Abstract

This article examines the roles of the late Abdurrahman Wahid and Syafi’i Maarif in the promotion of moderate Islam in post-Suharto Indonesia. Both as formerly prominent leaders within Indonesia’s largest Muslim organizations, Nahdatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, their earlier influences through family, education and travels abroad are examined, and how these shaped their views and ideas on moderate Islam within Indonesia. The establishment of their namesake institutions, the Wahid Foundation and the Maarif Institute, is discussed, as is the ongoing legacy of these two men and their principles and ideas about moderate Islam. The inspirational influence of both Wahid and Maarif on the younger generations across Indonesia warrants critical attention, in particular as Indonesia is facing an upsurge of disunity and religious discrimination.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Robert W. Hefner, “Muslim democrats and Islamist violence in post-Soeharto Indonesia,” in Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization, ed. Robert W. Hefner (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005), 273–301.

2 Carool Kersten, Cosmopolitants and Heretics: New Muslim Intellectuals and the Study of Islam (New York: Columbia University, 2011); Jeremy Menchik, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).

3 On the multi-dimensional conflicts in the post-Soeharto Indonesia, see: Gerry Van Klinken, Communal Violence and Democratization in Indonesia: Small Town Wars (London: Routledge, 2007); Edward Aspinall, “Democratization and Ethnic Politics in Indonesia: Nine Theses,” Journal of East Asian Studies 11, no. 2 (2011): 289–319; James. S. Davidson, From Rebellion to Riots: Collective Violence on Indonesian Borneo (Singapore: NUS Press, 2008); Chris Wilson, “Illiberal Democracy and Violent Conflict in Contemporary Indonesia,”Democratization 22, no. 7 (2008): 1317–37; and Jacques Betrand, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflic in Indonesia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

4 On the rise of Islamic radicalism in the post-Soeharto Indonesia, see: Nilan, Pam. “The Reflexive Youth Culture of Devout Muslim Youth in Indonesia” in Global Youth?: Hybrid Identities, Plural Worlds, ed. Pam Nilan and C. Feixa. Londo: Routledge, 2006: 91–110; Jones, Carla. “Fashion and Faith in Urban Indonesia,” Fashion Theory 11, nos. 2–3 (2007): 211–32; Hasan, Noorhaidi. “The Making of Public Islam: Piety, Agency and Commodification on the Landscape of the Indonesian Public Sphere,” Contemporary Islam 3, no. 3 (2009): 229–50; Smith-Hefner, Nancy. “Javanese Women and the Veil in Post-Soeharto Indonesia,” The Journal of Asian Studies 66 (3 May 2007): 389–420; Fealy, Greg and White, Sally. Expressing Islam: Religious Life and Politics in Indonesia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS). 2008; Ricklefs, Merle C. Islamisation and Its Opponents in Jawa: A Political, Social, Cultural and Religious History, c.1930 to Present (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012); Bruinessen, Martin Van. Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam, Explaining the Conservative Turn (Singapore: Intitute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), 2013); Hadiz, Vedi R. Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016); Menchik, Jeremy. 2019. “Moderate Muslims and Democratic Breakdown in Indonesia,” Asian Studies Review (2019): 1–19; and Mietzner, Marcus & Burhanuddin Muhtadi. 2018. “Explaining the 2016 Islamist Mobilisation in Indonesia: Religious Intolerance, Militant Groups and the Politics of Accommodation,” Asian Studies Review (2018): 1–19.

5 The existing debates on moderate Islam in Indonesia, see Hanafi, Mohd Shukri. “The Wasatiyyah (Moderation) Concept in Islamic Epistemology: A Case Study of its Implementation in Malaysia,” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4, no. 9 (July, 2014): 51–62; Hilmy, Masdar. “Toward A Religiously Hybrid Identity? The Changing Face of Javanese Islam,” Journal of Indonesian Islam 12, no. 1 (June, 2018): 45–68; Schlehe, Judith, and Nisa, Eva F. The Meanings of Moderate Islam in Indonesia: Alignments and Dealignments of Azharites. Occasional Paper N0. 31 (January, 2016) Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany: 1–10; and Burhani, Ahmad Najib. “Pluralism, Liberalism and Islamism: Religious Outlook of Muhammadiyah,” Studi Islamika 25, no. 3 (2018): 433–70.

