Course Code

Course Title
Academic Year / Trimester
Lecturers Name
Email
Class Day / Time / Venue

AS6039
COMPARING THE DYNAMICS OF ISLAM IN TURKEY AND
INDONESIA
2016-17 / Trimester 2
Martin van Bruinessen
m.vanbruinessen@uu.nl
Tuesday / 9:30am 11:30am / Seminar Room 1

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Turkey and Indonesia, located at opposite sides of the main mass of Muslim populations
of West and South Asia, both were established as secular republics although
conservative Muslims make up a large proportion of their populations. The countries
share a number of common traits, besides some clear differences, which makes a
comparison between them interesting. Both have recently been hailed as examples of
Muslim societies that have successfully established a functioning democracy. Both
republics were born in armed liberation struggles, and the military have assumed a
special role as the guardians of the established secular political order, from which they
have only recently been persuaded to retreat. The two countries developed more or less
similar regimes of governance of Islam (through state-sponsored religious schools and
theological institutes aiming at the formation of a pliable and liberal religious elite,
through state-sponsored fatwa bodies, etc.). Political and economic liberalization from
the late 1980s onward has allowed committed Muslims to recapture influence in the
state apparatus and make a notable impact on public discourse, resulting in a highly
visible Islamization of the public domain. The countries have differed considerably,
however, in their receptiveness to Islamist and fundamentalist ideas and forms of
mobilization originating from the Arab world and South Asia.

COURSE EVALUATION

Written Exam
Term Paper (3,000 words)
Class Presentation/Debate
Student Participation

10 June 2016

50 %
20 %
20 %
10 %

COURSE STRUCTURE
Week One (Date) :
Introduction
In the first session, the position of Turkey and Indonesia as major non-Arab Muslim (or
rather Islamicate) societies and their relations with the so-called Muslim heartlands
will be discussed. We shall contemplate whether and when comparison makes sense,
and whether acquaintance with one society is helpful for understanding other societies.
Are there structural similarities between Indonesia and Turkey that make comparison in
this case meaningful? Themes:
Center-periphery relations in the Muslim world
Mecca as a centre of Muslim reform; reform movements in the periphery
Structural similarities between Turkey and Indonesia
Relations and mutual influences between Turkey and Indonesia
Required Readings:
Martin van Bruinessen, Secularism, Islamism and Muslim intellectualism in Turkey and
Indonesia: some comparative observations, in: Mirza Tirta Kusuma (ed.), Ketika Makkah
Menjadi Las Vegas: Agama, Politik dan Ideologi, Jakarta: Gramedia, 2014, pp. 130-157.
Asef Bayat, 'Studying Middle Eastern societies: imperatives and modalities of thinking
comparatively', MESA Bulletin 35 (2001), 151-8.
Chiara Formichi, 'Indonesian readings of Turkish history, 1890s to 1940s', in: A.C.S.
Peacock and Annabel Teh Gallop (eds), From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks and
Southeast Asia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 241-59.
Further Readings:
Serif Mardin, 'Turkish Islamic exceptionalism yesterday and today: continuity, rupture
and reconstruction in operational codes', Turkish Studies 6(2) (2005), 145-65.
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Indonesian Muslims and their place in the larger world of Islam',
in: Anthony Reid (ed.), Indonesia rising: the repositioning of Asia's third giant, Singapore:
ISEAS, 2012, pp. 117-40.
Nader Hashemi, Islam, secularism, and liberal democracy: toward a democratic theory
for Muslim societies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

10 June 2016

Week Two (Date) :

