The Case of PKS

GJAT | DECEMBER 2019 | VOL 9 ISSUE 3 | 27 ISSN : 2232-0474 | E-ISSN : 2232-0482 www.gjat.my The Influence of Middle Eastern Islamic Political Thought on Islamic Political Parties in Indonesia: The Case of PKS Ahmad Ali Nurdin Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati, Bandung, Indonesia Tel: +6282117543973 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Muslim world. The role of Islam in politics was not only reflected in governmental and This paper primarily focuses on the influence social organizational activities, but was also of Middle Eastern Scholars on the Prosperous the concern of the scholars as well. Muslim Justice Party or the Partai Keadilan Sejahtera scholars like Jamaluddin al-Afghani and (PKS) of Indonesia. By looking into the way Muhammad ‘Abduh in Egypt, and Sir Sayyid the party establishes and develops itself, and its Ahmad Khan and Muhammad Iqbal in the member recruitment style, this paper shows that Indian subcontinent were actively involved the influence of Middle Eastern scholars on the in disseminating ideas of modernism and party’s ideology is relatively significant. The resurgence. “Islamic modernism” consisted emergence of what was known in Indonesia as primarily of intellectual movements driven by the dakwah or tarbiyah movement, which later several factors, and is particularly concerned came to influence the establishment of PKS, was with Muslim ‘backwardness’ vis-à-vis Western in fact an extension of the movements promoted colonial influences. Although modernism in by Abu A’la Maududi in Pakistan and Hassan Islam was originally conceived in the Middle al-Banna in Egypt. For the PKS, books written East, Middle Eastern modernist movements by Maududi and al-Banna have become main later managed to influence Muslims around sources for its members’ training activity, known the world, especially those in the Indo-Pakistan as the liqo activity. The liqo training method, sub-continent and, subsequently, in Indonesia one would argue, is clearly akin to the one too, to get actively involved in such intellectual used by the Egyptian al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun movement. movement to recruit its members, except that to the Ikhwan group, the liqo is actually termed as This paper discusses the ideological influences usrah. With its systematic method of gathering, of Middle Eastern and Indo-Pakistani scholars each member of the PKS who has attended the on the establishment, development and party liqo for a long period and considered capable cadre recruitment style of the Partai Keadilan enough to translate the knowledge gained, is Sejahtera (PKS) or Prosperous Justice Party of urged to create another new liqo group and try Indonesia. Central to our study is the question to recruit new members. of how the political thinking of those scholars, particularly that of Hassan al-Banna of Egypt Keywords: Islamic party; Dakwah; Liqo; and Abu A’la Maududi of Pakistan, influenced Middle Eastern Influence;Usrah the political thinking of Indonesian activists in establishing Islamic political parties like the Introduction PKS. It is however important to note at this juncture that although Maududi was a Pakistani, The early development of Islamic political his ideas were considered as Middle Eastern thinking in Indonesia cannot be separated in origin and therefore this paper anchors its from the issues and problems that appeared arguments on the Middle Eastern origin of and became a concern of Muslim scholars Indonesian Islamic modernism and revivalism. from the 18th to the early 20th century in the As a matter of fact, the title of this paper This journal is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) GJAT | DECEMBER 2019 | VOL 9 ISSUE 3 | 28 ISSN : 2232-0474 | E-ISSN : 2232-0482 www.gjat.my presupposes the notion that modern ideas on Middle Eastern scholars resulted not only in the Islamic modernism and Muslim resurgence modernist-reformist approaches but also some had their roots in early Middle Eastern Islamic revivalist approaches to address the problems political thinking. of Islam in Indonesia. For example, the ideas and movements led by Abu A’la Maududi From Middle East to Indonesia and Hassan al-Banna have had great impact on Indonesian and Malaysian Muslims. The The wave of Islamic reformism came to emergence of what was known in Indonesia Indonesia in the early twentieth century. as the dakwah movement or the phenomenon Transmitted generally by returning Indonesian of Islamic revivalism in the seventies, which students from Cairo who brought with them influenced the establishment of PKS, was in fact reformist literatures, Islamic modernism soon a continuation of the movements promoted by gained momentum in the Malay-Indonesian Maududi in Pakistan and Hassan al-Banna in world. The Islamic modernist movement in