Mosques and Imams: Everyday Islam in Eastern Indonesia (original) (raw)

Islamic Authority Figures and Their Religioscapes in Indonesia

Teosofia

In this article I argue that religious authority figures in Indonesia form the core of any given religioscape. A religioscape is a dynamic social space where one religious practice or religious interpretation is predominant. At the same time religious authority figures are influenced by the historically grown religioscape in which they live, and this mutual process affects all the people living in it. With the example of three religious authority figures and their respective learning institutions in Indonesia, I aim to illustrate how Muslim personalities influence and shape the religioscape that surrounds them. The first case study is grounded in the mystic Islam found in Yogyakarta, the second case study explores the mixture of local and Hadhrami influences in the Islamic practice of South Sumatra, while the third case study examines an imported form of reform Islam in a transmigrasi settlement. Of major importance in these case studies will be what influences the religious authori...

Religious Authority Figures and (Their) Religioscapes in Muslim Indonesia

CONFERENCE ON RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY IN INDONESIAN ISLAM: CONTESTION, PLURALISATION, AND NEW ACTORS 3-4 July 2018 ISEAS Seminar Rooms 1 & 2 Singapore Abstract In this paper, I will especially focus on how we can obtain a better understanding of the influence a particular religious authority figure has on the people within his/ her reach. Religious authority figures in Indonesia, I argue, form the core from which a particular religioscape can develope. A religioscape is a dynamic social space where one religious practice and/ or religious interpretation is predominant. At the same time religious authority figures are influenced by the historically grown religioscape in which they live. This mutual process affects the people living in a particular religioscape. With the example of three religious authority figures and their respective learning institution, I aim to illustrate how Muslim personalities influence and form the religioscape that surrounds them. The first case study is grounded in the mystic Islam found in Yogyakarta. The second case study explores the mixture of local and Hadhrami influences in the Islamic practice of South Sumatra, while the third case study examines an ‘imported’ form of reform Islam in a transmigrasi settlement. Of major importance in these case studies will be what actually influences the religious authority figure and what tools he uses to disseminate his thoughts and interpretations of Islam. I argue that, the concept of the religioscape enables us to understand deeper the impact religious authority figures have on their surroundings and vice versa and that it can serve as a methodological tool to grasp the diverse plurality of Islamic practices in Indonesia.

In Pursuit of Promoting Moderate Indonesian Islam to the world: Understanding the diversity of Islamic practices in Bima, Sumbawa Island

2018

This paper suggests an ethnographic account of the different Islamic practices among Muslims in Bima, Sumbawa island. This paper calls for the need to understand that Islam in Indonesia is diverse. Anthropological works on Javanese Islam have shaped the national and international understandings of Islam in Indonesia [1][2][3]. Assessments of political, organizational forms and institutional elites have also focused on the Javanese centre of the nation-state. The account of Islamic picture outside Java Island is, however, understudied. This paper argues that Islamic practices vary significantly across Indonesia Islam, not only within Java itself, but outside Java. Cultural diversity and ecological adaptation have made Islam in Indonesia is complex. Through a 12-mont-fieldwork in Bima (2011-2012), I found that although Islam becomes the unifying factor, varied expressions of Islamic practices among Muslims reflect different cultural legacies and socio-political contexts. Although diff...

Islam and Local Culture in Indonesia, Al-Albab Borneo Journal of Religious Studies vol 3 No. 1 June 2014

Muslims believe that their religion is universal, suitable to all places and time. Consequently, in practice, Islam can be adapted to various situations and conditions. Therefore, the diversity in Islam is inevitable. Diversity is especially related to aspects of interpretation and religious branches, not things that are principle. This article is about the relationship between Islam and local culture. As recognized by many experts, Islam in Indonesia was spread by peaceful means. Local elements were used in the process of Islamization. As a result, Islam could be accepted by most of society of Indonesia. Islam expressed here shows a distinctive face. Islam can live hand in hand with local culture, especially the culture that is not incompatible with Islam.

