Talking about Islam and Democracy in Indonesia's Public Schools

DOI

10.2991/icsps-17.2018.48How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Indonesia, Islam, democracy, education

Abstract

Is Islam compatible with democracy? The answer to this question hinges immediately on the degree to which Muslims themselves actually embrace the concept. This study evaluates how democratic ideas are both legitimated and qualified in Islamic education classes in Indonesian public high schools. These classes, mandatory for all Muslim students under the national curriculum, include a chapter that specifically addresses democracy as well as wider material touching on related values. This study draws on extensive fieldwork in public high schools in the province of Yogyakarta, original survey data from multiple provinces, and analysis of state-written Islamic education textbooks from the New Order to the present. In state-written textbooks, the portrayal of democracy is found to noticeably evolve as the state itself is transformed from a dictatorship into a democracy, demonstrating increasing support-with certain qualifications-for the idea of democracy as an Islamically legitimate mode of governance. Within classrooms, most Islamic education teachers also demonstrate acceptance of democracy on Islamic terms, although they should not be mistaken for liberal democrats. Overall, this article argues that Islamic education classes in Indonesian schools contribute not only to popular acceptance of democracy, but also to the articulation of an distinctively illiberal vision for democracy among Muslim students in Indonesia.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sawyer Martin French
PY  - 2017/11
DA  - 2017/11
TI  - Talking about Islam and Democracy in Indonesia's Public Schools
BT  - Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Social and Political Sciences (ICSPS 2017)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 222
EP  - 225
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icsps-17.2018.48
DO  - 10.2991/icsps-17.2018.48
ID  - French2017/11
ER  -