Piety Projects: Islamic Schools for Indonesia’s Urban Middle Class Karen Bryner Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 2013 Karen Bryner All rights reserved Abstract Piety Projects: Islamic Schools for Indonesia’s Urban Middle Class Karen Bryner This dissertation examines two piety projects competing for control over popular conceptualizations of piety and what it means to be a good Muslim, as presented by Al Azhar 31 Islamic Primary School and Luqman al Hakim Integrated Islamic Primary School in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Al Azhar 31 promotes an Indonesian Islam, pluralistic and inclusive of multi-tradition approaches to Islam that is flexible in regards to acceptable forms of worship. Luqman al Hakim SIT promotes a transnational Islam, inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and linked to the Indonesian Islamic political party, Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejatera, PKS). The school’s purificationist approach pushes for the removal of local customs and traditions from mainstream Islam and promotes exacting observance of standardized practices. These two schools’ disparate approaches to Islam are emblematic of the larger polarizing trends in approaching Islam in Indonesia today. This dissertation has particular significance for understanding the intersection of Islamic movements, Islamic education, and the religious middle class. Based on 15 months of ethnographic research, this dissertation demonstrates how schooling can be a tool for shaping socio-religious and political climates of a community and country. It adds to the growing literature on the educational spaces developing alongside Islamic piety movements throughout the Muslim world. Additionally, this dissertation provides a rare example of the influence on Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood ideologies on education, rather than politics. It also illustrates how the schools’ disparate approaches to Islam shape distinct religious subjectivities within their students. The documentation of the innovation of the extended-day Islamic school model and integrated Islam ideology employed by both schools adds to the rich history of Indonesia’s Islamic schooling traditions. Finally, this dissertation demonstrates how middle class parents’ classed aspirations and anxieties regarding education, wealth, morality, and corruption coalesce to create ready consumers for a particular type of Islamic school: one that provides a longer school day, strong academics, and a robust religious curriculum focused on Islamic morals and values. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ iv Glossary and Abbreviations ............................................................................................... vii Chapter 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 A Cacophony of Islamic Activity in Indonesia ........................................................................... 3 Islam, the State, and Religious Education ................................................................................... 9 Religion and the state ..................................................................................................................... 9 Islamic education and the state ............................................................................................... 11 Extended-day Islamic Schools ................................................................................................. 15 Conceptual Framework: Piety Projects .................................................................................... 22 Research Setting and Methodology ............................................................................................ 29 Organization of Dissertation ......................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 2. The Politics of Religion: Indonesian Versus Transnational Islam .. 36 Points of Difference Between NU, Muhammadiyah, and PKS ......................................... 38 Politics and secularism ............................................................................................................... 39 Qur’anic interpretation and bid’ah ........................................................................................ 42 Are you Indonesian enough? .................................................................................................... 45 Friction Points between NU, Muhammadiyah, and PKS .................................................... 48 A Glimpse into Jogja’s Educational Battlefield ....................................................................... 54 Muhammadiyah ............................................................................................................................. 55 Nahdlatul Ulama ............................................................................................................................ 56 Non-JSIT integrated Islamic schools ..................................................................................... 60 Hidayatullah .................................................................................................................................... 63 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 64 Chapter 3. A Flexible Islam, the Glue of the Nation: Al Azhar 31 Islamic Primary School ...................................................................................................................... 66 The Al Azhar Franchise .................................................................................................................... 68 Al Azhar 31 ............................................................................................................................................ 72 The Universal in Flexible Islam .................................................................................................... 78 Qur’an- and Hadith-based beliefs ........................................................................................... 78 Inclusivity ......................................................................................................................................... 82 Pluralism ........................................................................................................................................... 84 Flexible Islam and the Middle Class: An Easy Fit ................................................................. 88 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 91 i Chapter 4. Exacting Islam, Benefiting Humanity as a Whole: Luqman al Hakim Integrated Islamic Primary School ................................................................................. 98 JSIT’s Roots in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Politics .................................. 101 Network of Integrated Islamic Schools (JSIT) .................................................................... 105 Luqman al Hakim Integrated Islamic Primary School .................................................... 111 The Universal in Exacting Islam ............................................................................................... 116 Qur’an- and Hadith-based beliefs ........................................................................................ 118 Standardized practices ............................................................................................................ 120 Exacting adherence ................................................................................................................... 122 The Paradox of Universal and Exacting Islam .................................................................... 128 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 137 Chapter 5. Students’ Trajectories in Religious Subjectivities .............................. 140 Methods ............................................................................................................................................... 142 Secondary school preference ................................................................................................ 144 Professional goals ...................................................................................................................... 149 Conceptualization of a good Muslim .................................................................................. 152 Moral subjectivity ...................................................................................................................... 156 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 167 Chapter 6. Intelligence, Piety, and Citizenship ......................................................... 175 Moral Character as Piety .............................................................................................................. 179 The Ideology of Integrated Islam ............................................................................................