Islamic Reformation in Indonesia Christian’s Point of View
By: Martin Lukito Sinaga
Briefly, religious struggle becomes the struggle of faith and society. It means that instead of becoming a political alternative for the common plural order, religion attempts to give spiritual insight for individual and community in the arrangement of plural life. Therefore, in daily life, religious organizing will lead to interfaith cooperation where benefit and quality of common life becomes the objective of those religious movements.
Taufik Abdullah has introduced a Weberian debate into Indonesian Islam in Agama, Etos Kerja dan Perkembangan Ekonomi(/Religion, Work Ethic and Economic Development LP3ES,1979). In this book, he quoted Weber’s famous opponent Bryan S. Turner, to show that Max Weber’s thesis is mostly wrong in analyzing the lack of capitalism and development in Islam. Weber was not accurate in explaining Islam, because Turner observed that not the work ethic that leads Islam to backwardness, but it is all about military-economical contradictions.
Ironically, Turner said, many Muslim reformists observed Islam’s economical backwardness as the matter of theodicy or God’s justice: if Islam is the true religion, why the infidels were financially successful instead of Muslims. Turner quoted their answer from Albert Hourani: the Christians were strong because they were not real Christians, while the Muslims were weak because they were not real Muslims.
This quotation shows that Islamic Reformation, to some extend, includes Christian’s elements and that Christians have to be involved in the issue of Islamic Reformation. I will say that Islamic Reformation was born from the rivalry with western Christianity. But the most important thing is that, genealogically, Islamic reformation contains the element of religious purification which supposed to bring economic development; a development process that comes to Indonesia – and also Java.
Christian’s Anxiety
According to Th. Sumartana’s book, Mission at the Crossroads (1993), the first Indonesian Christian’s perception regarding Islamic reformation emerged in Java between 1850-1900s, when there was a deep meeting between Christianity and Islam. In the beginning, the meeting was natural since both religions build relation by ngelmu (seeking spiritual knowledge) and learning levenshouding (attitude to life) of the Javanese people. A Javanese-Christian reverend such as Kiai Sadrach was Christian’s bridge toward Javanese mysticism, similar to Sunan Kalijaga in Islam.
And there come the Islamic reformation, firstly through Hadramaut and hajj (pilgrimage). In that time, the Christian’s response (particularly Dutch missionaries who led the church) was interesting. They forbade the Javanese church (kejawen) a la Kiai Sadrach, and observed that Christian must run after the effect of Islamic reformation. In other word, there must be a new pattern or system of reformation (new strategy) in the zending work (church missionary institution) in order to become more convincing and interesting for the Javanese people.
Instead of ngelmu (which is long-winded and less efficient), they preferred the modern social service system (education and health service). Hence, the Christian’s response upon Islamic reformation in that time was running faster in order to win the Javanese’s hearts. They responded Islamic reformation with both anxiety and the passion of missionary (to disseminate gospel).
The anxiety about Islamic reformation was increasing particularly post-Iranian revolution. Here, general TB Simatupang, the main Christian leader in 1980s and head of PGI), observed that Islamic revivalism will definitely influence Indonesia. In the Asian churches meeting in 1985 he observed that however, the country will always guarantee the rights of citizens. Because, he said, “… the constitution 1945 in Indonesia is not a religious law”.
Here, apart from his seniors (the Western missionaries), Simatupang observed that Islamic revivalism must be faced as a form of political challenge, which is impossible to be faced in confrontational way. Simatupang believed that Pancasila (the five basic principles of the Republic of Indonesia) as common framework, would put aside that political Islamic reformation, and attempt to achieve the common welfare through national development.
Christian’s Hope
Viktor Tanja, a reverend and expert of HMI (Muslim Student’s Association), observed the new horizon of Islamic reformation. Observing the movement of Abdurrahman Wahid and Nurcholis Madjid (particularly their idea of secularization –which also reverberates Christian’s thinker such as Harvey Cox), he concluded that the Islamic reformation era today is liberal (See his book, Tiada Hidup tanpa Agama/No Life Without Religion, 1988, p 8). Tanja said: “it means that Islam is liberated from the constrains of the orthodox interpretation, and perceive Islam as value… Here, Islamization is an attempt to understand the Islamic teachings profoundly in order to strengthen private relation between Allah and human.”
Reformation, which is observed as a liberal Islamic movement, has definitely changed the Christian’s perspective on the objective of Islamic reformation. For the first time, Muslim such as Abdurrahman Wahid became keynote speaker before thousands of participants of PGI’s session (Communion of Churches in Indonesia).
Since then, Christians were enthusiastic in a profound study on Islam. In the Christian School of Theology, Islamic studies become a compulsory subject and Islam is learned not in the framework of missionary, but in the framework of phenomenology. The subject of “theology of religions” develops which substance is an attempt to find the basis to accept the presence and truth of Islam throughout the Christian faith’s literatures. Briefly, Islam is now faced in the form of hope and dialog.
This liberal reformation of Islam gives hope for Christianity, mainly in social level. Because the matter of religion and society are no longer seen through the dominant religion’s framework which use to create religious framework (sharia) for the whole aspect of life, but religion is observed as an inspiration for common life.
Briefly, religious struggle becomes the struggle of faith and society. It means that instead of becoming a political alternative for the common plural order, religion attempts to give spiritual insight for individual and community in the arrangement of plural life. Therefore, in daily life, religious organizing will lead to interfaith cooperation where benefit and quality of common life becomes the objective of those religious movements.
On this point, the liberal Islamic reformation will eliminate the Christian’s anxiety and it will generate the creative capacity from the Islamic-Christian relation. That is what we really need in these hard times. []
Leave a comment