INDONESIA “In 1989 Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the largest (Sunni) Muslim organization in Indonesia, declared: “to be honest, NU itself is a reincarnation of Shi’a culture.”(“Semangat Qom Imam muda”, EDITOR, 16 September 1989, p. 44; reprinted in “Syiah disekitar kita”, TIRAS, 15 February 1996, p. 19) Reflecting on the fact that Indonesia’s students religious halaqa groups in the 1980s-1990s read Hasan al-Banna, Abu al-‘Ala Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb alongside Murtadha Muthahhari and ‘Ali Shari’ati, Azyumardi Azra commented that an “intense rapprochement between the Sunni and Shi’a tradition [was taking] place through intellectual debates.”(Azyumardi Azra Islam reformis: dinamika intelektual dan gerakan, Jakarta: RajaGrafindo, 1999, p. 20.)
Yet, as in the last decade Indonesia experienced a gradual narrowing of what religious authorities have considered “acceptable Islamic understanding”, Shi’is have come under attack as “deviant” and “blasphemous” Muslims. Against this backdrop, it is important to reaffirm the multiple historical, social and political trajectories that contributed to the shaping of Shi’i communities in the archipelago, and to their relations with the country’s Sunni establishment.”
Dr. Chiara Formichi
Associate Director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) and Assistant Professor in History and Religions, City University of Hong Kong
in an interview with Mark Ulyseas on
Shia-Sunni Relations in Indonesia
What is the ratio between Shia and Sunni in Indonesia? The Indonesian census does not include denominational distinctions for Muslims, hence there are no official statistics and we can find much disagreement between government and ormas figures. Keeping in mind that Indonesia counts about 200 million Muslims, a year ago the government suggested a figure of 500.000 Shi’is, versus a much higher estimate suggesting 5 million. Neither of these two figures is realistic, and Jalaluddin Rakhmat (chairman of IJABI) has recently suggested that there should be about 2.5 million Shi’is in the archipelago (just over 1% of the total Muslim population).
Why does there exist a schism between these two groups in Indonesia?
The “schism” does not pertain to Indonesia alone of course. The origins of the split between Sunnis and Shi’is lay in 7th century politics, as the Muslim community debated over the issue of who should succeed to the Prophet Muhammad; what had first manifested itself as political factionalism, in the following centuries evolved into theological and juridical distinctions. That said, this is a “programmatic” (legalistic and systematic) understanding of the Sunni/Shi’i distinction, and one that leads to constructions of “sectarian” identities.
The Indonesian case, historically, is not a matter of exclusive affiliation to one group or the other; what we see as prevalent here is what Gus Dur and other Nahdlatul Ulama leaders have for decades called Syia kultural (and which Islamic Studies scholars define as Alid piety). This refers to a diffused devotion towards the prophet Muhammad, his daughter, Fatimah, her husband, Ali ibn Abu Thalib, and their sons, Hasan and Husayn. © Chiara Formichi/Mark Ulyseas
© www.liveencounters.net january 2014
