The role of religion in politics and public life has been gaining relevance in different contexts in various places around the world in modern times. Specifically, Islam, as a religion, has been shaping politics in the west, where Christianity is dominant, and in Asia where it is a major religion.
In the US, Islamophobia, or fear and suspicion of Islam, has been rife, especially in the post-9/11 terrorist attacks. This unfounded fear has been entrenched in American society so much that in the 2016 presidential campaigns it was one of the central talking points among Republicans. On the other hand, in Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world, Islam has infiltrated politics to play a major role in the 2019 re-election of President Jokowi. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the usage of Islam religion as a political tool in the US and Indonesia.
Islam in Indonesian Politics
Islam, as a religion, has emerged as a powerful force playing a central role in Indonesian politics. In the 2009 and 2014 elections, religion did not contribute significantly to determining the presidential winner. In 2014, President Jokowi won the elections on a progressive agenda based on promises of technocracy, economic development, and incremental progress.
These promises formed a winning formula and he became the first president in the history of Indonesia to win elections without an elite or military background. However, the political environment started changing in 2017 when widespread protests led by hard-line Islamists unseated Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the then Jakarta’s Christian governor popularly known as Ahok, on allegations that he had blasphemed Islam.
This act revolutionized the Indonesian political landscape by emboldening the Muslim majority after realizing that religion could be used as a political ideology to influence policy-making and drive change. Gueorguiev et al. argue that the anti-Ahok protests and his subsequent defeat bolstered confidence among Islamists as their strategy of mobilizing conservative elements of the electorate to vote against the governor based on obscured religious fabrications (243).
This incident was an awakening call for the Muslim-majority Indonesians to leverage religious matters to achieve political milestones. Consequently, “religious appeals aimed at boosting turnout and swaying voters were employed throughout the country in early 2018 regional elections” (Gueorguiev et al. 241). However, the centrality of Islam in Indonesian politics came out clearly in the 2019 general elections.
To understand how Islam shaped this year’s general elections in Indonesia to ensure the re-election of President Jokowi some background information is needed. As mentioned earlier, in 2014, President Jokowi ran on a progressive manifesto promising Indonesians that he would bring radical changes in governance by adopting technocracy to bring economic development. However, the 2017 events surrounding the ouster of Ahok redefined politics in the country.
Therefore, President Jokowi knew that he was unlikely to win re-election without making some significant concessions and appeal to religious conservatives across the country. Consequently, he made a strategic decision to choose Maruf Amin, the country’s top Muslim cleric, as his running mate. Jokowi could not take chances by not appealing to the Muslim-majority populace and conservatives because he had already been branded a crypto-communist and accused of not being a real Muslim in the post-Ahok era.
According to Fossati, “Islamist Indonesians believe that Islam should have a privileged position in public life vis-a-vis all other religions, a principle that may have broad and consequential ramifications in various policy domains” (125). The calculated decision to choose Maruf cemented the role of Islam in Indonesian politics.
To prove this point, Jokowi was re-elected to run the country for another five-year term until 2024. Indonesia is a democratic country, thus the 2019 election results were a confirmation that Islam has become a powerful determinant of who gets to run public offices in the country. In other words, democratic elections are a reflection of popular sentiment, which in Indonesia is supported by Islamists. It suffices to argue that Islamization and democratization are directly related to each other in the country.
Moving forward, it is expected that the events surrounding the 2019 elections will continue shaping Indonesian politics with Islam taking a center stage. However, while supporting Islamic ideologies has played a major role in ensuring politicians win elections in Indonesia, in the US, politicians achieve political milestones by advancing Islamophobia as discussed in the next section.
Islam in American Politics
Since the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York, Americans have become highly suspicious of Islam and Muslims in general in what has evolved to become Islamophobia. However, the fear and suspicion of Muslims by Americans is a historical issue.
