Post-fundamentalist Islamism and the Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia

Abstract

Since the beginning of 2000s, Indonesia has witnessed the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Its rise has been largely—though not necessarily—associated with brutal terrorist attacks in a number of places in Java and Bali; deadly religious conflicts in Ambon and Poso; and battering downs of so-called “places of vice” such as discotheque, karaoke bars, and massage parlours across the country. At the heart of these movements is a demand to establish an Islamic state and implement Shari’a, a sort of Islamic way of life. These movements want to realise their goals by returning to the pristine Islam practiced by the Prophet Muhammad through a method called jihad, largely understood as fighting against “enemies of Islam” in the name of Allah. Referring to Hiariej (The politics of becoming fundamentalist in the age of consumer culture. Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, 2009) this study argues that the rise of Islamic fundamentalism should be seen as part of a larger resistance against a particular structure of oppression. Taking the form of struggle for specific Islamic identity, the resistance should be further understood in terms of the politics of representation, in which Islamic identity is produced and adopted through a number of discursive practices. This identity is hardly given, static and fixed; rather, it is constantly modified and reproduced within the political frontiers of oppression and resistance in activists’ everyday life.