7 - INTERSECTION AND RUPTURE: Piety, Pragmatism, and Power Contests among the Islamists

Summary

THE EMERGENCE OF PUBLIC ISLAM

The emergence of Islamism in post-New Order Indonesia in one way or another signifies the emergence of public Islam. In contrast to what Hefner categorizes as “Civil Islam”, which tends to denote civil society, “public Islam” in the context of Islamism refers to the Islamist struggles to put Islam at the centre of the public domain. Central to the notion of “public Islam” is the Islamists’ quest for the implementation of Shari‘ah law, believed to be the quintessence of Islam, in the public sphere, either by means of existing political structures, namely the state and its apparatus, or non-political structures, that is, society at large. As far as Indonesian Islamists are concerned, there will always be deliberate efforts by the Islamists to champion Islam as the only blueprint for the whole society amid the various public discourses over what constitutes the common good.

Following Eickelman and Salvatore, the term public sphere refers to “the site where contests take place over the definition of the obligations, rights and especially notions of justice that members of society require for the common good to be realized”. This definition assumes the participation of all segments of society, including Islamists, along with the process of defining the common good. However, the concept of the public sphere has commonly been conflated with the concept of civil society. According to Shmuel N. Eisenstadt,

Civil society entails a public sphere, but not every public sphere entails a civil society, whether of the economic or political variety, as defined in the contemporary discourse, or as it has developed in early modern Europe through direct participation in the political process of corporate bodies or a more or less restricted body of citizens in which private interests play a very important role. We do indeed expect that in every civilization of some complexity and literacy a public sphere will emerge, though not necessarily of the civil society type.

In an attempt to delineate the difference between public sphere and civil society, Simon Chambers maintains that the public sphere provides a broad arena for action, while civil society provides the “site of resistance and emancipation”.