President Trump has openly vilified Muslims and Islam, especially during the last general election campaigns. In America, Islamophobia is mainly a political tool among the Republicans, and this fear existed long before Trump could become a president. In a bid to understand the role of Islam (Islamophobia) within the context of republicanism and American politics, it is important to discuss how this fear has been constructed, packaged, and sold to the citizens.
In the book, Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance, the editor, Ernst argues that Islamophobia can be defined as a “largely unwarranted social anxiety about Islam and Muslims…a prejudice against Islam that is generally associated with violence in media representations…an ideology related to nationalism and the problems of minority identity” (2). These definitions underscore the complexity of Islamophobia in the US.
However, despite the varying definitions and causes of this unreasonable fear and disdain for this particular religious ideology, Islamophobia continues to shape the American political landscape. Hammer argues Islamophobia is an “ideological construct produced and reproduced at the intersection of imperial ideology, political expediency, and the exploitation of nationalist, racial, and religious insecurities” (29). Therefore, politicians, especially Republicans advance the notion that Islam is a dangerous religion as a strategy to win political support from a terrified American populace.
For instance, in the 2016 general elections campaigns, President Trump extensively leveraged Islamophobia for political gains, and his stand on this issue is one of the reasons he commanded sizeable voter followers. On December 7, 2015, President Trump, the then-Republican presidential frontrunner said, “I call for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” (Beydoun 1734). Such rhetoric and open contempt for Islam and Muslims from national leaders convince Americans to vote in a certain way, mostly in support of the candidates advancing such agendas.
The problem with Islamophobia is that the majority of Americans form opinions about Islam and Muslims based on the content they consume from the mainstream media. However, in most cases, the media advances the biased portrayal of Islam as a religion associated with violence and utter dislike of Americans. Therefore, voters are likely to vote against Islam, thus making it an important factor in American politics.
On the other hand, Islamophobia in the US has been having similar effects that Islam has in Indonesia – that of convincing voters to vote in support of it. For instance, the rising tide of Islamophobia stirred by “rhetoric from the 2016presidential campaign trail, drove Muslim Americans to vote in record numbers… 73% of Muslim voters in the US say that they will go to the primary elections and that 67% will vote for Democratic Party candidates” (Beydoun 1771).
Therefore, in a way, Islam influences politics in the US and Indonesia in the same way. While in Indonesia it causes people to elect leaders supporting it, in the US, it moves voters to support competitors of candidates advancing Islamophobia. Either way, Islam plays an important role in both American and Indonesian politics.
Conclusion
This paper has shown the centrality of Islam in Indonesian politics and drawn parallels with its importance in American politics. In Indonesia, the Muslim-majority population has awakened to the realization that they can influence and shape politics in the country. This movement has culminated in Maruf Amin, the country’s top Muslim cleric, becoming the vice president in the Jokowi administration.
On the other hand, in the US, Republicans have been riding on the wave of Islamophobia to win votes from a misinformed populace about Islam and Muslims. Specifically, President Trump has been a major player in the spread of Islamophobia for political expediency. Nevertheless, despite how Islam is used in Indonesia and the US, it is clear that it is applied as a political tool to advance a predetermined agenda.
Works Cited
Beydoun, Khaled. “Muslim Bans’ and the (Re)making of Political Islamophobia.” University of Illinois Law Review, vol. 2017, no. 5, 2017, pp. 1733-1774.
Ernst, Carl, editor. Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance. Palgrave, 2013.
Fossati, Diego. “The Resurgence of Ideology in Indonesia: Political Islam, Aliran, and Political Behavior.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, vol. 38, no. 2, 2019, pp. 119-148.
Gueorguiev, Dimitar, et al. “Rematch: Islamic Politics, Mobilization, and the Indonesian Presidential Election.” Political Science, vol. 70, no, 3, 2018, pp. 240-252.
Hammer, Juliane. “(Muslim) Women’s Bodies, Islamophobia, and American Politics.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion, vol. 42, no. 1, 2013, pp. 29-37.