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Home > Researchcapabilities > AsiaResearchCentre > TheResearch > IslamicPolitics

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The research project examines Islamic populism in postauthoritarian Indonesia by


drawing comparisons with North African and Middle Eastern experiences. It explains the
evolution of Islamic populism in relation to outcomes of Cold Warera social conflicts,
state formation and social changes associated with capitalist development, particularly in
its neoliberal and globalised phase. In a nutshell, the study attempts to understand the
development of Islamic populism as a response to the contradictions of contemporary
capitalism.
The project emphasises newer forms of Islamic populism which potentially merges the
interests, aspirations and grievances of a range of social classes, especially the new
urban middle class, the urban poor and peripheralised sections of the bourgeoisie and
petty bourgeoisie. This broad social base distinguishes the newer from older forms of
Islamic populism that had been more fully rooted in the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie
and whose political projects were often necessarily confined to salvaging the position of
social forces that were in decline.
Such a project requires the infusion into the Indonesian literature of the kind of broad
political economy and historical sociology considerations that have been mainstays in
debates on North Africa and the Middle East in recent decades. While the majority of
works on Indonesian Islamic politics more broadly have focussed on competing religious
traditions, cultures or interpretations of Islamic doctrine, a significant portion of the
literature on North Africa and the Middle East have linked the vicissitudes of Islamic
politics to issues of sociohistorical trajectories, changing material conditions of life in
the Muslim world, existing modes of distribution of economic and political power as well
as contests over tangible resources.
I suggest further that infusing the literature on Islam and politics with such broader
political economy and historical sociology concerns could help analysts to avoid the
pitfalls of the highly alarmist securityoriented narrative, which dichotomises 'good' and
'bad' Muslims largely according to Western geopolitical interests and concerns (as was
cogently observed by Mahmood Mamdani). The failure to avoid the caricatures emanating
from this point of view has allowed securityoriented analyses to dominate the study of
Islam and politics and to practically subsume it under the study of terrorism and violence
in recent years.
In spite of such alarmism, those who have championed Islamicoriented political agendas
in Indonesia have in fact operated within both authoritarian and democratic environments
without presenting fundamental challenges to the secular order. Those who wage their
struggles within and outside the institutions of formal democracy whether through
political parties, mass organisations, paramilitary groups or shadowy terrorist cells have
only made limited advances in the postSoeharto era and are clearly in no position to
seize state power at any time soon. Why is this so?
The answer to this question is sought in this project through comparisons with the Turkish
and Egyptian cases, where new Islamic populist tendencies have also evolved
concurrently with social, economic and political transformations related to the Cold War,
capitalist development, and greater integration into the global economy. In Egypt, the
Muslim Brotherhood dominated the political opposition for decades under harsh
authoritarian conditions. Tantalisingly, it now confronts the challenge of responding
effectively to the new and still fluid postMubarak environment. There is no doubt that
some of these responses will be mediated by the interests of sections of the bourgeoisie
and middle class that have developed strong Islamic selfidentities. In Turkey, the threat
of suppression by the staunch guardians of Kemalism especially the military has
encouraged the kind of Islamic populism that aligns the downtrodden urban poor, an
ambitious educated middle class and a rising 'Anatolian' bourgeoisie in an embrace of
democracy (and the global market), but also the ideal of a moral and just society. This
has transpired, significantly, without overt appeals for the establishment of an Islamic
state. In what ways do such trajectories converge or diverge from that of Indonesia, and
why? The research project also incorporates the case of Morocco, thus providing an
opportunity to reconsider Clifford Geertz's famous comparison of Islam in Indonesia and in
that country after many decades of profound social change in both since the publication
of his seminal work.
All enquiries should be directed to Professor Vedi Hadiz, at V.Hadiz@murdoch.edu.au

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/Researchcapabilities/AsiaResearchCentre/TheResearch/IslamicPolitics/

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