A quest for true Islam : a study of the Islamic resurgence movement among the youth in Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

This study attempts to present the contemporary Islamic resurgence movement among young people in Bandung Indonesia, focusing on its emergence, development and its routinisation. It traces various factors and conditions that contributed to the emergence of the movement. It also tries to explain how and why young people (students in particular) tum to Islam, and how the movement is organised and developed among students. Finally, it examines internal changes among various Islamic groups as responses to social, political and cultural changes. The study indicates that this current Islamic resurgence is a continuation of a long-standing tajdid (renewal) tradition in Islam. Like previous Islamic renewal movements in Java, such as Muhammadiyah and PERSIS, it is an internal Muslim transformation in response to spiritual, social, political and cultural problems faced by Muslims. It is an attempt to maintain the Muslim commitment to the fundamental principles of Islam and to reconstruct an Islamic society in accord with the Qur'an and the sunna. The tajdid movement has always been two-fold: in spiritual terms it attempts to purge Islamic teachings and practices of non-Islamic influences and to present it once again in its original pure form; and in non-spiritual terms it is an endeavour to solve various problems faced by the Muslim community. The difference between earlier Islamic movement and contemporary Islamic movements is that the current Islamic movements now occur in an era of globalisation, when the advance of electronic mass media has loosened national boundaries. This had several impacts on the current Islamic movement: first, international influence is not limited to Islamic ideas but also events; second, Islamic ideas can spread rapidly and widely regardless of national boundaries; third, one movement in one Muslim country can not only spread its ideas but can also establish its branches in other countries; finally, the growth of a global system reinforces the notion of a single Muslim community (Ummah). Islamic resurgence is a global phenomenon throughout the Muslim world; however, it takes forms unique to each culture. Different from Islamic resurgence in the Middle East, Islamic resurgence in Indonesia has not been manifested in radical political activism and revolutionary actions. There was a tendency toward political revolutionary activism, but it carried little power. The common tendency rather is more cultural in its nature, i.e. to make Islam an ethical, moral and cultural foundation and to colour and fill the established social and cultural edifice with Islamic spiritual and moral content. This study propounds an understanding of the pattern in religious movements in the Islamic community and in Islamic cultures. Show more