Fundamentalism and Radicalism in State Campuses

Fundamentalism and radicalism are two types of movements that threaten the sovereignty of the nation and state, especially Indonesia. These two movements are generally in the name of a religion in their movement. The book "Fundamentalism and Radicalism in State Campuses" aims to invite readers to dive deeper into what is the Islamic activism movement which is one of the radicalism movements that threatens the sovereignty of the Indonesian state today. The Islamic activism movement began to spread throughout Indonesia. However, this movement mostly sets its targets on the younger generation, especially those who are college students.

In Search of the Imagined Ummah: Explaining the Political Crossover of Islamic Conservatism in Indonesia’s 2019 Presidential Election

It has been admitted that the 212 movements constituted not only a socio-religious driving force but also a political one in contemporary Indonesia. In the 2019 presidential election, conservative Islamic camps that had anger and resentments toward President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) as he was regarded incapable of solving crises and keen on discriminating against Islam and ulama came up together to win Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno. Based on qualitative field research in some areas of Indonesia, this article analyses the diffusion of some Islamic groups with their grand narratives and discourses, and their involvement in Prabowo-Sandiaga’s campaign, considered as a fast track of establishing a utopia of the imagined ummah (united Muslim community). In the light of an Islamic activism and social movement theory, it concludes that such a political crossover is a kind of new Islamic activism and social movement. It has not been merely rooted in a conservative outlook of Islam, but also in their dissatisfaction and contention over Jokowi’s social and economic policies. This kind of new Islamic social movement would affect contemporary Indonesian religious and political realms.

ETHNICITY AND ISLAMIC ACTIVISM IN DIASPORA

This article examines the “urang awak”, a term referring to the Minangnese who trace their origin to Minangkabau in West Sumatera , and their dakwah activism in diaspora. It problematises the relation of Islam activism and ethnic identity of a diasporic community in contemporary West-Java, Indonesia. It further argues that mosque has been central to the activities of dakwah activism of the urang awak in diaspora. As this article demonstrates, the Harakatul Jannah Mosque and Al-Anwar Mosque reserve as important bases for dakwah activism of urang awak in a dominant culture of Sundanese and Javanese. Through these mosques, the urang awak attempt to preserve their ethnic identity, mainly expressed through the mosques’ architecture, language, and religious activities that clearly symbolise the identity of urang awak.

Islamic Revivalism in Indonesia: The Caliphate, Sharia, NKRI, Democracy, and the Nation-State

This research examines Indonesian Islamic revivalist movements’ perspectives on the concepts of the nation-state and democracy. The Islamic revivalist movements studied in this research include Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), Front Pembela Islam (FPI), Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), and Forum Umat Islam (FUI). Following the fall of the authoritarian Suharto’s regime in 1998, Indonesia witnessed an escalation of Islamic activism whose goals revolve around the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law) and, to a certain extent, the reestablishment of a caliphate (transnational Islamic state). To this end, revivalist movements have been staging frequent mass protests, mainly addressing Indonesian government policies that are deemed un-Islamic. Some of the protests have ended violently, which implies that their Sharia and Islamic state goals have become a source of conflict in Indonesian society. This research suggests that this violent activism stems from different versions of the concept of the nation-state and democracy, which disagree with broadly accepted definitions. This research was conducted against this backdrop to analyze each movements’ perspectives on the concept of nation-state and democracy and argues that, despite each movement advocating the implementation of Sharia, their understandings of the concepts of the nation-state and democracy differ.

The Colonial–Religious Institutional Contract: Muslim Women Activists in Israel

This study examines the growth of a progressive religious Muslim activism among Palestinian women in Israel and the challenges it poses to the religious patriarchy and colonial power structures. Based on semistructured interviews with a religious feminist organization’s activists, the study revealed that feminist Islamic activism addresses an alliance between state officials and patriarchal–religious establishment gatekeepers that interlock to block Muslim feminist reform. Unlike other Muslim activists in former settler colonial states where state and religion are separate and unlike progressive Muslim women in Muslim states who struggle to escape the religious–patriarchal trap, in Israel, these activists face a religious–colonial–patriarchal trap.

RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM IN MUSLIM COMMUNITIES: RETHINKING IN THE POST-SECULAR ERA

The article presents an attempt to understand Islamic activism, a phenomenon where the differentiation between social and political components is difficult. New perspectives of analysis are associated with the research context of socio-cultural transformations in Muslim communities that have begun since the 19th century. Secularization was important process that affected Muslim communities, but not reinterpreted implicitly at the theological and philosophical level. The process of secularization is not considered by author as a phenomenon of inevitable “atheization” of Muslim communities, but associated with differentiation of various spheres of public life and emergence of new forms religious activism that developed during the mutual competition.

Sufism and the Muslim Brotherhood: Ḥasan al-Bannā’s wird and the Transformation of Sufi Traditions in Modern Islamic Activism

Scholarship on the Muslim Brotherhood has often commented on its initial connection with Sufism. However, the question of how and why Sufism matters in the fully established Muslim Brotherhood movement has so far gone unanswered. This article gives a detailed account of the Sufi elements adopted into Muslim Brotherhood activism by its founder, Ḥasan al-Bannā (1906-1949). It analyses their function, especially their important role in the education of recruits as they become members of a hierarchical organisation based on the ‘family system’. Among the Sufi practices and ideas relevant in the Muslim Brotherhood tradition are the heart-bond (rābiṭah) prayer and self-examination, as well as concepts such as the spiritual path and ‘friendship of God’. Their incorporation into an Islamic project focused on activism and politics radically altered the meaning of these Sufi elements. Beyond al-Bannā and Egypt, the article follows this development within the Muslim Brotherhood movement across the Arab world from the 1950s until the present day.