From Shariaism to Terrorism

332 Pages·2016·6.708 MB·English

by  Al Chaidar, Blake Respini, Herdi Sahrasad

FROM SHARI'AISM
TO TERRORISM
Political Islam in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia

AL CHAIDAR
BLAKE RESPINI
HERDI SAHRASAD
FROM SHARI'AISM TO TERRORISM:
Political Islam in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia

Al Chaidar, Blake Respini, Herdi Sahrasad
__________________________________________________
Editor:
Dhuha Hadiansyah

Cover design/layout:
Achya Nuddin

Publisher:
LSAF, Freedom Foundation and Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS)-
University of Indonesia

Copyright © 2016
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 153913783X
ISBN-13: 978-1539137832
TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE I v
 Indonesia, Islam and democracy: A Perspective I 1
 Democracy, Sharia and Pancasila in Indonesia I 9
 Islamism, The State, and Democracy in Indonesia: An Overview I 52
 From Sarikat Islam to Darul Islam/Negara Islam Indonesia
(DI/NII), Islamic Political Movementsin Indonesia: A Perspective I
85
 The Decline of Jihad Leadership in Indonesia: Darul Islam (DI),
Jamaah Islamiyyah (JI) and Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) I 142
 Islam and Radicalism in Indonesia: The Millenarianism of Negara
Islam Indonesia (NII), Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), Jamaah Ansharut
Tauhid (JAT) and its Consequences I 167
 The Split of ”Darul Islam /Negara Islam Indonesia (DI/NII) into
Factional Radical Groups in Indonesia I 219
 ISIS, Indonesian Muslims and Global Terrorism I 259
 Santoso, ISIS and Globalization of Terrorism I 284
 Wahhabism, Terrorism and The Paradigm of Takfiri I 301
 Indonesian Islamism: From Message of Bombing to Khilafah, A
Perspective I 307
INDEX I 319
ABOUT AUTHORS I 323

PREFACE

THIS book is a collection of papers and articles that have
been published early in various newspapers, journals, or
presented in various seminars, conferences and academic
discussions in Indonesia and abroad.
This book is originally a passion —or then be a coincidence
in a historical inevitability— we can’t help to ignore this
extra-ordinary world phenomenon.
Here, we would like to emphasize that shariaism and
terrorism in Indonesia refer to acts of sharia enforcement
and terrorism that take place within Indonesia or attacks on
Indonesian people or foreign interests. The acts of terrorism
often target the government of the Republic of Indonesia or
foreigners in Indonesia, most notably Western people,
especially those from the United States and Australia.
besides the news of holy war and holy need, this is just a
little sorrowed talk. This is, at the beginning we start to
research, not something about the ordinary world.
In Indonesia, actually, the debate over the passage of sharia-
based legislation reflects that that Indonesia continues to
map out the most central questions concerning the basic
shape of its democracy.
The debate is less a debate about whether sharia is good or
bad, but more about the proper meaning of sharia and its
relationship to the state and thus its relationship to the
national ideology of Pancasila.
Ultimately, it reflects a deep debate over the very meaning of
the Indonesian nation and what it means to be Indonesian.
v
AL CHAIDAR, BLAKE RESPINI & HERDI SAHRASAD
While political violence, labeled loosely as ”terrorism,” is a
seemingly ubiquitous factor in twentieth-century world
politics. Coping with it has become a major preoccupation of
governments and is the object of considerable international
cooperation among them (Douglass and Joseba Zulaika,
1990).
There is conclusion that recent terrorism in Indonesia in part
be attributed to the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and
al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamaah Islamiyah, Majelis Mujahidin
Indonesia and Darul Islam or the ISIS-afiliated (Islamic State
of Iraq and Syam), Jamaah Ansharu Tauhid Islamist terror
group.
And thanks to the globalized state of the issue of terrorism,
Indonesian get more and more helpings hands from all over
the western world in combatting terrorism.
This book will not finished without assistance and
supportive-pressure from many friends and fellows in
Indonesia and the US, who can not be mentioned one by one
here. Again, this book is a part of a long journey to find the
truth and friendship among us. Nothing is perfect, because
perfection is belongs only to God.

