12 AFP PHOTO/BAY ISMOYO AFP PHOTO/BAY

Enduring threat, global ramifications

Yahya Cholil Staquf rising tide of Islamism in its myriad forms – they run is general secretary of the gamut from preman berjubah (thugs draped in Arab the Supreme Council garb) to social media activists, proselytism movements of Aeducational networks, political parties and even terrorist groups and director of religious affairs at Bayt ar-Rahmah affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State – has been among the li ad-Da‘wa al-Islamiyyah most noteworthy phenomena to emerge in during the past Rahmatan li al-‘Alamin in 20 years. Winston-Salem, North Carolina Individually and collectively, these developments threaten the unity of Indonesia and its people, often in ways more subtle and profound than the bloody conflicts waged in the name of in regions as diverse as Ambon, Poso and Aceh. And yet, this threat is far from new. Both before and after Indonesia achieved independence, its founding fathers JULY-SEPTEMBER 2018/VOLUME 8/NUMBER 3 POINT OF VIEW 13

had to grapple with the tension that exists the 1950s were also a time of armed rebellions between Islamic orthodoxy and the ideals of waged in the name of Islam. Between 1949 the modern nation-state. In June 1945 the and 1962, the Darul Islam/Tentara Islam members of the Preparatory Committee for Indonesia (Islamic State/Indonesian Islamic Indonesian Independence reached a temporary Army) movement flourished in the regions of consensus with the Charter, which subsequently formed the basis for the preamble to the Constitution of Indonesia. It originally included an obligation for Muslims to abide by Islamic law (Shariah). Both before and after Indonesia In the course of further negotiation, secular achieved independence, its Muslim nationalists, including Soekarno and Muhammad Hatta, persuaded their fellow founding fathers had to grapple committee members to delete seven words with the tension that exists – “with Muslims required to observe Islamic between Islamic orthodoxy and the law” – from the first principle of Pancasila, ideals of the modern nation-state. the state ideology. Hatta argued convincingly that Hindu- and Christian-dominated regions of the East Indies would refuse to join the Republic of Indonesia if its Constitution were to contain the seeds of an Islamic state. Yet, although the committee members West Java, South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan unanimously adopted the 1945 Constitution and Aceh. DI/TII, as it was known, recognized (UUD-45), the tension reflected in their only Shariah as a valid source of law, while debate over the Jakarta Charter has never been terrorizing and beheading its opponents. In resolved and continues to roil Indonesian Sumatra and Sulawesi, the Revolutionary society to the present day. The election of a Government of the Republic of Indonesia Constitutional Assembly in 1955 witnessed the (PRRI) raised the banner of Islam, due to the re-emergence of this fierce debate regarding fact that the Islamist party Masyumi – stung what form of government Indonesia should by its political defeat at the hands of President adopt: Islamic theocracy or a secular nation- Soekarno, Wahab Hasbullah, the state. After years of political maneuvering chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and other and conflict, in July 1959 President Soekarno Indonesian nationalists – was deeply involved wielded an iron fist to end the debate by in the CIA-backed PRRI/Permesta rebellion of dissolving the Constitutional Assembly 1958-1961. and reimposing the 1945 Constitution via These historical experiences demonstrate presidential decree. that Islamism, especially as a political In addition to paralyzing legislative conflict, movement based on religious identity, 14 POINT OF VIEW STRATEGIC REVIEW

is indeed a latent, enduring threat to the And how could this not be the case? Islamic existence of the Unitary State of the Republic orthodoxy includes a remarkably extensive of Indonesia (NKRI) as a multi-religious and discourse about public law, both civil and pluralistic (Pancasila) nation-state. criminal, which is generally described as “God’s law” (Shariah) – or at least as “the nder the Soeharto regime, this threat interpretation of God’s law” – which must Uwas repressed continuously and with be implemented in daily life. Obviously, considerable difficulty, but never completely this cannot be achieved without political neutralized. The rising tide of Islamism in domination by those who wish to implement post-Soeharto Indonesia may thus be said to Shariah, which describes the Islamist agenda constitute a “rebound” of the perennial Islamist precisely. aspiration and its accompanying pressure to Soeharto viewed Islamist political pressure transform Indonesia from a Pancasila nation- as a threat to his own power. Hence, he state into an Islamic state. adopted a strategy of political and military Social groupings based on religious repression, combined with symbolic identity are a natural phenomenon of human concessions carefully negotiated in order to civilization. The problem with certain tenets pacify Islamist groups. The products of these of Islamic orthodoxy lies in the fact that these negotiations are clearly visible in post-Soeharto invariably incarnate as a form of political Indonesia: the embedding of religious identity, with a marked tendency to embrace education within the school curriculum; absolutism and a hidden or explicit agenda the establishment of the Indonesian Ulema of dominating the existing political order, Council; the creation of an Islamic judicial whatever that may happen to be. Whether system that exercises jurisdiction over this struggle to acquire political supremacy marriage, divorce, remarriage and inheritance is waged blatantly or covertly is simply a solely for Muslims; “political donations” matter of strategy and tactics. Detailed offered to compliant Islamic institutions and analysis, including careful study of the organizations; the establishment of “Shariah- historical dimensions of this phenomenon, compliant” banks; and the creation and may be necessary to gain a comprehensive government support of the Association of understanding of this issue. Yet one thing Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals, to name a cannot be denied: the aspiration for Islam few. to attain political domination is indeed an And yet, like Muhammad Ali of Egypt, intrinsic part of orthodox Islamic teachings, Ataturk of Turkey and the Pahlavis of Iran, if we employ the term “Islamic orthodoxy” the Soeharto regime failed to address the to describe “an array of theological doctrines problematic tenets within Islamic orthodoxy accepted by the majority of Muslims as that underlie and animate the perennial the most authoritative religious reference Islamist threat, which can only be done standard.” through a process of recontextualizing, or JULY-SEPTEMBER 2018/VOLUME 8/NUMBER 3 POINT OF VIEW 15 AFP PHOTO/OKA BUDHI PHOTO/OKA AFP

