INDONESIA
By Julia Suryakusuma*
The Jakarta Post-Apr 4
“Islam brings hope and comfort to millions of people in my country, and to more than a billion people worldwide.”
Who said this? You’ll never guess! George W. Bush, that’s who!
He said it in his Idul Fitri greeting in December 2002 to Muslims everywhere — yes, just over a year after the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. When Bush was president, he said some really wonderful things about Islam every Idul Fitri that really captured the essence of what the religion of almost a quarter of the world’s population (now 1.6 billion) truly is.
Trump should really take not just a page, but several pages out of Bush’s book on Islam. And maybe, so should Muslims, because it seems many of us have descended into a deep amnesia.
With the world’s largest population of Muslims, what happens in Indonesia should be important to the global development of Islam. Indonesian Islam has long had a reputation of being a bastion of moderate, tolerant and inclusive Islam, shaped by tropical sun and winds, as well as by the archipelago’s inherent multiculturalism.
Islam and democracy both embody the principles of equality and tolerance. However, since the Reform Era in 1998, the face of Islam in Indonesia has changed to fit in with negative stereotypes of Islam: conservative, Wahabi-inspired, more Arabized (in attire and culture) and using rigid, intolerant interpretations of Islamic doctrine.
On March 27, I attended the opening of the Ma’arif School of Thought held at the Muhammadiyah office in Central Jakarta.
Muhammadiyah is the second largest Muslim organization in Indonesia and devotes itself to social and educational activities. The ideological spectrum of Muhammadiyah ranges from puritan and neo-conservative (the majority) to progressive.
The Ma’arif Institute, founded in 2003, belongs to the latter group, but it is an important minority as it engages in activities “related to democratic consolidation by strengthening and widening the participation of civil society through the advocacy of public policies […] Islamic renewal, inter-faith, inter-culture, promoting peace, mutual understanding and cooperation […] for humanity”.
This year, the institute will hold the Ma’arif Award (given to individuals or groups who pioneer social change at the grass-roots level), a Jamboree for model students, a reveal of the results of the Ma’arif Fellowship awards, and the establishment of the Ma’arif School of Thought.
So, who is Syafii Maarif? Born in 1935 in West Sumatra, Ahmad Syafii Maarif, better known as Buya Syafii once led Muhammadiyah (1998-2005). He lectures and writes, producing several books, one of which is entitled the self-explanatory “Islam within the framework of Indonesianness and humanism” in Indonesian. The revised edition includes a chapter on gender. Hmm, thank God they corrected their oversight.
Syafii is also a member of the presidential working unit for the implementation of state ideology Pancasila (UKP-PIP), founded in 2017 to no doubt safeguard the Indonesian state currently under threat by political Islamists.
Buya Syafii is certainly an inspiration. At 83, his passion for bringing Indonesian back to a progressive and tolerant Islam Berkemajuan (Progressive Islam), which echoes the Islam Nusantara (Islam of the Archipelago) proclaimed by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the only other Muslim organization bigger than Muhammadiyah, both in 2015. Buya (father) as he is often called, famously defended Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, denying that the former Jakarta governor had committed blasphemy.
It was an obvious statement that was also voiced by other Muslim scholars, but in the context of the tsunami of irrational Islamist voices baying for Ahok’s blood, it was daring. Muhammadiyah’s notion of Islam Berkemajuan, an Islam that is historically and culturally adapted to Indonesia, is one that we have adhered to for much longer than the current wave of conservative, intolerant Islamism that seems to dominate Indonesia. This is due to their vociferousness, but also buttressed by opportunist politicians who use it to their advantage to gain power.
The launch started with a brief introduction of the School of Ma’arif Thought, which according to Ma’arif Institute director Muhammad Abdullah Darraz, is now is just a short course lasting three weeks; the first round in July and the second in August this year.
Participants will be selected from 25 to 40-year-old post-graduate students. According to their terms of reference, the aim is to “disseminate Syafii Maarif and contemporary Indonesian Islamic thoughts; to create intellectual cadres in the academic sphere, intellectual communities, NGOs and society at large; to formulate the intellectual and activism map of Syafii Maarif in the context of contemporary Indonesian Islamic thought; to internalize and disseminate the thoughts and values of Ma’arif in our life as a nation and peoples”.
Wow, that is pretty ambitious, and given the context of the rise of Islamic conservatism and Islamism (the use of Islam for political means) in present day Islam, absolutely necessary.
A key-note speech was given by Amin Abdullah, a professor and lecturer at the Islamic State University in Yogyakarta who heads the Cultural Commission of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) based in Jakarta. He gave a fascinating presentation on the intellectual position of Syafii Maarif in the context of the development of contemporary Islamic thought.
He cited the work of Abdullah Saeed, a well-known Islamic scholar, who categorizes Muslim thinkers into six groups: legalist-traditionalists who basically adhere to the thoughts and interpretations of Muslim ulema (Muslim scholar) in pre-modern times; theological puritans who focus on the dimension of Islamic ethics and doctrine; political Islamists who focus on political Islam with the ultimate aim of establishing an Islamic caliphate; Islamic extremists who believe in using violence against any individual or group they consider to be “the enemy”, whether Muslims or not; secular Muslims, who believe religion is a private matter; and progressive ijtihadits (proponents of modern reasoning), modern-day Muslim scholars who try to interpret Islamic teachings to suit present-day life. Obviously, Buya Syafii belongs into the last category.
The keynote speech was followed by a panel discussion consisting of Abdul Mu’ti, secretary-general of Muhammadiyah; Budhy Munawar Rahman, considered a leading figure in “the third generation” of post-colonial Muslim intellectuals and formerly a protégé and biographer of the late Nurcholis Madjid, also a progressive Muslim scholar; and Zuly Qodir, lecturer at Muhamadiyah University Yogyakarta (UMY) and senior researcher at the Ma’arif Institute.
The panel was moderated by Moch. Sofyan, the coordinator of the School of Ma’arif Thought.
Congratulations to the Ma’arif Institute and its new school, which will hopefully bring back hope and comfort to the millions of Muslim in Indonesia!
*Julai Suryakusuma is a columnist and a uthor of Julia’s Jihad.
(First published in The Jakarta Post – http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2018/04/04/maarif-school-of-thought-an-indonesian-islam.html)
