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This thesis focuses on Indonesia’s Islamic public sphere and a significant contributor to it over the last four decades, Jalaluddin Rakhmat. He was born in 1949 into a highly conservative Sunnite religious milieu, and began to gradually embrace Shi`ite thought and identity as an adult in 1982. Earlier studies have focused on Rakhmat's Shi`ism, which has been the cause of controversy in predominantly Sunnite Indonesia. This thesis differs from those studies in its attempt to discern a broader program in Rakhmat's career. That is to say, I locate Rakhmat's Shi'ism not as an end in itself, but as a core element of a broader project, which I call his 'enlightenment project'. This label is based on the terms used by Rakhmat himself to describe and explain his activities. I identify three connected elements in Rakhmat's project: activism, conflict and the public sphere. Activism has been a constant thread in his career, manifesting in a growing range of initiatives, publications, organisations and educational infrsatructure. Conflict is generated when Islamic actors respond to his activism, and most commonly to his advocacy of Shi'ite ideas and concepts. The public sphere is the setting for the resultant dialogical exchanges. Indonesian Muslims view publication and broadcasts of his adversarial dialogues, and in this way, Rakhmat's project of enlightenment gains a foothold (and is also rejected) by Indonesian Muslims. As other Islamic actors are drawn to attract or oppose him, Indonesia's Islamic public sphere is reshaped. I have based these findings on my own fieldwork in Bandung, Jakarta and Makassar, on published and unpublished documents, digital video discs (DVDs), Rakhmat’s books, his fellow activists’ works, live recordings of his speeches and sermons, and his al-Tanwir bulletin. These media reveal the dynamics of the debates and dialogical exchanges in the Islamic public sphere between Rakhmat and his opponents. I have shown that the media as well as Rakhmat’s activist and educational institutions are all used as tools in his project to enlighten Islamic thought in Indonesia. This enables me to contextualise his Shi'ism. He uses his Shi`ite minority status to produce a call for pluralism inspired by the charismatic abilities of Murtaḍā Muṭahharī. These abilities include openness and non-sectarianism, forbearance towards other faiths, reconciliation of knowledge, a positive outlook on social change, adherence to mission, leadership, and productivity in writing and publication. |
