abdurrahman wahid islam democracy and
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID ON ISLAM,
DEMOCRACY, AND THE REPUBLIC OF
INDONESIA
A. INTRODUCTION
B. DISCUSSION
Abdurrahman Wahid on the
Relationship between Islam and
State
1. There is no concept of an Islamic
State
2. Abdurrahman Wahid, the Fiqh
Paradigm, and the Nation State
3. Abdurrahman Wahid’s Ideas on
the Mutual
Legitimacy
C. CONCLUSION
POLITICAL APPROACH TO THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN ISLAM AND THE REPUBLIC OF
INDONESIA
ISLAM --
DEMOCRACY
-STATE
(QUASI-NORM)
ISLAM -- MUTUAL LEGITIMACY -STATE
!
CIVIL SOCIETY
LEGAL FORMAL APPROACH:
ISLAM -- ISLAMIC STATE
A. There is no concept of an Islamic
State
1. The basic concept of societal system in Islam is a law ( alhukmu), not a state (al-daulatu): not on the form of state
but on its arrangement
2. Qur’an does not mention the term daulah Islamiyah.
Daulah with the meaning ‘rotate’ or ‘circulate’.
refers to sociological context of a good state
3. Muhammad PBHU did not formulate a successive
mechanism
4. Muhammad’s actions were not of a political characters, but
moral. Wa ma arsalnaka illa rahmatan lil ‘alamin
Caliphate is not a religious system but a worldly system.
Ali bin Abi Thalib acted as the advisors of the first three
caliphs.
5. God does not ordain explicitly political system of the
state:
3:159: wa syaawirhum fil amr; wa amruhum syuura
bainahum
Muhammad was not to build a state but to spread
humanity
amongst people.
6. Community is t most essential for implementing
Islamic law.
Muhammad did not order the Muslim minority in
Ethiopia to
establish an Islamic state.
7. The collapse of caliphate did not mean the end of
Islam.
A. INTRODUCTION
1. Marginal Role of Islam in the Republic of Ind
: mismatch between Islam n Modern
Political System
2. Secular paradigm dominated Ind political
system
3. The Failure of Secular Paradigm in Muslim
countries; Indonesia
: Lack of political participation
4. The Failure of other paradigms to counter
Islamic radicalism such as JIL and JIMM
WAHID’S EFFORTS TO RESOLVE THE
PROBLEMS
1. Substantial Islamic Values democracy
not legal formal Shari’a
2. His thought of democracy is to challenge the
Western concept of democracy
…….is to relate democracy to Islamic tradition
3. His thought of Islamic democracy is to
encourage Muslims participating in modern
political system
4. Wahid offers Fiqh paradigm to counter Islamic
radicalism
Wahid develops Fiqh-plus paradigm: not only
recognizing Islam n the State as different entities,
but proposing democracy as quasi-norm which
should be agreed by both Muslims and the ruler.
Fiqh paradigm works through negotiating Islam as
the ‘norm’ and the social systems, including state
political system.
Fiqh paradigm advocates a mutual legitimacy
Wahid challenges:
1.Bureaucratization of culture by Soeharto
2.Bureaucratization of Islam, advocated by the
Islamists
A. Wahid, the Fiqh-plus Paradigm, n the
Nation State
Backgrounds:
1.NU party was not an Islamist party, but Soeharto
tried to marginalize it.
2. Wahid was worried about the cooperation
between
the regime and the modernist Muslims b it was
a kind of ‘a marriage of convenience’
Accordingly,
He tried to unify Muslims into one front in the effort
of controlling the regime.
What did Wahid do?
1. He followed the Sunni tradition of NU which developed the
Fiqh paradigm as a tool for providing legitimacy to the RI
Islam should accommodate the culture in which Islam
develops its missionary targets.
2. He developed the Fiqh paradigm into the Fiqh-plus
paradigm
and offered democracy as a ‘quasi-norm’.
He did not want to establish Islamic state in Indonesia b:
a. some Sultans ruled autocratically
b. Islam as the gift from God, n the state as the creation
3. Fiqh paradigm is truly Shari’a. NU differentiates ‘religious
practices’ from ‘non-religious practices’.
4. Islamic state is a phenomenon of 19 th C when Muslims
encountered with some modern ideologies.
5. The failure of Reformism by the Islamists b it did not
tolerate
the plurality of Shari’a.
6. He opposed the idea of bureaucratization of Islam.
7. He aspired to the idea of religious communities playing the
role of civil society.
8. Muslims practices Islam in community under the guidance
of
clerics.
9. They practice the substantial Shari’a within the national
political system.
C. Wahid’s Ideas on the Mutual
Legitimacy
1.Secularists failed to modernize the countries b they
neglected Islam as the source of values; beside ruling
undemocratically.
2.Fiqh paradigm recognizes Islam n state as different
entities, but both should develop mutual legitimacies.
3.Fiqh paradigm justifies the existence of a state as a
tool for implementing public order
4.He offers democracy as a quasi-norm
5.Islamic state does not guarantee the state run
democratically
6.He traces the conception of control social from
classical Muslim scholars.
7. al-Mawardi developed the idea of the caliph’s rights and
obligations.
8. al-Ghazali proposed the idea of the ‘basic needs model’
9. Wahid evaluated them as not questioning the principle of
governing mentioned in the Q, namely syuro.
10. His idea of mutual legitimacy was to respond to the
Soeharto
autocratic regime which clearly broke the Constitution.
11. Soeharto manipulated the interpretation of Constitution in
the guise of protecting the national ideology of Pancasila.
12. Regimes tried to control the bureaucracy and
governmental
institutions.
