Image c/o ANU

UPDATE: This event has been cancelled.

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Religious populism is a rising phenomenon in Indonesia, as in much of the Islamic world.  Over the past decade, Islamism has become increasingly intertwined with populism in mainstream politics.  A growing array of Muslim politicians are seeking to attract support by presenting themselves as anti-elite and voices of authentic popular Muslim will.  Much of this populist rhetoric is polarizing in nature, casting Indonesian society as divided between a corrupt and often impious ruling elite and the religiously pure but economically marginalized Muslim masses.  

In this talk, Greg Fealy, associate professor of Indonesian politics at The Australian National University, will examine this deepening religio-political cleavage in Indonesian society, drawing on both recent survey data and extensive qualitative research. Fealy argues that populism and polarization are severely undermining Indonesian democracy, due not only to Islamist agitation and militancy, but also to the state’s over-reaction, which often breaches the civil and legal rights of Islamists. Indonesia has prided itself on being the most tolerant and successful Muslim-majority democracy in the world. That claim increasingly has a hollow ring. There are significant parallels between what is happening in Indonesia and in many other parts of the world.  

Greg Fealy is Associate Professor of Indonesian politics in the Department of Political and Social Change at The Australian National University.  He gained his PhD from Monash University in 1998 with a study of the history of Nahdlatul Ulama.  He is the co-author of Joining the Caravan? The Middle East, Islamism and Indonesia, Radical Islam and Terrorism in Indonesia and Zealous Democrats: Islamism and Democracy in Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey.  He is also co-editor of Contested Belonging: The Place of Minorities in Indonesia, Soeharto’s New Order and its Legacy, Expressing Islam: Religious Life and Politics in Indonesia, and Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia: A Contemporary Sourcebook. In 2003, he was the C.V. Starr Visiting Professor in Indonesian politics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC.

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