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ehind jihadi groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah means that Indonesia will have
to contend with the threat of jihadi terrorism and radical Islamist violence for the
foreseeable future. Assessing this threat requires an understanding of the
intellectual genealogy of contemporary jihadi groups in Indonesia. 3
Interestingly, little analysis has been conducted regarding radical Islamist
thought in Indonesia, perhaps becasue Indonesia has yet to produce any jihadi
Islamist writers of the caliber of its progressive intellectuals. In fact, its
contribution to Islamic thought at the reactionary end of the spectrum remains
largely unoriginal and derivative of Middle Eastern and South Asian thinkers. In
other words, jihadist thought in Indonesia appears to be entirely an import of the
product that sits on the margins of Indonesian religious life and finds greatest
appeal in minority groups such as Indonesia’s ethnic Arab community.
Consequently, it has been relatively easy to dismiss jihadi thought and social
movements in Indonesia as aberrations that do not represent, or indeed greatly
influence, broader society. However, this attitude ensures insufficient attention
paid to the unique way in which radical Indonesian Muslims have blended the
two competing traditions of Muslim Brotherhood political activism and Saudi
Wahhabi Salafism.
This chapter begins by exploring the foundations of this distinctive blend of
radical Islamic thought, laid over the last century in the wake of Islamic
modernism. It then explores the violent insurgency of the proto-jihadist Darul
Islam movement in the 1950s and the growth of political activism in the 1980s
and 1990s, which coincided with the spread of the radical ideas tied to the post-
Iranian Revolution Middle East, as well as the Salafi zeal fuelled by Saudi
funding further amplified by the mujahidin struggle in Afghanistan. Finally, the
chapter looks at the current state of radical Islamist thought in Indonesia.
Islamic Modernism and Salafi Thought in Indonesia
Indonesia is unique amongst Muslim-majority nations in that it has two large
mass-based Islamic organizations holding sway over the majority of observant
Muslims. With a population of around 245 million people, 87 percent of whom
identify as Muslims, Indonesia is home to approximately 215 million Muslims.
Based on indirect indicators such as voting patterns, educational affiliations,
3
See Robert W. Hefner, Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 2000): xix; 214-21; and Giora Eliraz, Islam in Indonesia: Modernism,
Radicalism and the Middle East Dimension (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2004).
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