6 Hilmy, Masdar. “Toward A Religiously Hybrid Identity? The Changing Face of Javanese Islam,” Journal of Indonesian Islam 12, no. 1 (June, 2018): 23.

7 Shihab, Alwi. Membendung Arus Respon Gerakan Muhammadiyah Terhadap Penetrasi Misi Kristen di Indonesia (Bandung: Mizan, 1995); Shihab, Alwi. “Christian–Muslim relations into the twenty‐first century,” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 15, no. 1 (2004): 65–77.

8 Burhani, Ahmad Najib. “Lakum dīnukum wa-liya dīni: The Muhammadiyah’s Stance towards Interfaith Relations,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 22, no. 3 (2011): 329–42; Burhani, Ahmad Najib. 2012. “Al-tawassuṭ wa-l i’tidāl: The NU and Moderatism in Indonesian Islam,” Asian Journal of Social Science 40, no. 5–6 (2011): 564–81; Burhani, Ahmad Najib. “Liberal and Conservative Discourses in Muhammadiyah: The Struggle for the Face of Reformist Islam” in Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam, Explaining the Conservative Turn, ed. Martin Van Bruinessen (Singapore: ISEAS), 213; Burhani, Ahmad Najib, “Transmission of Islamic Reform from the United States to Indonesia: Studying Fazlur Rahman’s Legacy through the Works of Ahmad Syafii Maarif,” Indonesia and the Malay World 41, no. 119 (2013): 29–47: Burhani, Ahmad Najib. “Plural Islam and Contestation of Religious Authority in Indonesia,” in Islam in Southeast Asia: Negotiating Modernity, ed. Noorshahril Saat (Singapore: ISEAS, 2018).

9 Njoto-Feillard, Gwenaël. “Financing Muhammadiyah: The Early Economic Endeavours of a Muslim Modernist Mass Organization in Indonesia (1920s-1960s),” Studi Islamika 21, no. 1 (2014): 1–46.

10 Hosen, Nadirsyah. “Revelation in a Modern Nation State: Muhammadiyah and Islamic Legal Reasoning in Indonesia,”. Studi Islamika 10, no. 1 (2003): 65–96.

11 Nakamura, Mitsuo. The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: A Study of the Muhammadiyah Movement in a Central Javanese Town, c.1910s-2010 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012).  

12 Beck,  Herman L. “The Rupture between the Muhammadiyah and the Ahmadiyya,” Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia 161, no. 2 (2005); and Beck,  Herman L. “The Contested State of Sufism in Islamic Modernism: The Case of the Muhammadiyah Movement in Twentieth-Century Indonesia,” Journal of Sufi Studies 3, no. 2 (2014).

13 Barton, Greg. The Emergency of Neo-Modernis, a progressive, liberal movement of Islamic thought in Indonesia: A Textual Study Examining the Writings of Nurcholish Majid, Djohan Effendi, Ahmad Wahib, and Abdurahman Wahid, 19681980 (PhD thesis, Monash University, 1995); Barton, Greg. “Indonesia’s Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid as intellectual ulama; the Meeting of Islamic traditionalism and modernism in neo-modernist thought,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 8, no. 3 (1997): 323–50; and Barton, Greg. Abdurrahman Wahid: Muslim Democract, Indonesian President (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002).

14 Fealy, Greg and Robin, Bush. “The Political Decline of Traditional Ulama in Indonesia: The State, Umma and Nahdlatul Ulama,” Asian Journal of Social Science 42, no. 5 (2014): 536–60.

