Muslim Politics Review

Foreword

Philips J. Vermonte — 2024-06-27

We believe that all management of academic journals want their respective journals to be the best in the world in their respective field of study. The management strives to achieve that position through various strategies, including inviting top scholars to write articles for their journals or even offering monetary incentives to attract more scholars to send their manuscripts to the journals. Each journal might have different emphasis in formulating and implementing the strategies.

Does Religious Identity Moderate Economic Voting? Evidence from Indonesia

Arya Budi — 2024-06-27

Scholars have long suggested that economic voting is contingent on political factors, but how social identity contributes to such contingent economic voting has been overlooked. While the literature suggests the presence of direct function of religion on voting decisions, we are not sure about religion’s other functions. By treating religion as a social identity, this article seeks to uncover a moderating function of religion on economic voting. It draws on an embedded exit poll survey in Indonesian gubernatorial and mayoral elections in 2020, covering 9,400 respondents. This paper finds that the self-identification of religious identity moderates economic perception in the voting decision. Although the findings show strong evidence of economic voting, they challenge previous studies arguing that religion is a weak predictor in a new democracy with a Muslim-majority population. This paper contributes to the literature on economic voting and the role of religion in the voting decision.

Hybrid Movements, Digital Technology, and the Rise and Fall of Far-Right Islamist Protest Mobilization in Indonesia

Aqida Nuril Salma — 2024-06-27

What explains the rise and fall of far-right Islamist protest mobilization in contemporary Indonesia? The 2016-2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election witnessed significant growth in support for and mobilization of the far-right. While far-right Islamist mobilization has occurred regularly since the fall of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998, its longevity and impact on electoral politics has historically been limited. I maintain that the 2016 far-right Islamist protest mobilization was enabled and disabled by the dynamic relationship between hybrid media and hybrid movement strategies. Hybrid thinking serves as a platform for understanding the increasingly diverse and complex nature of Islamist mobilization, generating new ways of exploring some of the classic concerns of social movement studies and technology. Moreover, previous research on the far-right primarily focuses on electoral and party politics, while studies on social movements and technologies often fall into technological determinism, providing only a limited understanding of one of the most pressing issues of our time. This study proposes an innovative analytic strategy to understand the complexity of contemporary Islamist protest mobilization, creating a hybrid movement that effectively spans different movements, constituencies, and institutions, all coexisting within a hybrid media environment that deftly merges elements of old and newer media logics to influence participation, collaboration, and coordination in the spheres of social movements and protest politics.

Al-Attas, Islamization and Pancasila: The Impact of Attasian Thought on Political Islam in Indonesia

Peter Lilly — 2024-06-27

This article tracks the influence of specific ideas of the Malaysian Muslim philosopher Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas on Indonesian Islamic political thought. The primary focus of the article is to outline the impact that the adoption of specific concepts from Al-Attas have had on the trajectory of Indonesian Islamic thought and Islamist politics. In particular, it focuses on how the concepts of Islamization and de-Islamization of language has helped bring about a new discourse on the relationship between Islam, Pancasila, and the state. This discourse has been led by a number of Indonesian Islamic political thinkers who studied the thought of Al-Attas in Malaysia and who have subsequently returned to Indonesia, hybridising and spreading these new ideas, exerting a great deal of influence on the Islamist movement in Indonesia.

The Role of Muslim Rohingya Refugee Community-Based Organizations in Malaysia

Aizat Khairi — 2024-06-27

The Rohingya refugee crisis has spurred the formation of community-based organizations (CBOs) among Muslim Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. This qualitative research explores the role and impact of these organizations within the refugee community. By employing a mixed-methods approach, including semi-structured interviews and content analysis, the study delves into the motivations, activities, challenges, and outcomes of Rohingya CBOs. The findings suggest that these CBOs play a critical role in bridging the gap between formal assistance and the unique needs of the Rohingya population in Malaysia. They offer vital services, foster a sense of belonging, and contribute to mental well-being. However, challenges related to resources and sustainability are apparent. This research contributes to a better understanding of refugee agencies and grassroots initiatives. It sheds light on the significance of CBOs as agents of change, amplifying the voices and actions of refugees themselves. The study's findings show that both policy and practice support and empower refugee communities.

Why Do Religious Ideas Matter? The Multidimensionality of the Indonesian Public Sphere

Asep Muizudin Muhamad Darmini — 2024-06-27

In this paper, I challenge the claim of the universalistic public sphere by providing contextual complexity of the national and local public sphere in Indonesia. In the original version of the Habermasian public sphere, people sat together in the salon and the café to exchange their ideas, sustaining the secular, capitalistic, and individualistic public sphere. However, further critics have shown the problems of putting secular ideas as the central force of the public sphere, particularly as it overlooks the complexity of the public sphere in religious contexts. These critics are particularly relevant to understanding the Indonesian public sphere in which the Muslim-majority population aims to dominate public life, as the religiously motivated political agenda has a further consequence for democratisation in Indonesia, which has been heralded as a prime example of harmony between Islamic values and Western democracy. At the same time, digitalisation has facilitated a religious revival in the national public sphere, combining religious sentiment within a highly individualised and digitalised society. This paper analyses the challenges of the digital divide in the local public sphere of pondok pesantren (Indonesian Islamic boarding schools). With a lack of digital access and democratic practices in day-to-day pondok pesantren life, communalistic religious practices have dominated the public sphere of these boarding schools. Within such complexity, this paper deliberates on how the local and national contexts in Indonesia shed light on the multidimensionality of the public sphere.

Far Away but Similar: Peaceful Coexistence Models in Indonesia and Syria

Ararat Kostanian — 2024-06-27

Successful social coexistence in countries with multiethnic and multireligious populations is rare. Scholars have used different approaches to find the theory that explains the key elements communities perform in reaching an environment of peaceful coexistence. In this regard, the previous theories give us a partial understanding of the successful peaceful existence amid rising conservatism in global scale. Drawing from Robert Putnam’s social capital theory, this article argues that peaceful coexistence in Syria and Indonesia has been successful due to several factors: the historical, trust and reciprocity, social network and the nationalist sentiment. The empirical research was done by analyzing academic, analytic, and historical data, conducting interviews, and fieldwork with community members in Syria and Indonesia.

On the Erosion of France’s National Values (Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité)

Muhammad Ridha Basri — 2024-06-27

The Republic, Secularism and Security France versus the Burqa and the Niqab by Raphael Cohen-Almagor. Switzerland: Springer. 2022.

This book contributes significantly in explaining ambivalence or paradoxical situations in France. Through its motto (liberté, égalité, fraternité), the country has been promoting and implementing liberalism and secularism for many years, yet at the same time, the country is increasingly illiberal, as shown by its policy banning the burqa and niqab in 2010.

Is the Modern State Compatible with Islam?

Nawal Zemoura — 2024-06-27

The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament. Wael B. Hallaq, New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

This book examines compatibility between the modern state and Islam. The author, Wael B. Hallaq, argues that the modern state, which are the result of the European enlightenment project, is incompatible with Islam because it lacks the moral and ethical standards sanctioned by Islam.