A crowd of Muslim women in chadors

Trading Places? Muslim modernists and traditionalists in Indonesia since the Reformasi

Wednesday 2nd December 2015; 2.00 - 4.00pm; Room B.13, 32 Lincoln’s Inn Field (32L)
Speaker: Dr Carool Kersten; Chair: Dr Kirsten Schulze

Since the regime change of 1998 and the ensuing Reformasi Period that started with the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid a year later, Indonesia's public sphere began to experience unprecedented openness. This has also impacted on religious discourses.

In this presentation the focus will be on intra-Muslim debates on the role of Islam in public life, which evinces a broad spectrum of voices characterized by two developments. (1) Young Muslim cadres from traditionalist Islamic backgrounds appear to overtake their modernist Muslim counterparts in terms of progressive thinking; (2) an increasing polarization of positions regarding religious plurality in response to a series of fatwas issued by the Indonesian Council of Religious Scholars (MUI) in the Summer of 2005, which has turned 2005-6 into a watershed year as Indonesia's democratization process moves from transition to consolidation.

This talk is based on Dr Kersten's latest book, Islam in Indonesia: The Contest for Society, Ideas and Values. Copies will be for sale at a discount at the event and a book signing will take place after the seminar.

Download and listen to the podcast here

Speaker

kersten-carool

Carool Kersten is Senior Lecturer in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World at King's College London, and a Research Associate of the Centre for South East Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).


Chair

schulze-kirsten

Kirsten Schulze is Deputy Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre and Associate Professor in International History at LSE.