Challenging the Secular State: The Islamization of Law in Modern Indonesia

5. Islamization in Indonesia

45 5 Islamization in Indonesia Defining ‘Islamization’ Although what ‘Islamization’ means and what it implies is certainly debatable, this study prefers to understand the term ‘Islamization,’ particularly in the context of a modern nation-state, as a process of certain measures and campaigns, regardless of the identity of the advocates and the motives behind the actions, that call for the establishment of what are regarded as Islamic doctrines in Muslim legal, political, and social systems.1 It is manifested by the rise of various Islamic movements as a proactive force for political change and social development. The aim of Islamization at this stage is no longer merely to convert people from their previous beliefs to Islam, but to replace a secular-based government with a government grounded in the doctrines of religion and to bring about a new society wholeheartedly committed to the teachings of Islamic shari‘a in their totality, and striving to abide by those teachings in all aspects of life.2 It is clear that the proponents of the formal implementation of shari‘a consider shari‘a the foundation of Islamization. In this light, Islamization specifically refers to attempts to produce an Islamic constitution, to introduce shari‘a rules into the national legal system, and to discard all existing laws that contradict shari‘a. In sum, the assumption of the proponents of shari‘a-based reform is that the more shari‘a rules are incorporated into the state legal system, the deeper the Islamization of a country. Under this scheme, moves toward Islamization ultimately lead to attempts at founding an Islamic state. According to Taji-Farouki, the meaning of ‘Islamic state’ is twofold. First, it refers to a state that serves as “a technique by which the shari‘a can be implemented and its ultimate purposes actualized, regardless of its specific character and the details of its system, institutions, and offices.”3 Second, it refers to a state that “achieves not only the supreme values of the shari‘a, but also adheres in its systems and institutions to forms precisely defined by the shari‘a itself.”4 Both of these definitions generally acknowledge that the central ingredient of the concept of an Islamic state is the implementation of shari‘a. Thus, the formal implementa- 46 Chapter 5 tion of shari‘a is perceived as the single most decisive criterion for determining an Islamic state. The more shari‘a rules are officially implemented in a state, the more it theoretically becomes a perfect Islamic state. It is important to mention here that the formal implementation of shari‘a can be divided into five ranked areas. 1. Family issues, such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance; 2. Financial matters and institutions like zakat, waqf, and Islamic banking; 3. Ta‘zir (discretionary) punishments for committing the prohibited acts, such as liquor consumption and gambling, or for omitting the required acts, for instance, the use of headscarf for women; 4. Hudud and qisas penalties. Hudud for those who commit adultery or fornication and theft, and qisas for those found guilty of murder; 5. Islam both as a basis of the state and as a system governing the country. This hierarchy of the formal implementation of shari‘a is set from the lowest step (no. 1) to the highest step (no. 5). Thus, demands for implementing the five areas of shari‘a automatically lead to the calls for the foundation of an Islamic state. In other words, the higher the demand, the closer it is to a demand for the establishment of an Islamic state, and the lower the demand, the less commitment it has to initiate an Islamic state.5 Different Phases of Islamization According to Ricklefs, there have been three phases of Islamization.6 Throughout these three phases, the term Islamization has had a variety of meanings and different emphases from time to time. The first phase was from the fourteenth to the early nineteenth century. The meaning of Islamization during this period referred to the process of the coming of Islam to Indonesia or the conversion of the indigenous people to the religion of Islam.7 The term does not simply denote the process of replacing old beliefs with new ones, but also includes the absorption or assimilation of Islam into the local culture, symbols, literature, political institutions, legal texts, traditions, and customs.8 By and large, this permeation of Islam into Indonesian life was peaceful in the sense that there was no direct...