The Islamisation of regional regulations and its impact on good governance in contemporary Indonesia

Arskal Salim

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

Abstract

Indonesia’s post-Soeharto democratisation paved the way for increased interest in religiously inspired regulations in a number of provinces and districts throughout the country. The implementation of religious law at the regional levels can be seen as a localisation of shari’a (Islamic law). This occurs because the state has granted a degree of autonomy to particular communities or regions and local Islamic leaders and groups use this to attempt to implement shari’a within a limited territory. This is a new strategy for the proponents of shari’a, motivated by the failure of their attempts to insert a clause enforcing shari’a into the Indonesian Constitution, and because efforts to pass national legislation to apply shari’a have achieved only limited success. This chapter seeks primarily to investigate the extent to which the enactment of religious regulations has been compliant with principles of good governance, and to what degree they have constrained the protection of pluralism and tolerance in Indonesia. It therefore seeks to answer the question of how post-Soeharto legal Islamisation has shaped or caused increasing religious intolerance, disrupted Indonesia’s current democratic institutions, and threatened its social pluralism. In it, I will argue that there are, at a minimum, four major issues arising, namely: (1) competing authorities and influences between local governments and Muslim religious scholars (ulama); (2) wrong messages sent to certain radical groups, who find excuses to conduct violent acts and discriminate against religious minorities; (3) a shift in public space from a free-heterogeneous area to a restricted and homogenous atmosphere; and (4) the lack of accountability of local governments when it comes to the management of revenues derived from Islamic taxation.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationReligion, Law and Intolerance in Indonesia
EditorsTim Lindsey, Helen Pausacker
Place of PublicationU.K.
PublisherRoutledge
Pages319-334
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9781315657356
ISBN (Print)9781138100879
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • Islamic law
  • Shari'a
  • Indonesia

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