The Politics of the Fatwa
The Politics of the Fatwa Under review, Journal of Asian Studies Jeremy Menchik Assistant Professor Pardee School of Global Studies Boston University 11 April 2019 Abstract: Fatwas from Islamic organizations are prominent elements of public debates in democratic Indonesia, as well as the broader Muslim world. Yet scholars lack a clear theoretical explanation for the power of fatwas in politics. This paper draws on original archival material to explicate the authority of the fatwas from the Indonesian Council of Ulama (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI), which over the past twenty years has become one of the country’s most influential actors. The paper distinguishes three periods in the growth and transformation of MUI’s authority; starting with charismatic authority and expert authority, MUI later gained regulatory authority, and now uses agenda setting, lobbying, mass mobilization, and the threat of violence. By examining how the power of MUI’s fatwas increased as the organization accrued more forms of authority, this periodization demonstrates that explaining the political power of the fatwa requires understanding the modern organizational authority of Islamic actors. Keywords: Islam, politics, religious authority, Indonesia Acknowledgements: Versions of this essay were presented at the 2018 meeting for the Association for Asian Studies, the Gatty Lecture Series at Cornell University, and Northwestern University. I am indebted to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies for generous access to their clipping library. I am grateful for feedback from Chiara Formichi, Robert Hefner, Sana Jaffrey, Diana Kim, Dominik Müller, Kaija Schilde, Nicholas Rush Smith, Tom Pepinsky, John Woodward, Jeff Wasserstom and three anonymous reviewers. Yoshiko Herrera, Tamir Moustafa, and Scott Straus merit a special thanks for encouraging me to research fatwas long before any of us could articulate why they merit attention.
[Show full text]