Introduction

In his analysis of religious dynamics in Java, M.C.Ricklefs, the eminent historian of Indonesia,recalls Mark Twain's observation that ‘historydoesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes’.Twain's remark leads Ricklefs (2008: 115) to explore‘the possibility of historical rhymes in the historyof Islam in Java’ (see also Ricklefs 2007 and 2012).This chapter, which focuses particularly onAl-Irsyad, an Indonesian reformist Islamicorganization established by Arab immigrants from theHadhramaut, discusses social processes and dynamicsthat can best be grasped by employing a notion ofhistorical rhymes as sensed by Twain and Ricklefs.By comparing Al-Irsyad’s founding phase in thecolonial period with its more recent developments inthe last two decades, the chapter examines similar(yet not identical) social dynamics in thesedifferent eras. Whereas contemporary scholarly workon Islam in Indonesia tries to keep pace with thechanging and increasingly complex religiouslandscape of the country (e.g. Fealy & White2008), this study of Al-Irsyad – inspired by theidea of historical rhymes – emphasizes recurringdynamics and continuities amidst all these changes,adding another aspect to the complex picture.

This chapter is also inspired by another work onreligion in Indonesia, Webb Keane's Christian Moderns (2007),which examines modernist features of Indonesianvariants of Christianity that resemble Al-Irsyad'sattitude towards modernity in certain ways. ForKeane, the Calvinism he investigates on the easternIndonesian island of Sumba is intrinsicallyconnected to a ‘moral narrative of modernity’informed by concepts of agency and progress thatadvocate a ‘rupture from a traditional past, andprogress into a better future’ (2007: 48). LikeProtestants, for whom ‘to reveal more directly theultimate divine agent meant liberating individualsfrom the domination of illegitimate clerics andtheir rituals, and restoring to people their ownprincipled agency, including freedom to read (if notnecessarily to interpret) scripture and formcongregations’ (ibid: 49), the founders of Al-Irsyadwanted to free themselves from traditional Islamicauthorities and practices by inviting Muslims tostudy and interpret the Islamic scriptures bythemselves, which they saw as a basic prerequisitefor leading Islam into the modern world.