Page 49 - AEI Insights 2019 - Vol. 5, Issue 1

Arnakim, 2019

Contestation of Formalistic and Substantive Muslims

Muslims in Indonesia experienced a polarisation due to the formalistic and substantive Shari’ah
approach that had ruptured from the previous Geertz’s abangan and santri polarization. The
‘formalistic’ articulation of Islam refers to Muslim political idealism and activism in which
Islam is deployed as a political ideology. They aim at establishing an Indonesian Islamic state
in which Islam is adopted as the state ideology or religion, along with all its socio-political
ramifications. This idealism and activism had been kept intact since the years of independence
up to present days.
There are at least two factors that lead to the continuity of this idealism in Indonesia:
international factors and domestic factors. The international factor suggests that this continuity
is due to the emergence of Islam as a potential political power in other Muslim countries,
especially in the Middle East. The indirect impact of the Middle East has probably been of
paramount importance to this revivalism. As noted by Mehden, the Iranian Revolution was a
milestone to the Islamic revivalism in Indonesia. “The revolution of Iran has been perceived
by many Indonesian Muslims as an example of anti-imperialist, anti-establishment, anti-secular
victory of Islam,” said Mehden (1993, p. 101).

The 1979 Iranian revolution bears witness to the fact that it is not impossible for Islamic
political forces to merge with the government. It also yields a moral shield against the “attack”
of western “anti-values”. Finally, it acts as an anchor for individuals and social groups caught
in the tempest of the magnitude, relativism, and identity crises (Choudhury, 1994).
Furthermore, the political and socio-economic plight of Muslim world provides an ideal
breeding ground for its rapid spread, which resulted in the victory of the mujahidin of
Afghanistan over the armed forces of the Soviet Union, and the formation of Sudan’s Islamic
government in the 1990s (Choudhury, 1994).
In Algeria, the electoral victory of the Islamic government forced the traditional bastions and
proponents of parliamentary democracy to invoke individual human rights as universal
principles of an order “higher” than the will of the majority, thus justifying their open support
for the military coup. In Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and other Muslim
countries, politicized Islam remains an important force to be reckoned with (Rahmena, 1994,
p. 1).
Islamic idealism is also the result of contact with new ideas that have formed the basis for the
worldwide Muslim resurgence. Exchanges of contemporary Islamic thought during such times
as the hajj in Makkah, and in Middle Eastern universities such as Azhar University in Cairo,
the University of Baghdad in Baghdad, and Islamic University in Medina have occurred. A
wide range of contemporary Muslim literature found its ways into Indonesia. The works of
Shariati, Maududi, Qutb, and other have reached books stores, religious schools, Muslim
students’ organisation and universities (Mehden, 1993).
Furthermore, this formalistic idealism was driven by a negative encounter with Western
colonial power, especially the Dutch in Indonesia. Undoubtedly, the long and penetrating
process of colonial control had a devastating impact on Islamic idealism. As a result, as Bahtiar
Effendy (2003) highlights, the venture of the country’s political Islam during the early days of
independence played a crucial role in the evolution of a highly strained relationship between
political Islam and the Indonesian government. This group was being represented by the
modernist Muslims who continued the spirit of Masyumi such as members of the DDII and its
allies.

The substantive articulation of Islam refers to the embedding of Islam’s essence in Indonesian
politics and society rather merely in form, such as the Islamic state. This endeavour began with

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