Secularism, secularization, secularity
Modernization theories that were popular half a century ago tended to take for granted
that modernizing societies would necessarily become secular and that religion would
disappear from the public sphere and perhaps wither away altogether. The religious
revival of the last quarter of the 20th century led to a revision of secularisation theories.
Themes that will be discussed in this session:
Public and private religions
What is a secular regime?
Is Islam inherently less secularisable than other religions?
Democracy, multiculturalism and secularism
Required Readings:
Jos Casanova, Public religions in the modern world, University of Chicago Press, 1994,
Chapter 1: Secularization, Enlightenment, and Modern Religion (pp. 11-39), and
Chapter 2: Private and public religions (pp. 40-66).
Alfred Stepan, 'The multiple secularisms of modern democratic and non-democratic
regimes', in: Craig Calhoun, et al. (ed.), Rethinking secularism, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2011, pp. 114-44.
Rajeev Bhargava, 'Rehabilitating secularism', in: Craig Calhoun, et al. (ed.), Rethinking
secularism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 92-113.
Further Readings:
Jos Casanova, Public religions in the modern world, Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1994.
Jos Casanova, 'Civil society and religion: retrospective reflections on Catholicism and
prospective reflections on Islam', Social Research 68 (2001), 1041-80.
Charles Taylor, A secular age, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Talal Asad, Formations of the secular: Christianity, Islam, modernity, Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2003.

10 June 2016

Craig Calhoun, Mark Juergensmeyer and Jonathan Van Antwerpen (eds), Rethinking
secularism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Syed Muhammad Naguib Al-Attas, Islam and secularism, Kuala Lumpur: International
Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1978.

Week Three (Date) :

Modern movements of Islamic reform (from the late 19th century onward)
Both Indonesia and Turkey were the heartlands of high civilisations with different
religions before the coming of Islam. Conversion to Islam was not a one-time event but
rather a process that took centuries and is arguably still continuing; reform movements
have been part and parcel of that process. Themes that will be discussed:
Modernism, reformism, fundamentalism
Centre-periphery relations and the spread of reform movements
Major issues addressed by Muslim modernists and reformers of the late 19th
and 20th century
Specifics of Islamic reform in colonial Indonesia and the Ottoman Empire
Anti-imperialism, nationalism and Islamic reform
The impact of print media
Required Readings:
Mansoor Moaddel, Islamic modernism, nationalism, and fundamentalism, Chicago:
Chicago University Press, 2005, Chapters 1-4 (pp. 29-100).
Muhammad Khalid Masud, 'Islamic Modernism', in: Muhammad Khalid Masud, et al.
(ed.), Islam and modernity: key issues and debates, Edinburgh: Edinburg University
Press, 2009, pp. 237-60.
Serif Mardin, 'Islam in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Turkey', in: Serif Mardin,
Religion, society, and modernity in Turkey, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press,
2006, pp. 261-97.
Michael F. Laffan, Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia: the umma below the
winds, London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, Ch. 8, Towards an indigenous and Islamic
Indonesia, pp. 181-215.

10 June 2016

Further Readings:
M. Sait zervarli, 'Alternative approaches to modernization in the late Ottoman Empire:
Izmirli Ismail Hakki's religious thought against materialist scientism', International
Journal of Middle East Studies 39 (2007), 77-102.
Recep entrk, 'Intellectual dependency : late Ottoman intellectuals between fiqh and
social science', Die Welt des Islams 47 (2007), 283-318.
Ziya Gkalp, 'Religion, education and family', in: Niyazi Berkes (ed.), Turkish nationalism
and Western civilization. Selected essays of Ziya Gkalp, New York: Columbia University
Press, 1959, pp. 184-255.
Serif Mardin, 'Islam in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Turkey', in: Serif Mardin (ed.),
Religion, society, and modernity in Turkey, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press,
2006, pp. 261-97.
Deliar Noer, The Modernist Muslim movement in Indonesia 1900-1940, Kuala Lumpur,
etc.: Oxford University Press, 1973.
Michael F. Laffan, Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia: the umma below the
winds, London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, Ch. 8, Towards an indigenous and Islamic
Indonesia, pp. 181-215.
Azyumardi Azra, 'The transmission of al-Manar's reformism to the Malay-Indonesian
world: the cases of al-Imam and al-Munir', Studia Islamika 6 no.3 (1999), 75-100.
Azyumardi Azra, The origins of Islamic reform in Southeast Asia. Networks of MalayIndonesian and Middle Eastern `ulama' in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004.

