‘NOT A RELIGIOUS STATE’ A study of three Indonesian religious leaders on the relation of state and religion

This article explores the concept of a ‘secular state’ offered by three Indonesian religious leaders: a Catholic priest, Nicolaus Driyarkara (1913–1967), and two Muslim intellectuals who were also state officials, Mukti Ali (1923–2004) and Munawir Sjadzali (1925–2004). All three, who represented the immediate generation after the revolution for Indonesian independence from the Dutch (1945), defended the legitimacy of a secular state for Indonesia based on the state ideology Pancasila (Five Principles of Indonesia). In doing so, they argued that a religious state, for example an Islamic state, is incompatible with a plural nation that has diverse cultures, faiths, and ethnicities. The three also argued that the state should remain neutral about its citizens’ faith and should not be dominated by a single religion, i.e. Islam. Instead, the state is obliged to protect all religions embraced by Indonesians. This argument becomes a vital foundation in the establishment of Indonesia’s trajectory of unique ‘secularisation’. Whilst these three intellectuals opposed the idea of establishing a religious or Islamic state in Indonesia, it was not because they envisioned the decline of the role of religion in politics and the public domain but rather that they regarded religiosity in Indonesia as vital in nation building within a multi-religious society. In particular, the two Muslim leaders used religious legitimacy to sustain the New Order’s political stability, and harnessed state authority to modernise the Indonesian Islamic community

Islam doktrin dan peradaban : sebuah telaah kritis tentang masalah keimanan, kemanusiaan dan kemodernan

Buku ini memuat pikiran-pikiran dalam format dan ukuran demikian rupa sehingg masih memberi ruang bagi pembaca untuk bebas menyatakan diri dan mengambil peran.cxxiv, 606 hlm ; 21 c

Islam doktrin dan peradaban

Cxxiv, 626 p. : il.; 22 cm

Bilik-Bilik Pesantren ; Sebuah Potret Perjalanan

143 ha

Dekonstruksi Islam : mazhab ciputat

Bandungxxviii, 323 p.; 24 cm

Umrah & haji perjalanan religius

xviii, 98 hlm, 20,9 c

Passing over : melintasi btas agama

xl, 469 p.; 24 cm