Glocal Islam in rural Muslim society of Bangka Island (Indonesia)

Abstract

This thesis explores the socio-religious transformation of the traditionalist rural Muslim community towards glocal Islam in contemporary Payabenua, a village considered a centre of traditional Islam in Bangka Island, Indonesia. The religious way of traditionalists represented by religious leaders, called guru kampung, is characterised by a tendency to cling to the thinking of religious scholars of the past, accepting its concepts and laws in contemporary situations and holding fast to its laws and interpretations as immutable. However, in an era when information is widely distributed online and religious knowledge is easily accessible to many people in the village, those features of traditionalism are typically considered outdated and difficult to implement by educated youth in the village who are alumni of Islamic boarding school or pesantrens and universities. Accordingly, these educated youth have returned the village, encouraging the local Muslims to adopt the idea of global Islam that they have absorbed through their education, social media and the social relationships they have established. The youth mission has been a socio-religious one that, in some cases, has resulted in contestation with the guru kampung, the guardians of traditional Islam. Hence, this thesis uses ethnographic fieldwork to chart these socio-religious changes in this traditionalist rural community, from traditionalism towards glocal Islam—a new face of Islam that combines the ideology and expression of global Islam with local Islam. Drawing on Certeau’s concept of ‘strategies and tactics’ and Goffman’s notion of ‘framing’, this thesis describes how these youth win the hearts and minds of the community and construct meanings and identities that link global ideas with local needs. Further, this thesis finds that as agents of glocalisation, the youth have utilised Quranic concepts to construct many powerful frames and relate these to several master frames that are popular among conservatives and progressives worldwide. Thus, the process of glocalisation in Payabenua can be described as a desire to align religion with the contemporary world. However, in the process, it is inseparable from a longstanding social norm that requires younger individuals to defer to their elders, which requires these educated youth to adopt an attitude of compromise as regards the guru kampung’s traditionalist Islamic perspective. This factor has led to a synthesis of local and global traditions, resulting in glocal Islam. Therefore, I argue that the emergence of glocal Islam demonstrates how rural communities prefer compromise over argument when responding to new ideas.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Andrew McWilliam (Supervisor) & Mary Hawkins (Supervisor)