Week Four (Date) :

The pervasive influence of Sufism on popular piety
Sufism, the mystical interpretation of Islam, has profoundly shaped religious sensibilities
in both Turkey and Indonesia. Sufi poets such as Jalaluddin Rumi and Hamzah Fansuri,
whose works lend themselves to a humanistic understanding, have remained popular
(and perhaps became even more popular when reform movements attempted to
impose conformity with strict Shariah prescriptions). Many popular practices criticised
by reformers are Sufism-influenced. Sufi orders moreover have long provided their

10 June 2016

members with a form of grassroots organisation, offering protection and patronage.

Themes that will be discussed include:
Sufi Islam versus shariah-oriented Islam: a contradiction?
popular religion and official religion
modernity and the decline of the magical worldview
Sufi orders as vehicles of social protest and a form of civil society
Sufi orders and competing forms of social association
Required Readings:
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Sufism, popular Islam, and the encounter with modernity', in:
Muhammad Khalid Masud, et al. (eds), Islam and modernity: key issues and debates,
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009, pp. 125-57.
Brian Silverstein, 'Sufism and modernity in Turkey: from the authenticity of experience
to the practice of discipline', in: Martin van Bruinessen and Julia D. Howell (ed.), Sufism
and the 'modern' in Islam, London: I.B.Tauris, 2007, pp. 39-60.
Emelie A. Olson, 'The use of religious symbol systems and ritual in Turkey: women's
activities at Muslim saints' shrines', The Muslim World 84 (1994), 202-16.
Nancy Tapper and Richard Tapper, 'The birth of the Prophet: Ritual and gender in
Turkish Islam', Man 22 (1987), 69-92.
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Saints, politicians and Sufi bureaucrats: mysticism and politics in
Indonesia's New Order', in: Martin van Bruinessen and Julia Day Howell (ed.), Sufism and
the 'modern' in Islam, London: I.B.Tauris, 2007, pp. 92-112.
Further Readings:
Anthony H. Johns, 'Sufism in Southeast Asia: reflections and reconsiderations', Journal of
Southeast Asian Studies 26 (1995), 169-83.
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Sfs and sultns in Southeast Asia and Kurdistan: a comparative
survey', Studia Islamika (Jakarta) vol.3, no.3 (1996), 1-20.
Julia Day Howell, 'Sufism and the Indonesian Islamic revival', The Journal of Asian Studies
60 (2001), 701-29.
Michael F. Laffan, The Makings of Indonesian Islam: Orientalism and the Narration of a
Sufi Past, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
Tommy Christomy, Signs of the wali: narratives at the sacred sites in Pamijahan, West
Java, Canberra: ANU E Press, 2008.
Butrus Abu-Manneh, 'The Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya in the Ottoman lands in the
early 19th century', Die Welt des Islams XXII (1982), 1-36.

10 June 2016

Heiko Henkel, 'One foot rooted in Islam, the other foot circling the world: tradition and
engagement in a Turkish Sufi cemaat', in: Catharina Raudvere and Leif Stenberg (ed.),
Sufism today: heritage and tradition in the global community, London: I.B.Tauris, 2009,
pp. 103-16.
Serif Mardin, 'The Naqshibendi order of Turkey', in: Martin E. Marty and R. Scott
Appleby (ed.), Fundamentalisms and the state: remaking polities, economies, and
militance, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 204-32.
Hakan Yavuz, 'The matrix of modern Turkish Islamic movements: the Naqshbandi order',
in: Elisabeth zdalga (ed.), Naqshbandis in western and central Asia, Istanbul: Swedish
Research Institute in Istanbul, 1999, pp. 129-46.