Egypt. According to M. Kamal Hassan (2003), Indonesia, considered to be the root of moderate Maududi along with Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) and modernist Islam in the country, constitutes and Khomeini (1900-1989) were the most a remarkable milestone in the continuous and important Islamic thinkers and spokesman for substantial influence of Middle Eastern Islamic the holistic vision of Islam. scholarship on Indonesia. By and large, the modernist movement in Southeast Asia had Based on his brief survey of Maududi’s influence its influence from the Middle East even before on Muslim thought in Southeast Asia, Hassan World War II. Referring to the first four decades concludes that Maududi’s ideas have had a great of the twentieth century, Indonesian scholars impact on Indonesian and Malaysian Muslim like Deliar Noer argued how reformist ideas movements in the seventies. While those ideas like those of Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid have had influence on mainstream Indonesian Rida had fired the imagination of Indonesian social organizations like the Nahdatul ‘Ulama’ youths since very early (Noer, 1978). To Eliraz (NU) and Muhammadiyah, those revivalist ideas (2004), the narratives of Islamic modernist also influenced other Muslim movements in movements in Indonesia are, without question, Indonesia and Malaysia. Besides the fact that intimately and deeply connected with the returning Malaysian and Indonesian students Middle East, except that certain Islamic ideas from the Middle East spread their ideas in their and streams of thought might have underwent home countries, Hassan (2003) further explains some modifications. The greatest success of how Maududi’s ideas, particularly those on Islamic modernist movements in Indonesia was the relationship between Islam and politics, primarily due to Egyptian influence. They made God’s sovereignty, and the establishment of Abduh’s ideas essentially religious in character the Islamic state, also got disseminated. In the and a subsequent platform for an original and case of Malaysia, Hassan says, comprehensive reformism project that posed a substantial challenge to the traditional status The English translation of Maududis’ writing quo. Muhammad Abduh’s heritage appeared and ideas were already available in Kuala to be a significant source of inspiration for Lumpur bookshops in the early sixties. progressive ideas that emerged in the early Maududi’s writings, translated into English 1970s and later became an influential stream mostly by Khurshid Ahmad and published by the of thought in neo-modernist Islamic discourse Islamic publications Ltd of Lahore, were one of in Indonesia. the most important sources of Islamic education of the English-educated Malay intelligentsia However, the influence of the transformation in the seventies and eighties. The writings of of intellectual thinking and movement among This journal is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) GJAT | DECEMBER 2019 | VOL 9 ISSUE 3 | 29 ISSN : 2232-0474 | E-ISSN : 2232-0482 www.gjat.my Sayyid Qutb were equally popular (Hassan, Al-Farisi mosque of the Bandung Institute of 2003, 430-431). Technology (ITB), Tarbiyah student activities still exist. This mosque, more than merely a This means that since the sixties, Indonesian place of religious worships, has evolved into and Malaysian Muslims have been familiar a center of Islamic society. It provides various with the ideas of scholars from Middle Eastern services for its members (ITB students) and countries. the Muslim community outside the campus, such as education, marriage consultancies and The Establishment PKS and the Tarbiyah even a banking system. In the 1980s, one of Movement the founding fathers of the mosque, Imaduddin Abdul Rahim, popularly known as Bang Imad, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera was founded on July introduced to the Salman community the 20, 1998 and was officially declared a party thought and organizational traditions of the on August 9 of the same year. The time of its Egyptian al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun that was to birth of course cannot be separated from what influence heavily on the way the Salman mosque is called in Indonesian history the Reformasi community organizes its activities, which, up to post-Soeharto. Thus, it is reasonable to assume the present, is still maintained by the mosque that the PKS establishment was a response to the administrators. This phenomenon is also national political situations in Indonesia then. found in other major universities in Indonesia, usually state-owned, such as the Shalahuddin However, different from other new political Community in Gadjah Mada University, the parties that have sprouted instantaneously al-Huriyyah

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