Voices of the Faithful: Religion and Politics in Contemporary Indonesia.

Abstract

My dissertation asks how influential is Islam for political participation in Indonesia. I examine the varied ways in which Islam presents itself in contemporary Indonesian politics, particularly at the level of the masses, and the conditions under which Muslim Indonesians engage in political participation. I use a mixed-methods research design involving focus group interviews, personal in-depth interviews, historical-archival work, participant observation, and national public opinion surveys to trace the presence and absence of “religious stimuli” for political behavior. My work reveals a difference between “religious political participation” and political participation by religious actors. While religion is important for Muslims, it usually does not directly or regularly influence the majority of Indonesians to take political action. Much depends on different components of religion and individual and social contexts. There is an active minority for whom Islam is relevant, and for this group of occasional or habitual participants, the presence and salience of "religiously-relevant political issues" and "religious resources" (often meaning associations and social networks) significantly affect different types and frequencies of political participation.