Week Five (Date) :

Heterodox minorities (Alevis in Turkey, kebatinan and abangan in Indonesia)
In both Turkey and Indonesia, a considerable though decreasing proportion of the
population adheres to religious views that are at variance with Sunni Islam and that are
to some extent organised separately from the official or orthodox institutions. In this
session, we shall discuss the following themes:
Alevism, Kebatinan and pre-Islamic religions
Orthodoxy and heterodoxy; canonical and non-canonical rituals
The secular state, Islamic institutions and heterodox communities
The challenge of religious pluralism and minority rights
Required Readings:
Martin van Bruinessen, Alevism in Turkey, Kebatinan in Indonesia, excerpts from
unpublished lecture (2000).
Andrew Beatty, 'Adam and Eve and Vishnu: syncretism in the Javanese slametan',
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2 (1996), 271-88.
Robert W. Hefner, 'Where have all the abangan gone? Religionization and the decline of
non-standard Islam in contemporary Indonesia', in: Michel Picard and Rmy Madinier
(eds), The politics of religion in Indonesia: syncretism, orthodoxy, and religious
contention in Java and Bali, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 71-91.
Markus Dressler, 'Making religion through secularist legal discourse: the case of Turkish
Alevism', in: Markus Dressler and Arvind-Pal S. Mandair (eds), Secularism and religionmaking, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 187-208.

10 June 2016

Further Readings:
Emma Sinclair-Webb, 'Pilgrimage, politics and folklore: the making of Alevi community',
Les annales de l'autre islam 6 (1999), 259-74.
Karin Vorhoff, '"Let's reclaim our history and culture!" - imagining Alevi community in
contemporary Turkey', Die Welt des Islams 38 (1998), 220-52.
Martin Stokes, 'Ritual, identity and the state: an Alevi (Shi`a) cem ceremony', in: Kirsten
E. Schulze, et al. (eds), Nationalism, minorities and diasporas: identities and rights in the
Middle East, London: Tauris, 1996, pp. 188-202.
Faruk Bilici, 'The function of Alevi-Bektashi theology in modern Turkey', in: Tord Olsson,
et al. (ed.), Alevi identity: cultural, religious and social perspectives, Istanbul: Swedish
Research Institute in Istanbul, 1998, pp. 51-62.
David Shankland, The Alevis in Turkey: the emergence of a secular Islamic tradition,
London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
Niels Mulder, Mysticism and everyday life in contemporary Java. Cultural persistence
and change, Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1980.
Paul Stange, '"Legitimate" mysticism in Indonesia', Review of Indonesian and Malayan
Affairs 20 (1986), 76-117.
Andrew Beatty, 'Adam and Eve and Vishnu: syncretism in the Javanese slametan',
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2 (1996), 271-88.
Hyung-Jun Kim, 'Reformist Muslims in a Yogyakarta village: the Islamic transformation of
contemporary socio-religious life', Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, Canberra,
1996.
Clifford Geertz, The religion of Java, New York: The Free Press, 1960.

Week Six (Date) :

Governance of Islam (Ministry of Religious Affairs and MUI; Diyanet)

10 June 2016

In this session we shall compare the Indonesian and Turkish varieties of secularism as
institutionalised by the state, and the changes in these institutions since the turn of the
century (i.e., the transition from authoritarianism in Indonesia and the arrival to power
of the AK Party in Turkey).
the genealogy of the main religious institutions (and relations with Dutch
colonial and Ottoman predecessors)
secular, Western-educated elite versus pious masses
democratisation and Islamisation from below
impact of transnational connections
Required Readings:
Deliar Noer, Administration of Islam in Indonesia, Ithaca, NY: Cornell Modern Indonesia
project, 1978, Chapters 1: The Ministry of Religion (pp. 8-23), 3: Islamic law and
courts (pp. 42-52), 5: Majlis Ulama (pp. 65-74) .
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Islamic state or state Islam? Fifty years of state-Islam relations
in Indonesia', in: Ingrid Wessel (ed.), Indonesien am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts,
Hamburg: Abera-Verlag, 1996, pp. 19-34.
Moch. Nur Ichwan, '`Ulama, state and politics: Majelis Ulama Indonesia after Suharto',
Islamic Law and Society 12 no. 1 (2005), 45-72.
Seyfettin Ersahin, 'The Ottoman foundation of the Turkish Republic's Diyanet: Ziya
Gkalp's Diyanet Ishlari Nazrati', The Muslim World 98(2-3) (2008), 182-98.
Itar Gzaydin, 'Diyanet and politics', The Muslim World 98(2-3) (2008), 216-27.
Further Readings:
Harry J. Benda, The Crescent and the Rising Sun: Indonesian Islam under the Japanese
Occupation 1942-1945, The Hague: W. van Hoeve, 1958, Chapter 1: Indonesian Islam
and the foundation of Dutch Islamic policy (pp. 9-31).
Moch. Nur Ichwan, 'Towards a Puritanical Moderate Islam: The Majelis Ulama Indonesia
and the Politics of Religious Orthodoxy', in: Martin van Bruinessen (ed.), Contemporary
Developments in Indonesian Islam : Explaining the 'Conservative Turn', Singapore:
Institute of South East Asian Studies, 2013, pp. 60-104.
Moch. Nur Ichwan, 'Official reform of Islam: State Islam and the Ministry of Religious
Affairs in contemporary Indonesia, 1966-2004', PhD thesis, Universiteit van Tilburg,
Tilburg, 2006.

