Civil Islam

Rating:
Summary: To be civil is Islam
Review: Robert W. Hefner's latest scholarly work tells the tale of Indonesia's desperate search for religious identity. Being the largest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia has gone under tremendous pressure to prove itself to the outside world that Islam, being a major force within its society, is compatible with the universal values of current global politics.

This book represents an in-depth cross-cultural study on democracy and civil society in the Muslim context. Though it reveals a variety of religious interpretations within the Islamic body politic typically found in Muslim states, Hefner speaks not only to Muslims, but also a wide range of audiences interested in the issue of religion and contemporary politics.

To a significant portion, "Civil Islam" is dedicated to the cultural, political and intellectual efforts made by liberal Muslim leaders to secure Islam from being overridden by the power struggle during Suharto's New Order. It elaborates how liberal Muslim leaders such as incumbent President Abdurrahman Wahid was able to bring his conservative constituents, namely the 35-million-strong Nahdhatul Ulama, into a more liberal ideological stance, independent of the authoritarian state.

The analysis was done in an explicable manner that depicted the political confrontation between liberal Muslim leaders in alliance with civil society against regimist Muslims in coalition with the ultraconservative wing of the armed forces (i.e. army). For the Muslim liberals, secularization was thus a mere detour to prevent a recurring pattern of Indonesian history in which religious violence was no stranger in the land.

In writing the book, Hefner correctly assumes that in all religious communities, without the exception of the Islamic ummah, there are always uncivil elements stalking and even disrupting the democratic march in any given state. The Indonesian experience has many lessons to be drawn upon, and the most important one is that while society can be violent and uncivil, the state itself is often an essential sponsoring agent that spurs societal and cultural devastation. And when such political machination is in place, true democracy and civil society will only prevail via an all-encompassing reform movement or social revolution.

"Civil Islam" is an intriguing book and a must read for all serious Indonesianists and those interested in religion and the politics of change.