DEFINING ISLAMISM IN THE INDONESIAN CONTEXT

For a long period of time Indonesian Islam has enjoyed the reputation of being a distinctive and tolerant variant of Islam compatible with democracy, human rights, civil society, pluralism, gender equality and other traits of modern civilization. One of the main reasons for this positive reputation is that Islam was introduced to the country in a relatively peaceful way, even though it is undeniable that military expansion accompanied its institutionalization. Sufism also played an important role in the expansion of the new faith. In this region, Islam has flourished as an entity enriching a deep cultural web of local cultures and beliefs, converting the indigenous people without necessarily remaking them according to the Middle Eastern model of Muslims.

This rosy assumption is being challenged by the upsurge of Islamist activism in Indonesia, particularly since the resignation of Soeharto. The rapture accomppanying the rebirth of democracy, the withdrawal of antisubversion laws and the Azas Tunggal regulation, which had prescribed Pancasila as the sole ideology for all mass and political organizations, and the release of political prisoners by then president B.J. Habibie all provided unprecedented and propitious ground for Islamists to openly exercise their activism. A large variety of radical Islamist groups came to the fore. While some focus on campaigning peacefully for the enforcement of the Islamic Shari‘ah, others have resorted to violent methods such as conducting sporadic raids on night spots and carrying out jihadist self-martyring operations. The crisis was employed as a rationale for the Islamists in promulgating the return to “pristine” Islam as the only solution.

Even though there has been an obvious decline in support for the establishment of an Islamic state in the country since 1945, the shift to a more democratic regime paved the way for radical elements to express their Islamist views more blatantly in public. The rise of Islamist activism culminated in such violent acts as the Bali bombing in 2002, the Marriott Hotel blast in 2003, the car bombing in front of the Australian embassy in 2004, the second Bali bombing in 2005 and the second Marriot blast in 2009. Some observers have argued on the basis of these events that Indonesia has become a hotbed of Muslim terrorists.