Islamic Activism: The Socio-Political Dynamics of the Indonesian Forum of Islamic Society (FUI)

Abstract

Since the collapse of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998, Indonesia has witnessed an escalation in theactivism of Islamic revivalist movements whose goals revolve around the implementation of sharia (Islamic law) suchas HTI (Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia or the Liberation Party of Indonesia), FPI (Fron Pembela Islam or Islamic DefendersFront), and MMI (Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia or the Council of Indonesian Holy Warriors). These movements havesince continuously voiced their pro-sharia agenda through a variety of collective actions such as mass protests, publicgatherings, and media statements. With a view to enhancing co-ordination and communication among Islamicrevivalist movements in Indonesia, these movements established an umbrella movement called FUI (Forum UmatIslam or Forum of Islamic Society) in 2005, which has also been actively engaged in social movement activities.Unfortunately, unlike the other Islamic revivalist movements that emerged immediately after the fall of theSuharto regime mentioned above, there has been no scholarly research on FUI. This thesis, therefore, aims to answerthe following primary research question: "How did FUI emerge and how does it mobilise organisational resources andframe its ideologies?" In an attempt to better account for this research question, the thesis employs the perspectives ofsocial movements: political opportunity structure, mobilising structures, and framing.This thesis primarily argues that given differences in terms of ideologies and strategies on the part of Islamicmovements and organisations in Indonesia, the emergence of FUI was a result of a perceived need to solidify the pro-shariaagenda of these movements and organisations. As an umbrella movement, FUI heavily relies on its majormember movements in order to actively engage in collective action. As a result, FUl's ideologies, organisationalresources, and strategies are not immune to the influence of its major member movements. In the beginning of itsactivism (betvveen 2005 and 2008), FUI largely relied on its organisational resources from HTI. However, when HTIsevered ties with FUI in the mid of 2008, FUI has since shifted its reliance on organisation resources to FPI.The thesis demonstrates that this shift is also characterised by the consolidation of FUl's ideologies, whichunlike HTI that displays its trans-national political orientation through the re-establishment of the caliphate, emphasisethe need to respect the basic philosophy of the Republic of Indonesia - Pancasila - in its efforts to implementsharia. This is done through, for instance, re-interpreting principles and values embodied in the Pancasila and theConstitution of the Republic of Indonesia in such a way as to justify its pro-sharia agenda