Page 44 - AEI Insights 2019 - Vol. 5, Issue 1

AEI Insights, Vol 5, Issue 1, 2019

religious discourses that led to the domination of Islamic activities in the students’
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organisation.
Moreover, upon the policy of Azas tunggal (Pancasila as the only ideology for all mass
organizations in Indonesia), Indonesian Muslims turned to mental and spiritual training. The
Salman mosque at the ITB was known as one of the outstanding communities of Muslim
activities that actively propagated Islamic discourses under the supervision of Imaduddin
Abdurrahim, an Indonesian scholar who had successfully prepared Islamic module for
youngsters on Islamic courses, including on Islamic creed, management and others (Rosyad,
1995; Abdurrahim, 1979). Thousands of young Muslims - most of them university-educated,
had joined the courses. Probably, it was this period that invalidated the theoretical classification
of Islam into santri and abangan in Indonesian politics, for the Muslim middle class had
increased and the nominal Muslims had turned to becoming better and more committed
Muslims (Geertz, 1960).

In the 1980s, the Muslim students’ activities were motivated to socialise Islam through an
intellectual and cultural approach. Dakwah groups emerged in university campuses which
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came to be known collectively as the tarbiyyah movement. Later these groups created the
Campus Dakwah Institute (LDK- Lembaga Dakwah Kampus,), a loose umbrella organisation
for the dakwah groups (Diedersich, 2002, p. 103; Azra, 2022, p. 169). This process of education
basically took the form of halaqah (study circle) which convened in campus mosques and
usrah (family), which are discreet discussion groups that usually met in the houses of their
members. These groups were usually influenced by the Ikhwan Muslimin from Egypt and
focused their discussions on the writings of Sayyid Qutb such as his Ma’alim fi al-Tariq
(Signposts on the Road). One of them even named itself as Ikhwan Muslimin and claim to be
the Indonesian branch of the Brotherhood. Most students of this group were inward-looking
and apolitical; their primary concerns were on moral self-improvement. The emphasis of
discussion was on personal morality and piety, discipline, and an inner rejection of the
Pancasila state (state based on Pancasila) and un-Islamic practices in modern Indonesia
(Bruinessen, 2002, p. 133).

Usrah groups are often affiliated with such discussion as on the militant Muslims’ aims of
establishing an Indonesian Islamic state and Indonesian Islamic Army (NII- Negara Islam
Indonesia / TII- Tentara Islam Indonesia) as attempted in the in the Sukarno’s era (Horikoshi,
1975; Dijk, 1981; Awwas, 2007). There was also a group which was heavily influenced by the
puritan Islam of Wahhabi or Salafi movement in the Arabian Peninsula. This group was
assisted greatly by the Saudi-financed Institute for Islamic and Arabic Studies (LIPIA-
Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Islam dan Arab) in Jakarta (Bruinesse, 2002, p. 134).
Notwithstanding the absence of political Islam, there was a resurgence of Islamic ideas, on
politics, economics as well as social and legal systems (Tamara, 1986). It was an Islamic
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renewal that called on Muslims to seek a revival of “cultural” Islam. This group was also led
by young Muslims of the ‘66’ generation, most of whom were the junior supporters of
Masyumi. The most well-known Muslim scholars who propagated Islam as a cultural

4 Throughout 1970s, Islamic liberal was the dominant trend among committed Muslims in the student movement,
especially when Nurcholish Madjid became the chairman of HMI. However, the fundamentalist Muslims
appeared controlling the student movement in 1980s (Bruinessen, 2002).
5 Tarbiyyah basically means education. It was adopted as the major aim of this religious discourse.
6 Cultural Islam refers to cultural approach in socialisation of Islam, especially its relations with the state. In the
Muslim world, Islamic discourse has dominantly been in political approach, Islam and the state. In Indonesia, the
relations between Islam and the state was antagonistic and thus, difficult in socialisation of Islam. This group
attempts to socialise Islam through the social transformation without emphasising Islamic ideology (Effendy,
2000).

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