Islam in Indonesian Foreign Policy: The Limits of Muslim Solidarity for the Rohingya and Uighurs
With more than 88% of its 264 million citizens professing the Islamic faith, Indonesia has more adherents than in all Arab states combined. Islam has long served as a source of social values and norms in Indonesian society, thereby playing an important role in political legitimation. Since foreign policy typically reflects a country’s values, one would expect Islam to have long played a role in Indonesia’s external relations as well. Instead, Suharto’s authoritarian regime (1965-1998) repressed political Islam at home and banned it from Indonesian foreign policy. Only during the democratic era has Islam played a role in Indonesian foreign policy. Incorporating it into foreign policy is at once a reflection of domestic values, a result of bottom-up domestic pressure, and a strategic response to a post-September 11 environment in which Indonesia’s democracy, reputation for toleration, and moderate form of Islam were perceived as domestic assets that could be leveraged in foreign policy.
Click here to keep reading. NYSEAN co-founder Ann Marie Murphy writes for The Asan Institute.