Neither Insider nor Outsider: Crossing Boundaries in the Study of Religious Minorities in Indonesia

Date : 24 Aug 2017
Time : 16:00 - 17:30
Venue : Asia Research Institute, Seminar Room AS8 Level 4, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260 National University of Singapore @ KRC

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Amelia Fauzia, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Who is more authoritative in researching certain religious minorities, insider or outsider? How to apply the concept of ‘detachment’, ‘neutrality’, and ‘bracketing’ in studying religious groups officially declared by majority of ulama and mainstream religious organizations as deviant cults like Ahmadiyah and Lia Eden? And how would the various concepts, methods, and scientific theories, such as ‘going native’ and ‘participant observation’ be applied in the field? How to negotiate between faith and science, our identity as part of religious mainstream and orthodox group in studying communities deemed ‘heretic’? How does our identity as a non-Ahmadi affect our research and judgment about Ahmadiyah? This paper intends to discuss the author’s experience in studying Ahmadiyah, in applying various theories and academic principles in the study of this community, and how to behave towards individual conflicts and controversies surrounding Ahmadiyah issues. This paper is based on seven-year experience of living with, studying, and participating in the activities of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, India, England, and the United States.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ahmad Najib Burhani is senior researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta and visiting fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. He received his PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California-Santa Barbara, USA. During the last year of his study, he won the Professor Charles Wendell Memorial Award from UCSB for the academic achievement in the field of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. His academic interests include religious minorities in Islam, urban mysticism, and religious movements in Southeast Asia.

REGISTRATION

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CONTACT PERSON(S)

Minghua TAY

Link

https://ari.nus.edu.sg/Event/Detail/010933f6-93af-4888-9160-98b5b015c2b1

‘They are not Muslims’: A critical discourse analysis of the Ahmadiyya sect issue in Indonesia

Andi Muhammad Irawan

First Published March 1, 2017 

Abstract

This article examines discourse presentations of the Ahmadiyya sect (a self-defined sect of Islam) as created in texts produced by the Islamic Defender Front (Front Pembela Islam/the FPI). The FPI considers Ahmadiyya to be a deviant sect because the sect recognises its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as a new prophet of Islam after Prophet Muhammad. This teaching is in sharp contradiction to the belief of the majority of Muslims who believe that Muhammad is the seal of prophethood. This study aims to reveal the discourse strategies employed and discourse topics presented by the FPI in its written and spoken texts when presenting Ahmadiyya. The data analysed are two speeches delivered and two articles written by the FPI’s chairman, Habib Rizieq Shihab. The critical discourse analysis (CDA) theoretical framework employed in this study is based on Van Dijk’s ‘ideological square’, namely positive self- and negative other presentations. The findings of the study reveal that Ahmadiyya is depicted negatively as ‘the non-believers of Islam’, ‘the hijacker of Islam’, ‘the enemy of Islam’, and ‘the traitor/betrayer of Islam’, while Shihab has portrayed the FPI as ‘the tolerant Islamic group’

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0957926516685462

Islamisation as Legal Intolerance: The Case of GARIS in Cianjur, West Java

Al-Jāmi‘ah: Journal of Islamic Studies - ISSN: 0126-012X (p); 2356-0912 (e) Vol. 54, no. 2 (2016), pp.393-425, doi: 10.14421/ajis.2016.542.393-425

Ratno Lukito

Abstract

In its endeavour, Islamization projects done by some Muslim organisations in Indonesia can lead to certain treats of intolerance, especially to those rejecting the missions wrought about in the movements. Using qualitative approach, this paper tries to analyse the legal Islamization programs undertaken by Gerakan Reformis Islam (GARIS) in Cianjur, West Java, since their inception in early 2001 and its inclination to various intolerant attitudes towards others. The movement of Islamization is probed on the basis of the three main GARIS projects, namely, reviewing the draft of Indonesian penal law, engaging contra-Christianization movements and the struggle against Ahmadiyah. Describing the movement, one will see how the idea of legal Islamization is carefully and persistently moulded in the field to make it so fluid and adequate to accomplish a purpose. What seems appearing in this phenomenon is not a theoretical legal quandary but more a political one, as legal Islamization is in its practice more sensed as a political movement than that of law.
[Dalam praktiknya, gerakan Islamisasi yang dilakukan oleh beberapa organisasi Islam di Indonesia dapat memunculkan tindakan intoleransi, utamanya hal itu menimpa mereka yang menolak gerakan tersebut. Dengan menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif, paper ini berusaha untuk menganalisis program-program Islamisasi hukum yang dilakukan oleh Gerakan Reformis Islam (GARIS) di Cianjur, Jawa Barat sejak mula berdirinya organisasi ini di awal 2001 dan kecenderungannya kepada perilaku intoleransi kepada kelompok lain. Gerakan Islamisasi dari GARIS ini dikaji berdasarkan pada tiga program mereka yang paling utama yaitu: usulan perbaikan terhadap draf amandemen hukum pidana Indonesia, gerakan perlawanan terhadap kristenisasi, dan perlawanan terhadap kelompok Ahmadiyah. Melalui kajian yang mendalam terhadap organisasi ini, kita dapat melihat bagaimana program Islamisasi hukum tersebut dilakukan dengan kesungguhan di lapangan sehingga dapat meraih hasil sesuai dengan yang dicanangkan. Apa yang dapat kita lihat dari fenomena ini sejatinya bukanlah pergumulan teori hukum namun lebih sebagai perhelatan politik, karena pada praktiknya gerakan Islamisasi hukum itu lebih menonjol sisi gerakan politiknya ketimbang hukumnya.]

http://www.aljamiah.or.id/index.php/AJIS/article/view/54206/281