15 Hosen, Nadirsyah. “Nahdatul Ulama ad Collective Ijtihad,” New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 6, no. 1 (June 2004): 5–26.

16 Bush, Robin. Nahdatul Ulama and The Struggle for Power within Islam and Politics in Indonesia (Singapore: ISEAS, 2009).

17 Arifianto, Alex. “The Missing Middle,” 15 Februari 2017, New Mandala. http://www.newmandala.org/the-missing-middle/ (accessed 15 May 2019).

18 Shihab, Alwi. Membendung Arus Respon Gerakan Muhammadiyah Terhadap Penetrasi Misi Kristen di Indonesia (Bandung: Mizan, 1995); Shihab, Alwi. “Christian–Muslim Relations into the Twenty‐First Century,” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 15, no. 1 (2004): 65–77.

19 Nakamura, Mitsuo. The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: A Study of the Muhammadiyah Movement in a Central Javanese Town, c.1910s-2010 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012).  

20 Barton, Greg. The Emergency of Neo-Modernis, a progressive, liberal movement of Islamic thought in Indonesia: a textual study examining the writings of Nurcholish Majid, Djohan Effendi, Ahmad Wahib, and Abdurahman Wahid, 19681980 (PhD thesis, Monash University, 1995); Barton, Greg. “Indonesia’s Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid as intellectual ulama; the Meeting of Islamic traditionalism and modernism in neo-modernist thought,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 8, no. 3 (1997): 323–50; and Barton, Greg. Abdurrahman Wahid: Muslim Democract, Indonesian President (Sidney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002).

21 Fealy, Greg and Robin, Bush. “The Political Decline of Traditional Ulama in Indonesia: The State, Umma and Nahdlatul Ulama,” Asian Journal of Social Science 42, no. 5 (2014): 536–60.

22 Burhani, Ahmad Najib. “Lakum dīnukum wa-liya dīni: The Muhammadiyah’s stance

towards interfaith relations,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 22, no. 3 (2011): 329–42; Burhani, Ahmad Najib. 2012. “Al-tawassuṭ wa-l i’tidāl: The NU and Moderatism in Indonesian Islam,” Asian Journal of Social Science 40, no. 5–6 (2011): 564–81; Burhani, Ahmad Najib. “Liberal and Conservative Discourses in Muhammadiyah: The Struggle for the Face of Reformist Islam,” in Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam, Explaining the Conservative Turn, ed. Martin Van Bruinessen (Singapore), 213: ISEAS; Burhani, Ahmad Najib. 2013b. “Transmission of Islamic Reform from the United States to Indonesia: Studying Fazlur Rahman’s Legacy through the Works of Ahmad Syafii Maarif,” Indonesia and the Malay World 41, no. 119 (2013): 29–47: Burhani, Ahmad Najib. “Plural Islam and Contestation of Religious Authority in Indonesia,” in Islam in Southeast Asia: Negotiating Modernity, ed. Noorshahril Saat (Singapore: ISEAS, 2018).

23 Arifianto, Alex. “The Missing Middle,” 15 Februari 2017, New Mandala. http://www.newmandala.org/the-missing-middle/ (accessed May 15, 2019).

24 Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020 (ongoing) face to face interviews were unable to be conducted for this present research, and the preparation of surveys investigating the influence of both Gus Dur and Syafi’i Maarif has been postponed. Nonetheless, the significance of this topic in 2021 warrants analytical attention, and thus this exploratory review of the literature must suffice for the present purposes.

25 About The Ramon Magsaysay Award. https://www.rmaward.asia/about-the-award/ (accessed 1 July 2019).

26 On the political role of Gus Dur’s Grandfather, see Barton (2002), 38–55.

27 Maarif, Syafi’i. Memoar Seorang Anak Kampung (Yogyakarta: Ombak, 2013), 82.

28 Maarif (2013), 72–3.

29 On the role of Gus Dur’s Father in providing with foreign books, see Barton (2002), 44–1.

30 Maarif (2013), 78.

31 Maarif, 2013: 84; and Pusat Data dan Penelitian Pengembangan Suara Muhammadiyah. Ahmad Syafii Maarif Sebagai Sorang Jurnalis (Yogyakarta: Suara Muhammadiyah, 2018), 31.

