The emergence of religious nationalism in Indonesia : an analytical study on selected scholars

Abstract

This study aims to elaborate on the origin and development of nationalism, particularly in Indonesia. The study also analyzes some ideas of Muslim intellectuals, also known as Muslim nationalists, regarding the relationship between Islam and nationalism. Islam and nationalism issue became a prolonged polemic among significant figures during the struggle of Indonesia against colonialism. Even after Indonesia’s independence, several debates concerning that issue continued and were discussed by journalists, writers, and scholars in their various medias. In this case, two different groups are involved. The secular nationalists, on one hand, propagated secular ideas along with nationalism as the basis of fights, which will eventually lead to their desire to separate religion and state. On the other hand, modernist Muslim leaders led by Haji Agus Salim, A. Hassan, M. Natsir, and Hamka refuted those ideas. They argued that religion could not be separated from the state; even further, they said that Islamic principles should be the basis of the nation and state. With the fact that most Indonesian people are Muslims, they had fought against colonialism and imperialism long before the nationalism movement occurred. Therefore, the research focuses on outlining the views and arguments of those figures and studying them comparatively to find out the causes and effects of Islam and nationalism disputes. The study has relied mainly on library research with textual analysis of some scholars’ works. Finally, the study concludes that Islam and nationalism conceptually contradict one another. However, modernist Muslim figures viewed both should go hand in hand in the struggle against colonialism as long as the idea of nationalism is not placed above religious principles.