Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

Chapter SevenMuslim Thought and Practice inContemporary IndonesiaAN N A G A D E A N D R. MI C H A E L F E E N E RThe vast majority of the world’s Muslims today live in Asia, including the Indiansubcontinent, Central Asia, and China. The Muslim population of SoutheastAsia alone is roughly equal to that of all the Arabic-speaking countriescombined. There are sizable Muslim minority populations in many SoutheastAsian nations, including Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines, andBrunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia have majority-Muslim populations. Thesecountries have long been at the center of Asian maritime trade networks; forcenturies, anyone traveling by boat from India or Africa to China passedthrough Southeast Asia. The global connection of systems of religion and cultureto Indonesia in particular existed long before the present era of globalization.Since the coming of Islam to Southeast Asia, Islamic worldwide modelsfor religious life have combined with distinctive local Indonesian patterns, supportingthe development of vibrant regional Muslim cultures. To d a y, these culturescontinually shape and are shaped by the changing conditions of life inc o n t e m p o r a ry Indonesia.Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s population, approximately 200 millionpeople, identify themselves as Muslim, giving Indonesia the largest Muslimpopulation of any country. Indonesia is made up of a vast archipelago that includespeople of many languages and cultures. In part because of its positionat the crossroads of extensive global networks, Indonesian religious systems,and especially Islam, are vitally cosmopolitan. To d a y, although patterns of conte m p o r a ry Muslim revitalization in Indonesia are unique to Southeast Asia,they share key components of the renewal of Islamic thought and practice inother Muslim societies. These components include the textual foundations ofthe Qur’an and h a d i t h , o b l i g a t o ry Muslim practices such as the h a j j , and the1 8 3