How Liberal Are Muslims in Indonesia?

Apparently, the space for dissemination of the ideas of Islam and liberalism has been narrowed by Indonesian Ulema Council / MUI’s fatwa that prohibits liberalism in the mid of 2005. Nevertheless, the campaign for the ideas of freedom within Islam has not disappeared at all, as indicated by the publication and discussion of a new book entitled Islam dan Liberalisme (Islam and Liberalism) by Budhy Munawar Rachman.

Mohammed Husni Tamrin from Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (FNS), a foundation that published the book, asserted that he had been searching for a specific work focusing on the notion of Islam and liberalism in Indonesia. Like any other FNS foundations in Muslim and Middle Eastern countries, FNS Indonesia would like also to publish its own book concerning liberalism within the Islamic perspective. Reading Budhy’s work entitled Reorientasi Pembaruan Islam (Reorientation of the Islamic Reform), wherein one of its chapters contains a discussion about Islam and liberalism, Tamrin became interested and intended to publish it as a separate book.

The book review on Islam and Liberalism was held in Teater Utan Kayu Jakarta on July 21st, 2011 with Dr. Rumadi (researchers of The Wahid Institute) and Luthfi Assaukanie PhD (former coordinator of The Liberal Islam Network) as the presenters.

Rumadi started his presentation by comparing Islam and Liberalism to Budhy’s previous book Reorientation of the Islamic Reform. Rumadi viewed that the content of Islam and Liberalism is actually a reaffirmation of a section of Reorientation of the Islamic Reform. In Reorientation, Budhy has outlined well three important themes of Islamic reform including secularism, pluralism and liberalism. In this new book, Budhy focuses on liberalism as a specific theme. In spite of that, Rumadi appreciated the publication of Islam and Liberalism, because the publication of such books is very necessary to disseminate intellectual discourse that is considered “dirty” by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and to provide the true knowledge about the relationship between Islam and liberalism.

Rumadi explained about two perspectives in the relationship between Islam and liberalism. First, it perceives Islam as a part or subset of liberalism, as represented by Leonard Binder in his work Islamic Liberalism. This paradigm seeks to open dialogue between Islam and the West and let them take and give one another dialectically, including with the local Arabic traditions.

Charles Kurzman, who on the contrary argued that liberalism is a part or subset of Islam, represents the second perspective. Kurzman’s paradigm wants to show that the so-called liberal ideas are actually within the light of Islamic tradition and to examine the liberal Muslims in light of Islamic tradition. In other words, Binder seeks to examine how liberal the liberal Muslims are, while Kurzman seeks to examine whether the liberal thoughts and ideas are still within the Islamic context.

Rumadi viewed that Budhy’s Islam and Liberalism is in line with Kurzman’s paradigm. In this position, liberal Islam faces two opponents in the same time: customary Islam (Islam adat) and puritanical Islam (Islamic revivalists).  The liberal Islam is in contrast with the customary Islam, wherein conflation between the two Islamic traditions, the great and little tradition, appears. Therefore, the liberals viewed customary Islam not original, because of too much compromise with the local culture that makes Islam obese.

In this regards, liberal Islam has a common ground with the Islamic revivalists, since both call for reforming the traditional religious views and returning to the Qur’an and the Hadith. The difference is that while the revivalists seek to assert modernity in the name of the past, the liberals seek to bring the past back with the spirit of modernity.

Following Kurzman’s perspective, Budhy remapped the liberal Islamic thoughts in six categories as follows. First, liberal Islam resists the idea of Islamic state and its variants. Second, it supports the ideas of democracy. Third, it defends gender justice and the rights of women. Fourth, it promotes pluralism and minority rights. Fifth, it defends freedom of thought. Sixth, it defends the idea of progress.

This book also explored the ethical principles of liberal Islam such as justice, public benefit (maslahat), liberation, freedom, universal brotherhood, peace and compassion, as well as the methodological principles relating to the interpretation of religious texts. Rumadi observed that among the issues concerning Islam and liberalism, the area of Islamic law is perhaps the most controversial issue that is hard to penetrate.

Rumadi explained four reasons why liberalization of Islamic law is the hardest project ever. First, in terms of epistemology, Islamic law is the most robust Islamic disciplines. The rest of Islamic disciplines are stemmed from the Islamic law. Second, in terms of construction, the robustness of Islamic law is due to its attachment to the religious texts. No Islamic law can escape from the domination of this reasoning therefore any unusual interpretation of the law will be deemed as non-Islamic. Third, the demand for the institutionalization of Islamic law through the state dominates the discourse of Islamic law. Fourth, the gap between the exegetical-legal excavation (istinbath) and the application of Islamic law (tathbiqi) exist, as they do not always go hand in hand.

