Ordering what is right, forbidding what is wrong: two faces of Hadhrami dakwah in contemporary Indonesia (original) (raw)

2012, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs

This paper is concerned with two faces of Hadhrami dakwah in post-New Order Indonesia. One is that of Habib Syech bin Abulkadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) who promotes traditional Sufi piety and opposes religious and political violence. The other is that of Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab (Habib Rizieq), one of the founders of Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front, FPI). He is known as much for his politics as for his piety. Both are examples of the new institutional and ritual forms that Sufism takes and the increasing significance of Hadhrami sayyid in post-New Order Indonesia. They lead social movements located in new, primarily urban, social spaces. As is true of many religiously inspired social movements they draw on and seek to amplify emotions. Habib Syech stresses love and compassion; Habib Rizieq, fear and hatred. Habib Syech bin Abulkadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) and Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab (Habib Rizieq) are both sayyid (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad). Both are located in the social space of the Hadhrami Arab diaspora, the political space of Indonesian debates concerning state-religion relations and rooted in Bā'Alawī Sufism from the Hadhramaut. As dakwah movements both are inspired by the Quranic injunction 'to order what is right, forbid what is wrong', that is perhaps the most basic principle of sharia. 1

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