Chapter 5 - The Politico-Religious Contestation: Hardening of the Islamic Law on Muslim-non-Muslim Marriage in Indonesia

Summary

The study of Muslim-non-Muslim marriage in Indonesian Islamic law is intriguing because it will not only show how Islamic law has been practised in the largest Muslim country in the world, but also how Indonesian Muslims interpret their religion for the sake of communal need. In this chapter, I will investigate some pertinent issues on Muslim-non-Muslim marriage in Indonesia from two angles: the discourse on interreligious marriage in the Islamic tradition, and the current discourse on Muslim-non- Muslim marriage, as well as analyse legal changes that have taken place in recent times and the political motives behind them.

Religio-political contestation lay behind the Islamic law prohibiting Muslim-non-Muslim mixed marriage in Indonesia. As a result of the contestation, interreligious marriage became impossible for Muslims, both men and women. The political contestation involves a number of Muslim organizations. Fatwa or religious decrees prohibiting interreligious marriage were successively issued by the Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) (literally Ulama Awakening), in 1960, the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) or Indonesian Ulama Council in 1980, and Muhammadiyah (the Indonesian reformist Muslim organization), which is the second largest Indonesian Islamic organization, in 1989. While the socio-political reason behind the NU religious decree was fuzzy, both the MUI and the Muhammadiyah decrees on Muslim-non-Muslim marriage take very clear positions. According to them, interreligious marriage will lead Muslims astray to convert to other religions. To a large extent, the religious political contestation in Indonesia is manifested in the two largest religious communities, the Muslims and the Christians.

DISCOURSE OF THE ISLAMIC TRADITION

There are three Qur'anic verses dealing with Muslims marrying non-Muslims, namely, idolaters (musyrik), unbelievers (kuffâr), and people of the Book (ahl al-kitâb).