10 June 2016

Deliar Noer, Administration of Islam in Indonesia, Ithaca, NY: Cornell Modern Indonesia
project, 1978.
Francois Raillon, 'The return of Pancasila: secular vs. Islamic norms, another look at the
struggle for state dominance in Indonesia', in: Michel Picard and Rmy Madinier (eds),
The politics of religion in Indonesia: syncretism, orthodoxy, and religious contention in
Java and Bali, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 92-113.
Niyazi Berkes, The development of secularism in Turkey, Montreal: McGill University
Press, 1964.
Andrew Davison, Secularism and revivalism in Turkey. A hermeneutic reconsideration,
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
Week Seven (Date) :
Forms of organization in mainstream Islam (Muhammadiyah, NU and similar
associations in Indonesia; the Nur movement and other jamaat in Turkey)
Indonesia is unique among Muslim-majority countries in having broad-based, nationwide Muslim associations with major educational and social welfare functions. In
Turkey, formal organisations based on religion or ethnicity are not allowed, and Muslim
associational life took the form of more informal, extra-legal congregations (cemaat,
jamaat), and more recently various NGOs with non-religious objectives. In Indonesia,
the established Muslim associations have since the turn of the century experienced
considerable completion from similar congregations, most of them transnational. In
comparing Muslim associational life in the two countries, the following issues will
receive attention:
Muhammadiyah and NU as national Muslim associations that structurally
replicate the nation state
The Nur movement (and the Glen movement as a special case) as a Turkish
national Muslim movement
Islam and nationalism
Muslim associations, civil society and democratisation
transnational Muslim congregations and national Muslim associations
Required Readings:
Howard M. Federspiel, 'The Muhammadiyah. A study of an orthodox Islamic movement
in Indonesia', Indonesia 10 (1970), 57-79.

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10

Andre Feillard, 'Traditionalist Islam and the state in Indonesia: the road to legitimacy
and renewal', in: Robert W. Hefner (ed.), Islam in an era of nation-states, Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1997, pp. 129-53.
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Post-Soeharto Muslim engagements with civil society and
democratization', in: Hanneman Samuel and Henk Schulte Nordholt (ed.), Indonesia in
transition. Rethinking 'civil society', 'region' and 'crisis', Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar,
2004, pp. 37-66.
M. Hakan Yavuz, 'Islam in the public sphere: the case of the Nur movement', in: M.
Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito (ed.), Turkish Islam and the secular state : the Glen
movement, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2003, pp. 1-18.
Further Readings:
Serif Mardin, 'Civil society and Islam', in: John A. Hall (ed.), Civil society: theory, history,
comparison, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995, pp. 278-300.
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Post-Soeharto Muslim engagements with civil society and
democratization', in: Hanneman Samuel and Henk Schulte Nordholt (ed.), Indonesia in
transition. Rethinking 'civil society', 'region' and 'crisis', Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar,
2004, pp. 37-66.
M. Din Syamsuddin, 'The Muhammadiyah da`wah and allocative politics in the New
Order Indonesia', Studia Islamika 2 no.2 (1995), 35-72.
Alfian, Muhammadiyah: The political behavior of a Muslim modernist organization
under Dutch colonialism, Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1989.
Ahmad Najib Burhani, 'Liberal and Conservative Discourses in the Muhammadiyah: The
Struggle for the Face of Reformist Islam in Indonesia', in: Martin van Bruinessen (ed.),
Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam : Explaining the 'Conservative Turn',
Singapore: Institute of South East Asian Studies, 2013, pp. 105-44.
Greg Barton and Greg Fealy (eds), Nahdlatul Ulama, traditional Islam and modernity in
Indonesia, Clayton, Victoria: Monash Asia Institute, 1996.
Robin Bush, Nahdlatul Ulama and the struggle for power within Islam and politics in
Indonesia, Singapore: ISEAS, 2009.
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Back to Situbondo? Nahdlatul Ulama attitudes towards
Abdurrahman Wahid's presidency and his fall', in: Henk Schulte Nordholt and Irwan