August, 2016

vi
INDONESIA, ISLAM AND
DEMOCRACY: A PERSPECTIVE1

THERE are currently hundreds moderate Muslim organi-
zations in Indonesia, many of them set up following the fall
of President Soeharto in May 1998. The nurturing of these
civic organizations may be as important to the future of
Indonesia’s democracy as is the curtailment of extremists.
Furthermore, simple political maturity, such as developing
true parties with accountability and that stand for some-
thing beyond personality as well the development of an
educated and experienced electorate should protect and
stabilize Indonesia’s democracy.
However, a critical component of Indonesia’s democratic
future involves recognition of the special role of Islam in the
state.
As most Indonesian Muslims want their government to
respect Islamic customs even if they do not support the
creation of an Islamic state, the line between support for and
opposition to sharia is often blurred.
Many Indonesians, including those who are only nominally
Muslims, hold conservative values and support strict moral
laws without necessarily seeing them as purely religious- or
sharia-based.
It is easy to mistake support for a conservative moral law as
support for Islamism when it is more simply a reflection of
basic conservative values.

1Published on The Jakarta Post, Friday, February 5, 2010.
1
AL CHAIDAR, BLAKE RESPINI & HERDI SAHRASAD
By the same token, many Muslims in Indonesia reject some
social arrangements and norms that are commonly
associated with democracy in the West, including our
pluralism and secularism. But this too neither makes them
theocrats nor anti-democratic.
While the political debate is often framed by pitting Islamists
against non-Islamists, the lines are really much more subtle
than this and democratic negotiation will require all parties
to recognize this so that they can find common ground.
In this regard, Ahmad Shboul (2005) reminds us that
keeping religion out of politics is not the same as keeping it
out of society in general and that aside from the
communists, even the most secular governments of the
Western world have not attempted to do this.
Shboul suggests that the US attempts to secularize Arab
politics may have even resulted in a backlash that has
contributed to the growth of political Islam. Westerners
would do well to remember that there is not only one form
democratic society can take.
In fact, we do well to remember that even in the West,
notions over what accruements democracy must have
remains in flux and have changed over time.
As Hefner points out, whereas family was once seen as the
central base of Western culture, today individual freedom is
often elevated above family unity.
Additionally, the very notion of family is being redefined as
Americans consider a variety of arrangements includ-
ing domestic partnerships, civil unions, and gay marriage.
2
FROM SHARI'AISM TO TERRORISM: POLITICAL ISLAM IN POST-AUTHORITARIAN INDONESIA
Despite our consensus on many central values there is
constant stress in Western societies over the proper balance
of individual right and needs of the community, equality
and freedom, and even the proper role of religion and
morality in politics.
Just as various Western democratic societies define each of
these somewhat differently, Muslim democracies are likely
to have their own brand of pluralism.
The debate over the passage of sharia-based legislation
reflects that that Indonesia continues to map out the most
central questions concerning the basic shape of its
democracy.
The debate is less a debate about whether sharia is good or
bad, but more about the proper meaning of sharia and its
relationship to the state and thus its relationship to the
national ideology of Pancasila.
Ultimately, it reflects a deep debate over the very meaning of
the Indonesian nation and what it means to be Indonesian.
All of us have multiple identities. We may define ourselves
as students, scholars, husbands, wives, athletes, musicians
from an array of images that form our composite selves.
However, for a nation state to succeed it is essential that one
of the imbedded images that a country’s inhabitants hold of
themselves is that of their national identity.
But it is not enough to simply be an American, German, and
Indonesian or Turk, for a nation to function it is necessary
that one’s national identity represent some share sense of
community, and thus shared values.
3