Rumadi closed his presentation conveying his doubt against the ability of liberalization project in covering the areas of Islamic law. This doubt seems reasonable given that the liberal Islam scholars has not been able to subjugate the “arrogance” of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).  Rumadi suggested starting to break through the walls of Islamic law by searching the Islamic legal elements and arguments that are supportive toward the agenda of liberalism.

Afterwards, Luthfi Assyaukanie started his presentation by explaining the reason behind this book’s publication. This book is more than a merely academic discourse to Luthfi, but it is also a campaign medium for the idea of Islam and liberalism. This is why the book’s cover has an attractive design. Derived from a collection of interviews with a number of prominent liberal Islam thinkers and activists in Indonesia, Luthfi also viewed this book as a representation of the epistemic-community in Indonesia in general and Jakarta in particular.

Quoting the article he wrote three years ago in Kompas newspaper, Lutfi reiterated that liberal Islam is not the Liberal Islam Network (JIL). This has to be restated given that many people are often mistakenly identified JIL with liberal Islam- just as common people use popular brand of product to refer to other similar products. As a matter of fact, JIL is only one among other institutions that just happens to use the name of liberal Islam in its attempt to disseminate the liberal values.

In contrast to Rumadi, Lutfi preferred to review the six values of liberalism which Kurzman used as the standard of Muslim’s liberalism, and its association with the development of Islamic discourse in Indonesia, especially concerning the issues of liberal Islam and the extent to which liberal ideas function.

First, the opposition to the idea of theocracy. According to Luthfi, Muslims in general has rejected the idea of theocracy, with the exception of small groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and those who have less contact with the modern political discourse. Second, the support for the idea of democracy.  Democracy is often contrasted with the theocracy in Islamic political discourse, which also caused the hot debate between the secular nationalist and Islamist groups in the early days of Indonesia’s independence. Today, all groups including Islamic parties such as PKS (Justice Welfare Party) and the PBB (Moon Crescent Party) accept the idea of democracy as well. The problem now exists concerning with the practice and interpretation of democracy and democratic values. Luthfi viewed that in terms of acceptance of democracy, Indonesian Muslims are quite liberal.

Third, the guarantee of the rights of women.  Luthfi admitted that there is dissatisfaction in several aspects related to women’s freedom and gender equality, which must be seen from a proportional perspective. Gender discourse in Indonesia is quite advanced if compared to the context of other Islamic countries in the Middle East. Even if there are voices against gender equality and freedom of women, they only come from a small limited group. Therefore, Indonesian Muslims can be considered liberal in terms of gender issues.

Fourth, the guarantee of the rights of minorities. This aspect does not only intersect with the rights of non- Muslims but also with the religious freedom. Lutfi observed deterioration in the matter of religious freedom for the last two decades. This can be seen through the debate over freedom of building worshipping house, particularly the churches. Indonesia was supposed to enhance religious freedom after the fall of Suharto’s regime and the rise of democracy, but the opposite happened. According to freedom index issued by institutions like Freedom House, freedom of religion in Indonesia suffered a severe setback. This setback is due to recent violations of religious freedom, ranging from the burning of churches to the persecution of minority sects like Ahmadiyya and Shi’a etcetera.  Therefore, Luthfi gave negative marks on religious freedom issue in Indonesia.

Fifth, defense of freedom of thought. In this aspect, like the gender issues, Luthfi remind the audience to see it proportionally and compare it to other states. Based on this standard, Indonesia seems to be conducive to freedom of thought. It certainly does not negate some specific cases such as the existence of threats aimed at liberal Muslim thinkers. However, he said that in general Indonesia is relatively liberal in terms of freedom of thought when compared with other Islamic countries, like Egypt or Malaysia, where the threat to freedom of thought is very alarming.

Sixth, the belief in the idea of human progress. In this aspect, Luthfi gave a blatant negative marks, due to the absence of the Islamic groups in Indonesia that are actively proposing the ideas of human progress. The idea of human progress, according to Luthfi, is the aspect that has not been considered in the Islamic reform project.  Lutfi explained that the idea of progress is closely related to the development of science. As well described by Hourani, scientific developments was so vibrant in the early 20th century. The debate between Farah Antoun and Salama Musa concerning Darwin’s theory and human origin, and debate between Sayyid Ahmad Khan and al-Afghani about the laws of nature (naturalism) are some of the examples. Today, Luthfi said there is none of the Islamic groups in Indonesia, even from Indonesia’s two major Islamic organizations Muhammadiah and Nahdlatul Ulama that raise their voice on the relation of science and scientific developments with the renewal of religious understanding.

Finally, Luthfi closed the discussion by providing report on Indonesian Muslim’s liberalism. He gave positive marks to four points, namely the opposition to theocracy, support for democracy, gender equality issues, and freedom of thought. On the other hand, he gave negative marks on two other points, namely freedom of religion and the idea of human progress. Based on this calculation, however, Indonesian Muslims can still be classified as a liberal Muslims.