13. Wahid made use of Pancasila to counter the monolithic
interpretation of Pancasila by Soeharto
DEMOCRACY, AND THE REPUBLIC OF
INDONESIA
A. INTRODUCTION
B. DISCUSSION
Abdurrahman Wahid on the
Relationship between Islam and
State
1. There is no concept of an Islamic
State
2. Abdurrahman Wahid, the Fiqh
Paradigm, and the Nation State
3. Abdurrahman Wahid’s Ideas on
the Mutual
Legitimacy
C. CONCLUSION
POLITICAL APPROACH TO THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN ISLAM AND THE REPUBLIC OF
INDONESIA
ISLAM --
DEMOCRACY
-STATE
(QUASI-NORM)
ISLAM -- MUTUAL LEGITIMACY -STATE
!
CIVIL SOCIETY
LEGAL FORMAL APPROACH:
ISLAM -- ISLAMIC STATE
A. There is no concept of an Islamic
State
1. The basic concept of societal system in Islam is a law ( alhukmu), not a state (al-daulatu): not on the form of state
but on its arrangement
2. Qur’an does not mention the term daulah Islamiyah.
Daulah with the meaning ‘rotate’ or ‘circulate’.
refers to sociological context of a good state
3. Muhammad PBHU did not formulate a successive
mechanism
4. Muhammad’s actions were not of a political characters, but
moral. Wa ma arsalnaka illa rahmatan lil ‘alamin
Caliphate is not a religious system but a worldly system.
Ali bin Abi Thalib acted as the advisors of the first three
caliphs.
5. God does not ordain explicitly political system of the
state:
3:159: wa syaawirhum fil amr; wa amruhum syuura
bainahum
Muhammad was not to build a state but to spread
humanity
amongst people.
6. Community is t most essential for implementing
Islamic law.
Muhammad did not order the Muslim minority in
Ethiopia to
establish an Islamic state.
7. The collapse of caliphate did not mean the end of
Islam.
A. INTRODUCTION
1. Marginal Role of Islam in the Republic of Ind
: mismatch between Islam n Modern
Political System
2. Secular paradigm dominated Ind political
system
3. The Failure of Secular Paradigm in Muslim
countries; Indonesia
: Lack of political participation
4. The Failure of other paradigms to counter
Islamic radicalism such as JIL and JIMM
WAHID’S EFFORTS TO RESOLVE THE
PROBLEMS
1. Substantial Islamic Values democracy
not legal formal Shari’a
2. His thought of democracy is to challenge the
Western concept of democracy
…….is to relate democracy to Islamic tradition
3. His thought of Islamic democracy is to
encourage Muslims participating in modern
political system
4. Wahid offers Fiqh paradigm to counter Islamic
radicalism
Wahid develops Fiqh-plus paradigm: not only
recognizing Islam n the State as different entities,
but proposing democracy as quasi-norm which
should be agreed by both Muslims and the ruler.
Fiqh paradigm works through negotiating Islam as
the ‘norm’ and the social systems, including state
political system.
Fiqh paradigm advocates a mutual legitimacy
Wahid challenges:
1.Bureaucratization of culture by Soeharto
2.Bureaucratization of Islam, advocated by the
Islamists
A. Wahid, the Fiqh-plus Paradigm, n the
Nation State
Backgrounds:
1.NU party was not an Islamist party, but Soeharto
tried to marginalize it.
2. Wahid was worried about the cooperation
between
the regime and the modernist Muslims b it was
a kind of ‘a marriage of convenience’
Accordingly,
He tried to unify Muslims into one front in the effort
of controlling the regime.
What did Wahid do?
1. He followed the Sunni tradition of NU which developed the
Fiqh paradigm as a tool for providing legitimacy to the RI
Islam should accommodate the culture in which Islam
develops its missionary targets.
2. He developed the Fiqh paradigm into the Fiqh-plus
paradigm
and offered democracy as a ‘quasi-norm’.
He did not want to establish Islamic state in Indonesia b:
a. some Sultans ruled autocratically
b. Islam as the gift from God, n the state as the creation
3. Fiqh paradigm is truly Shari’a. NU differentiates ‘religious
practices’ from ‘non-religious practices’.
4. Islamic state is a phenomenon of 19 th C when Muslims
encountered with some modern ideologies.
5. The failure of Reformism by the Islamists b it did not
tolerate
the plurality of Shari’a.
6. He opposed the idea of bureaucratization of Islam.
7. He aspired to the idea of religious communities playing the
role of civil society.
8. Muslims practices Islam in community under the guidance
of
clerics.
9. They practice the substantial Shari’a within the national
political system.
C. Wahid’s Ideas on the Mutual
Legitimacy
1.Secularists failed to modernize the countries b they
neglected Islam as the source of values; beside ruling
undemocratically.
2.Fiqh paradigm recognizes Islam n state as different
entities, but both should develop mutual legitimacies.
3.Fiqh paradigm justifies the existence of a state as a
tool for implementing public order
4.He offers democracy as a quasi-norm
5.Islamic state does not guarantee the state run
democratically
6.He traces the conception of control social from
classical Muslim scholars.
7. al-Mawardi developed the idea of the caliph’s rights and
obligations.
8. al-Ghazali proposed the idea of the ‘basic needs model’
9. Wahid evaluated them as not questioning the principle of
governing mentioned in the Q, namely syuro.
10. His idea of mutual legitimacy was to respond to the
Soeharto
autocratic regime which clearly broke the Constitution.
11. Soeharto manipulated the interpretation of Constitution in
the guise of protecting the national ideology of Pancasila.
12. Regimes tried to control the bureaucracy and
governmental
institutions.
13. Wahid made use of Pancasila to counter the monolithic
interpretation of Pancasila by Soeharto