Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam: Explaining the "Conservative Turn"

4. Liberal and Conservative Discourses in the Muhammadiyah: The Struggle for the Face of Reformist Islam in Indonesia

105 4 lIberal and conservatIve dIscourses In the MuhaMMadIyah: the struggle for the face of reforMIst IslaM In IndonesIa Ahmad Najib Burhani IntroductIon Since the conquest of Mecca by the Wahhabis in 1924, the Muhammadiyah has often been associated with the Wahhabi movement.1 This perception is partly due to the similarities between the efforts made by the Wahhabi and Indonesian reformists to purify religious beliefs and practices through the eradication of elements considered external to Islam, opposition to Sufi practices,2 and calls for a return to the Qur’an and Sunna to replace the practice of taqlid.3 Recently, scholars and journalists such as Khaled Abou El Fadl (2005) and Stephen Schwartz (2003) have pointed to strong connections between Wahhabism, which is the official religious ideology of Saudi Arabia, and the upsurge of radical and fundamentalist movements throughout the Muslim world. This has raised the question whether the Muhammadiyah’s ideology today can still be compared with the Salafism of Saudi Arabia, and whether it has similarly played a part in the emergence of radical movements. 106 Ahmad Najib Burhani The Muhammadiyah became even more strongly linked with Islamic radicalism when young people with Muhammadiyah family or school backgrounds were arrested for involvement in violent radicalism. Only a few days after the 45th Congress of the Muhammadiyah in Malang in 2005, for instance, an activist from this organization, Joni Achmad Fauzani, was arrested by the Indonesian police on charges of harbouring a terror suspect in Pacet district, Mojokerto regency, East Java (Nugroho 2005). Furthermore, a number of known convicted terrorists, including the Bali bomber Amrozi, were raised in Muhammadiyah families or educated in Muhammadiyah schools. This has added to the confusion, particularly in the West, about the religious stance of the Muhammadiyah: is it a fundamentalist group or a moderate Muslim group that leans towards conservatism? In order to unravel these tangled perceptions of the Muhammadiyah, this chapter will analyse the development of the organization since 1995, a year that marked the beginning of a series of competing religious discourses in the Muhammadiyah. This study covers four Muktamars or congresses: the 43rd Muktamar in Banda Aceh in 1995, the last Muktamar of the New Order regime; the 44th Muktamar in Jakarta in 2000; the 45th Muktamar in Malang in 2005; and the 46th Muktamar in Yogyakarta in 2010. Particular attention will be paid to the 45th Muktamar, where the movement’s “conservative turn” was most visible. This chapter will argue that the conservative leanings of the Muhammadiyah, that became particularly apparent in the 45th Muktamar, have not been characteristic of the organization in general and at all times. The conservatism that cropped up in the Muhammadiyah in the early years of the twenty-first century was mainly influenced by external factors, such as Indonesian national politics and the resurgence of new ideologies brought by transnational movements such as Hizbut Tahrir. In doing so, this chapter will address the following topics: first, the Muhammadiyah at a glance; second, the progressive and conservative groups in the Muhammadiyah; third, the 45th Muktamar in Malang; fourth, combating conservatism, and the response from within the Muhammadiyah; fifth, the religious attitude of the Muhammadiyah; and sixth, the dilemmas facing the Muhammadiyah. the MuhaMMadIyah at a glance The Muhammadiyah is the second largest Muslim movement in Indonesia. It claims to have approximately 30 million supporters and sympathizers. However, from an administrative perspective, the number of members The Struggle for the Face of Reformist Islam in Indonesia 107 who actually have Muhammadiyah ID cards is smaller than that. The organization was established in Yogyakarta in 1912 by Ahmad Dahlan (1868–1923), who was an entrepreneur, a religious official of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta, and an Islamic scholar or ulama. Some scholars have compared the Muhammadiyah to the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Muslim movement in Indonesia, characterizing the two organizations in terms of their supporters, geography, cultural attachment, education, economy, political inclination, and religious attitudes. Traditionally, the Muhammadiyah has been categorized as representing Indonesia’s urban middle and upper middle class Muslims; its members were educated in modern (European-style) schools, were reformist-modernist in matters of organization, culturally rooted in the Javanese variant of Islam, and puritan in religious orientation. Members of the NU, by contrast, used to be largely rural, pesantren-educated and traditionalist (Hefner 1995; Nakamura 1983; Noer 1973; Peacock 1978a and 1978b). Nowadays, the differences between the organizations’ constituencies have...