Islam and Democracy in Indonesia
Tolerance without Liberalism

This book explains how the leaders of the world's largest Islamic organizations understand tolerance, explicating how politics works in a Muslim-majority democracy.

Jeremy Menchik (Author)

9781107119147, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 January 2016

224 pages, 28 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'Jeremy Menchik's data rich and insightful book, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism, is a valuable contribution to the political science scholarship on Indonesia's particular brand of democracy and religious pluralism.' Zeynep Atalay, American Journal of Sociology

Indonesia's Islamic organizations sustain the country's thriving civil society, democracy, and reputation for tolerance amid diversity. Yet scholars poorly understand how these organizations envision the accommodation of religious difference. What does tolerance mean to the world's largest Islamic organizations? What are the implications for democracy in Indonesia and the broader Muslim world? Jeremy Menchik argues that answering these questions requires decoupling tolerance from liberalism and investigating the historical and political conditions that engender democratic values. Drawing on archival documents, ethnographic observation, comparative political theory, and an original survey, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia demonstrates that Indonesia's Muslim leaders favor a democracy in which individual rights and group-differentiated rights converge within a system of legal pluralism, a vision at odds with American-style secular government but common in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

1. After secularization
2. Explaining tolerance and intolerance
3. Local genealogies
4. Godly nationalism
5. The coevolution of religion and state
6. Communal tolerance
7. Religious democracy
Methodological appendices
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Islamic studies [JFSR2], Islam [HRH], Religion & politics [HRAM2], Islamic & Arabic philosophy [HPDC]