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

Muslim Thought and Practice in Contemporary Indonesia 2 0 5of contemporary international Islam, developing piety and practice in waysconsistent with conditions of present-day Indonesia. Many of the aspects ofmainstream Islamic revitalization, key to Indonesian movements especially—such as Qur’anic expression, aesthetics, and piety—are now being recognizedinternationally as models for “inviting” Muslims to participate more deeply inIslamic life in a way that is inclusive and that embraces Muslim diversity as apositive value in its own right.Much of the reinvigorated Islamic activity in Indonesia enhances practicesthat have existed since the first Islamic times. In the contemporary period, establishedpractices like recitation of the Qur’an and Islamic pilgrimage havebeen reinvigorated with a new awareness and attitude, and they connect localIndonesian systems to global communities in new ways. These practices maynow be influenced by modern technologies (such as jet travel and broadcastmedia), yet in their basic religious aspects they also stay fundamentally thesame as they have been for centuries, and they remain the same throughoutthe Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority worlds. In present-day Indonesia,they are the basis of a resurgence in Islamic activity because these practices areunderstood to be powerful agents for renewing and reforming society throughthe dedication of individuals who are deeply committed to Islamic values.One example of reinvigorated Islamic practice is the h a j j , or pilgrimage tothe holy city of Mecca, which is obligatory for all Muslims once in a lifetimeprovided that certain conditions are met. When President Suharto perf o r m e dhis hajj in the 1980s, it was seen as a turning point in the state’s approach to Islam.Hajj represents continuities and connections that stretch back to the originalIslamic community of the Prophet Muhammad; today, Indonesians arerepresented in great proportion in the annual pilgrimage. Although Indonesialies far from Mecca, each year more and more Indonesians make the effortto fulfill this foundational component of piety. Even those who remain athome focus much attention on those who have had the opportunity to travelto the Middle East that year. Indonesians embarking on h a j j come into contactwith other Muslims from all over the world, thus bringing to the shared, globaldimensions of Islamic religiosity a distinctively Indonesian viewpoint. Contempo r a ry Indonesian pilgrims, each with his or her own perspective, return fromhajj to their local mosques and neighborhoods with an enriched sense of theirparticipation in the worldwide Muslim community as well as of their own identityas Indonesian Muslims. In this way, a religious activity based on the practiceof the Prophet Muhammad continues to reinvigorate public and personalreligious experience in the present.The ritual and practice-oriented aspects of Islam, especially those that areQur’an related, have gained special focus in contemporary Indonesian revitalizationprojects. In these programs, social Islamization mirrors internal Islamization,which then is understood to reflect back out to the larger society.