Muslim diversity: Islam and local tradition in Java and Sulawesi, Indonesia

Based on some historical and anthropological accounts, this article examines a dynamic interplay between Islam and local tradition in Indonesia with special reference to Java and Sulawesi. It explains how local Muslims differed in their interpretation and application of Islam. It looks at processes of religious change as a world religion interacts with local forces. The "localization" of Islam was a constant feature in the expansion of Islam beyond the Arab homeland, including Southeast Asia. Based on the framework of 'practical Islam', rather than 'normative Islam', and on the framework of both accommodation and conflict between shari'ah and adat as a whole system, rather than as separate entities, it provides a greater variety of Islamic beliefs and experiences. Comparatively, Javanese people have been more diverse than Sulawesi people in terms of religious spectrum; Muslims in Java have incorporated animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam into their culture system. Stories about the nine saints show how early Islamic preachers sought to accommodate Islam with local traditions. In Sulawesi, Dato ri Bandang and the other teachers, representing the elite aristocracy who attempted to Islamize the kingdoms and the people alike and Syeikh Yusuf, representing a strict kind of Islam, show diversity but tends to suggest a less diverse picture, when compared to Java. Despite internal diversity in Java as well as in Sulawesi, Java has remained more open and tolerant with cultural diversity, whereas Sulawesi has increasingly become more legalistic.

Islam and Local Tradition: A Comparative Perspective of Java and Sulawesi

JICSA (Journal of Islamic Civilization in Southeast Asia), 2016

This article examines the dynamic relationship between Islam and local tradition in Indonesia with special reference to Java and Sulawesi. Based on historical and anthropological sources, the article seeks to understand variety of interpretation and application of Islam among local Muslims within their particular context. With this aim, the article tries to examines the intricate process of religious change as world religion interacts with local forces. The article argues that since the "localization" of Islam was continuing nature in the expansion of Islam beyond the Arab homeland, the same development in Southeast Asia can be expected. By focusing on the frameworks of 'practical Islam' rather than 'normative Islam' and both accommodation and conflict between shari'ah and adat as a whole system, rather than as separate entities, the article found a common feature of Islam as it is interpreted and applied by local Muslims in Java and Sulawesi. In this two region, Islam became the dominant force but did not completely obliterate the indigenous beliefs and practices. Despite this common feature, Javanese people have been more diverse than Sulawesi people in terms of religious spectrum particularly due to the fact that animism, Hindu-Buddhism, and Islam have been incorporated into Javanese cultural system.

Islam in Indonesia

Cover design: JB&A raster grafisch ontwerp, Westland Layout: The DocWorkers, Almere ISBN 978 90 8964 423 7 e-ISBN 978 90 4851 625 4 (pdf) e-ISBN 978 90 4851 626 1 (ePub) NUR 717

Kathryn Robinson, ed. "Mosques and Imams: Everyday Islam in Eastern Indonesia." 2021

Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Anthropological Society 94(2): 212-217 , 2021

(pp. 239-262) examines the encounter between Europeans and Javanese through two cases of racially transgressive clothing in colonial Java. The first case features a photograph of two Dutch girls dressed in Javanese clothes, while the second features an account of an Indo-European woman who appeared in public in Europe dressed in Javanese courtdancer outfit (serimpi). In both cases, the adoption of Javanese clothes for public appreciation carries however a very distinct meaning and evokes therefore a different colonial and postcolonial response. Chapter 10, 'Jazz and the British Empire: The Rise of the Asian Jazz Professional' by Frederick J Schenker (pp. 263-279) examines the circulation of jazz in Asia and the particular role of Filipino musicians. The diffusion of this musical genre, viewed as a vehicle of modernity and European-ness, led to the creation of a new labour category: the professional jazz musician. The author shows that the emergence of this new professional class fostered mobility in Southeast Asia and challenged imperial labour practices. This engaging collection of articles provides a rich range of evidence on the materiality of colonial exchanges. It features a rich iconography as well as an index and a selected bibliography. This book will be of interest for scholars and students interested in Southeast Asian social history, cross-cultural exchanges and cultural appropriation, as well as colonial and postcolonial studies.