reforming, Islamic orthodoxy itself. Charter and transforming Indonesia into an Throughout its history, NU has been Islamic state, supported Soekarno and the fortunate to possess leaders who strongly Indonesian military in repressing the Darul favored the Indonesian nation-state over Islam and PRRI/Permesta rebellions, and theocracy and genuinely yearned for the allied with Soeharto to prevent a Communist well-being and political success of the NKRI. seizure of power, such as that which had Among the most prominent of these NU already occurred to such devastating effect in leaders were Abdul Wahab Hasbullah and Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid. Both North Korea and Tibet. During the 1980s and employed their religious authority as chairmen 1990s, Gus Dur mobilized the NU to help of the world’s largest Islamic organization ensure Indonesia’s successful transition from to mobilize their followers and maneuver authoritarianism to democracy, and thus saved strategically in ways that proved crucial to the his nation from the fate that engulfed Syria, survival of the NKRI, Pancasila and the 1945 Yemen and Libya, and destroyed the fragile Constitution during truly desperate times. shoots of democracy in Egypt and Russia. During the 1950s and 1960s, Kyai Wahab Kyai Wahab and Gus Dur encouraged other blocked Masyumi from restoring the Jakarta NU elites to develop a religious discourse that 16 STRATEGIC REVIEW

offered a concrete alternative to the obsolete, Islamist aspiration for the dominion of Islam problematic tenets of Islamic orthodoxy. This and the establishment of a universal caliphate. alternative Islamic discourse has strengthened There can be little doubt that the outcome the legitimacy of the NKRI, Pancasila, the of this struggle, within Indonesia, will be 1945 Constitution and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika impacted by the forces of globalization, which – Indonesia’s national motto of Unity Amid bring people and ideas from the far corners of Diversity – and mobilized the great mass of the earth into daily contact with Indonesian NU followers at the grassroots level to support Muslims, for both good and ill. So long as this alternative discourse. But the “task” Kyai obsolete, medieval tenets within Islamic Wahab, Gus Dur and their followers have orthodoxy remain the dominant source of undertaken is far from complete. As Gus Dur himself remarked, “[We] must maintain a continuous dialogue between Islam and the Constitution.” There is no license for political and military repression in Indonesia’s post-Soeharto There is no license for political and reform era. The unchecked exercise of power military repression in Indonesia’s is no longer feasible, for dynamic forces have post-Soeharto reform era. emerged within civil society that constantly monitor government actions. As a result, the government cannot act arbitrarily to restrain Islamists’ political lust – even to defend the NKRI, Pancasila and the Constitution. As a natural consequence of these democratic and religious authority throughout the Muslim human rights developments, the “dialectical world, Indonesian Islamists will continue to tension” between Islam and the NKRI is now draw power and sustenance from developments largely governed – and political outcomes in the world at large. This is especially true determined – by the complex interplay of so long as key state actors, including Iran, competing forces within society at large. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan, continue to weaponize problematic tenets of hroughout the post-Soeharto era of Islamic orthodoxy in pursuit of their respective Tdemocratic reform, the NU has adopted geopolitical agendas. a resolute and unequivocal pro-NKRI/UUD- These considerations have led key figures 45/Pancasila position in order to thwart within the NU, including Gus Dur in the efforts to transform Indonesia from a sovereign months and years prior to his death in 2009, nation-state, whose Constitution and laws are and former NU chairman A , derived from modern political processes, into to conclude that it would be impossible a theocracy whose rulers share the perennial to permanently resolve the tension that is JULY-SEPTEMBER 2018/VOLUME 8/NUMBER 3 POINT OF VIEW 17

inherent between Islamic orthodoxy and the being and preservation of virtually every other NKRI/UUD-45, so long as we confine our nation in the world whose laws are derived efforts to the domestic, or purely Indonesian, from modern political processes and whose context of the perennial Islamist threat. people and governments do not wish to be Preserving Indonesia’s unique civilizational subsumed in a universal Islamic caliphate heritage, which gave birth to the NKRI as a or exhausted by the struggle to prevent its multireligious and pluralistic nation-state, establishment. requires the successful implementation The recontextualization and reform of of a global strategy to develop a new Islamic orthodoxy is thus crucial to the welfare Islamic orthodoxy that reflects the actual of Muslims and non-Muslims alike, for it circumstances of the modern world in which constitutes the one indispensable prerequisite Muslims must live and practice their faith. of any rational and humane solution to the This global effort, already launched by multidimensional crisis that has plagued the key elements of Nahdlatul Ulama, including Muslim world for more than a century and its five-million-strong youth organization, not only shows no sign of abating – despite an Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, is not just an ever-growing toll of human lives and misery – inevitable corollary of efforts to defeat Islamist but rather, increasingly threatens to spill over subversion of Indonesia. It is vital to the well- and engulf humanity as a whole.