Search results

In Indonesia, the attitude of radicalism and intolerance within Islam has flourished over the last few decades. There are several factors that encourage the emergence of it. One of them is the waning of Islamic Studies in various educational institutions today. As a result, Islam is only understood to be a matter of aqeedah and worship. Basically, many studies have been conducted to tackle radical and intolerant behavior with various approaches: social, political, economic, etc. In this paper, one offer of solutions through Islamic Studies in traditional Islamic Boarding School education institutions will be discussed. The findings in the field stated that the curriculum applied in Islamic Boarding School became one of the significant factors in the efforts of deradicalization. It can not be separated from the open-minded learning method and various teaching materials of Islamic Boarding School that made students to be familiar with diversity.[Di Indonesia, sikap radikalisme dan intoleranisme dalam Islam tumbuh subur selama beberapa dekade terakhir. Ada beberapa macam faktor yang mendorong munculnya hal tersebut. Salah satu di antaranya adalah memudarnya kajian Islamic Studies dalam berbagai lembaga pendidikan dewasa ini. Akibatnya, Islam hanya dipahami sebatas persoalan akidah dan ibadah saja. Pada dasarnya telah banyak studi dilakukan guna menanggulangi perilaku radikal dan intoleran dengan berbagai pendekatan: sosial, politik, ekonomi, dll. Dalam tulisan ini akan dibahas salah satu tawaran solusi melalui Studi Islam dalam lembaga pendidikan pesantren tradisional. Temuan di lapangan menyatakan bahwa kurikulum yang diterapkan di pesantren menjadi salah satu faktor signifikan dalam upaya deradikalisasi. Hal ini tak lepas dari metode pembelajaran pesantren yang terbuka serta bahan ajar yang beragam sehingga menyebabkan santri terbiasa dengan perbedaan.]

Indonesia has witnessed the growing role of Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI, Indonesian Ulama Council) and excessive introduction of shari'a in Aceh in the last decade. Undoubtedly, the MUI has played important role in defining Islam, or, to be precise, Islamic orthodoxy in the country especially after the downfall of Soeharto regime. Considering itself as the inheritor of the prophet, MUI claims to hold the sole religious authority for guiding Muslim umma in the country in all aspects of life, including people's beliefs. In this current volume of Al-Jamiah, an articles deals with the MUI discussing its controversial fatwa on Ahmadiyah that is charged of spreading deviated beliefs. Ismatu Ropi in his writing analyses the fatwa of Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) on Ahmadiyah and its impacts on more stained relationship within Muslim community in Indonesia. He examines socio-political natures before and after the fatwa on Ahmadiyah reissued in 2005 (the first fatwa was issued in the 1980s) in the lights of the emergence of new model of Islamism in Indonesia and the more conservative shift within the MUI itself particularly after the collapse of Soeharto regime.

The subjects of discussion in this edition of Al-Jāmi'ah are mostly modern Indonesia with the exception of Al Makin's paper on early Islam and Miftahurrohim N. Sarkun on classical Islamic jurisprudence. To begin with, Nina Nurmila overviews the extent to which modern Indonesian Quranic and tradition exegetes gives new meaning to the basic sacred text of Islam. Indeed Nurmila finds that the issues of gender have attracted the attention of Indonesian intellectuals, who argue for gender equality and men's and women's equal role both at home and work. In fact, many Indonesian exegetes reject the inferiority of women at home with regard to conventional understanding that men are seen superior in domestic leadership. Pribadi, on the other hand, highlights the identity of Madurese in relation to the way in which santri culture always revives in this island. According to Pribadi, the main components in the Madurese culture and politics are kiai or ulama (religious leader), pesantren (traditional Islamic boarding school), and NU (Nahdlatul Ulama, the biggest Islamic organization in Indonesia). These factors always played critical role from the Dutch colonial time down to the reform period. At the same time, the Madurese never lose their traditional ethnic values and traditions.

This edition presents contemporary themes around Islam and Muslims in Indonesia from the issues of radicalism, online media, a Dutch scholar during colonial era, women's resistance to shariatization, local practice of Islamic sufism, minority group, to broader theme of the relation of religion and science. To begin with, James Adam Fenton sheds light on the way in which Indonesian society has responded to radical ideology. He argues that dialogue in open society with democratic spirit helps the society to disengage from radicalism.

Seemingly, Globalization, the recent world phenomenon, will get rid of all frontiers possessed by a state. This is due to the fact that each person, whatever citizenship the person possesses, may communicate with any one else wherever he or she live, and may move to any place to which he or she would like. Accordingly, the world phenomenon will play great roles in setting particularly socio-cultural, political, educational, and legal patterns and formulations of locality. However, this locality is an exception. It is a distinctive and peculiar border. The Great Tradition, possessed by the Reflective Few, is going to be hand in hand with the Little Tradition of the Unreflective Many to shield their local properties. They won't let outsiders, through the globalization stream, destruct their local social structures, even though such consciousness belongs more greatly to the former group rather than the latter. However, the former is used to invite the latter to cooperate in handling foreign destructive influences.

The relationship between religious 'tradition' and 'modernity' is a central theme in various academic debates. Of the heatedly debated topic is concerning religious identity in the face of constantly political, economical, and global changes. As with other religious communities, Muslims have to response to these changes, on the one hand, and to the call for preserving their religious identity, on the other.

Indeed, in maintaining their local values when faced with global challenges, Muslims, as a social entity, and Islam, as a set of dogma, have given birth to new phenomena, e.g. new interpretation of Islam within a new context. Additionally, this era of globalization has led religions, including Islam, to renew their gambit to cope reality, e.g. in the practical life (sociological, political, economical and anthropological aspects), intellectual endeavors (philosophical and theological aspects), and in the renewal of dogmatic teachings (hermeneutical aspects).