere Geschichte Des Islams. Berlin: Verlag der Weltreligionen im Insel Verlag, 2011.
Bennett, Linda Rae, and Sharyn Graham Davies. Sex and Sexualities in Contemporary Indonesia: Sexual Politics, Health, Diversity and Representations. London: Routledge, 2014.
Boellstorff, Tom. “The Emergence of Political Homophobia in Indonesia: Masculinity and National Belonging.†Ethnos 69, no. 4 (2004): 465–86.
Burhani, Ahmad Najib. Islam Nusantara as a Promising Response to Religious Intolerance and Radicalism. ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, 2018.
Connolly, William E. Pluralism. Duke University Press, 2005.
Crouch, Melissa. “Indonesia's Blasphemy Law: Bleak Outlook for Minority Religions.†Asia Pacific Bulletin, Number 146 (2012).
Damarjati, Danu. “MUI Sumatera Barat Tolak 'Islam Nusantara'.†detikNews, July 25, 2018. Accessed April 1, 2021. https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4133086/mui-sumatera-barat-tolak-islam-nusantara.
FRA – European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. “EU LGBT Survey: European Union Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Survey.†Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013. https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/eu-lgbt-survey-results-at-a-glance_en.pdf.
Geertz, Clifford. Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia. The University of Chicago Press, 1971.
Griffel, Frank. “Contradictions and Lots of Ambiguity: Two New Perspectives on Premodern (And Postclassical) Islamic Societies.†Bustan: The Middle East Book Review 8, no. 1 (2017): 1–21.
Hall, Stuart. Selected Political Writings: The Great Moving Right Show and Other Essays. Edited by Sally Davison et al. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.
Hasyim, Syafiq. “'Islam Nusantara' and Its Discontents.†RSIS Commentary, No. 134 (2018).
Hodgson, Marshall G.S. The Venture of Islam, Volume 3: The Gunpower Empires and Modern Times. University of Chicago Press, 1974.
Künkler, Mirjam. “Law, Legitimacy, and Equality: The Bureaucratization of Religion and Conditions of Belief in Indonesia.†In A Secular Age Beyond the West: Religion, Law and the State in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Edited by Mirjam Künkler, John Madeley and Shylashri Shankar, 107–27. Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Mandal, Sumit K. Becoming Arab: Creole Histories and Modern Identity in the Malay World. Asian Connections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Peletz, Michael G. “Transgenderism and Gender Pluralism in Southeast Asia Since Early Modern Times.†Current Anthropology 47, no. 2 (2006): 309–40.
Peletz, Michael G. Gender Pluralism: Southeast Asia Since Early Modern Times. Routledge, 2009.
Peletz, Michael G. Sharia Transformations: Cultural Politics and the Rebranding of an Islamic Judiciary. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2020.
Pelletier, Alexandre. “Competition for Religious Authority and Islamist Mobilization in Indonesia.†Comparative Politics, 2021, 1–23.
Pregill, Michael E. “I Hear Islam Singing: Shahab Ahmed's What Is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic.†Harvard Theological Review 110, no. 1 (2017): 149–65.
Ramstedt, Martin. “Politics of Taxonomy in Postcolonial Indonesia: Ethnic Traditions Between Religionisation and Secularisation.†Historical Social Research 44, no. 3 (2019): 264–89.
Saubani, Andri. “Ketua PBNU: Islam Nusantara Bukan Agama Baru.†Republika.co.id, December 23, 2019. Accessed April 1, 2021. https://www.republika.co.id/berita/q2xwie409/ketua-pbnu-islam-nusantara-bukan-agama-baru.
Telle, Kari. “Faith on Trial: Blasphemy and ‘Lawfare’ in Indonesia.†Ethnos 83, no. 2 (2018): 371–91.
van Bruinessen, Martin, ed. Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam: Explaining the "Conservative Turn". Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2013.
Woodward, Mark. “Islam Nusantara: A Semantic and Symbolic Analysis.†Heritage of Nusantara: International Journal of Religious Literature and Heritage 6, no. 2 (2017): 181–98.