32 Barton (2002), 37–8.

33 On the educational and health services provided by Muhammadiyah, see Maarif (2013), 102–13.

34 Maarif (2013), 203–4.

35 On the exposure of the Arabic influences on young Gus Dur, see Barton (2002), 83–7.

36 On the educational the European intellectualism on young Gus Dur, see Barton (2002), 90–101.

37 Maarif (2013), 216.

38 Ibid., 203.

39 Maarif, Syafi’i. Islam dan Politik: Teori Belah Bambu Masa Demokrasi Terpimpin (19561965) (Jakarta: Gema Insani, 2006).

40 Kersten, Carool. Cosmopolitants and Heretics New Muslim Intellectuals and the Study of Islam (New York: Columbia University, 2011), 96; also see Barton (1995, 1997).

41 Burhani (2013), 31.

42 Ibid., 32.

43 On the debates about the cultural aspect within Muhammadiyah, see Suparto.“Dakwah Kultural Muhammadiyah: Antara Pembaharuan and Pembauran,”. el-Harakah 11, no. 2 (2009): 155–71.

44 Budiawan, Mematahkan Pewarisan Ingatan: Wacana Anti-Komunis dan Politik Rekonsiliasi Pasca-Seharto (Jakarta: Elsam, 2004).

45 Burhani (2013), 32.

46 Kompas, Buya Syafii Maarif Laporkan Akun Facebook Terkait Pencemaran Nama Baik, https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2019/08/09/22003011/buya-syafii-maarif-laporkan-akun-facebook-terkait-pencemaran-nama-baik (accessed 09 August 2019).

47 Wahid Institute. About Wahid Institute. http://www.wahidinstitute.org/wi-eng/about-us/about-the-wahid-institute.html (accessed 2 July 2019).

48 Indonesian text: “Sesungguhnya peran saya enggak besar ya. Peran saya hanya sekedar orangtua dan nama. Sebenarnya saya enggak suka pakai nama itu. Tapi okelah saya katakan. Perkembangannya menurut saya lumayanlah dibandingkan yang lain. Karena mungkin yang pertama modalnya adalah idealism.” Maarif Institute. Profil Maarif Institute 2003–2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRWTJfaDQl4 (accessed 25 June 2019).

49 Wahid Foundation. Wahid Foundation Program. http://wahidfoundation.org/index.php (accessed 6 July 2019).

50 Ibid.

51 Maarif Institute. Maarif Institute Program. https://maarifinstitute.org/category/program/ (accessed 6 July 2019).

52 Wahid Institute. “Laporan Tahunan Kebebasan Beragama/Berkeyakinan dan Toleransi 2014, “Utang” Warisan Pemerintahan Baru,” http://wahidinstitute.org/wi-id/images/upload/dokumen/laporan%20kbb%202014%20-%20the%20wahid%20institute.pdf (accessed 1 July 2019).

53 Wahid Foundation. Wahid Foundation Program. http://wahidfoundation.org/index.php (accessed 6 July 2019).

54 Maarif Institute. Maarif Institute Program. https://maarifinstitute.org/category/program/ (accessed 6 July 2019).

55 Media Indonesia. https://mediaindonesia.com/read/detail/164232-maarif-institute-tangkal-radikalisme-perkuat-ketahanan-sekolah (accessed 10 February 2020).

56 Wahid Foundation. Wahid Foundation Program. http://wahidfoundation.org/index.php (accessed 6 July 2019).

57 Maarif Institute. Maarif Institute Program. https://maarifinstitute.org/category/program/ (accessed 6 July 2019).

58 Ibid.