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11

Abdullah (ed.), Indonesia: in search of transition, Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar, 2002, pp.
15-46.
Elizabeth Fuller Collins, 'Islam and the habits of democracy: Islamic organizations in
post-New Order South Sumatra', Indonesia 78 (2004), 93-120.
Greg Barton and Greg Fealy (ed.), Nahdlatul Ulama, traditional Islam and modernity in
Indonesia, Clayton, Victoria: Monash Asia Institute.
M. Hakan Yavuz, 'Islam in the public sphere: the case of the Nur movement', in: M.
Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito (ed.), Turkish Islam and the secular state : the Glen
movement, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2003, pp. 1-18.
M. Hakan Yavuz, 'The renaissance of religious consciousness in Turkey: Nur study
circles', in: Nilfer Gle and Ludwig Ammann (ed.), Islam in public: Turkey, Iran, and
Europe, Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 2006, pp. 129-61.
M. Hakan Yavuz, Toward an Islamic enlightenment: the Glen movement, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013.
Joshua D. Hendrick, Glen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the
World, New York: NYU Press, 2013.

Week Eight (Date) :

State-sanctioned Islamic education: Pesantren /Madrasah and Imam Hatip schools
and their role as vehicles of social mobility
In both countries, state schools are, with minor exceptions, secular and offer some
classes about religion rather than religious instruction. The exceptions are Turkeys
Imam-Hatip school, originally established to train secular-minded religious officials,
and Indonesias Madrasah Aliyah Negeri, which were a means of co-opting vernacular
Muslim education and integrating it into the secular state education system. Both types
of schools offered children from previously marginalised, pious family backgrounds a
channel of upward social mobility but also contributed to the process of Islamisation
from below. We shall discuss the following aspects:
madrasah/medrese reform and the expansion of non-religious subjects in the
curriculum
unequal access to secular education
expanding career horizons for Madrasah and Imam-Hatip graduates
Islamic education, political participation and democratisation

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12

Required Readings:
Bahattin Akit, 'Islamic education in Turkey: Medrese reform in late Ottoman times and
Imam-hatip schools in the Republic', in: Richard Tapper (ed.), Islam in modern Turkey.
Religion, politics and literature in a secular state, London: I.B. Tauris, 1991, pp. 145-70.
Henry J. Rutz, 'The rise and demise of Imam-Hatip schools: discourses of Islamic
belonging and denial in the construction of Turkish civic culture', Political and Legal
Anthropology Review 22 (1999), 93-103.
Martin van Bruinessen, Pious Muslims as a bridge between Turkey and the West: the
remarkable case of the Imam Hatip graduates studying in Europe, in Ismail alar, From
Symbolic Exile to Physical Exile: Turkeys Imam Hatip Schools, the Emergence of a
Conservative Counter-Elite, and its Knowledge Migration to Europe, Amsterdam
University Press, 2013, pp. 5-21.
Arief Subhan, 'The Indonesian madrasah: Islamic reform and modernization of
Indonesian Islam in the twentieth century', in: Azyumardi Azra, et al. (ed.), Varieties of
religious authority. Changes and challenges in 20th century Indonesian Islam, Singapore:
ISEAS, 2010, pp. 126-38.
Robert W. Hefner, 'Islamic schools, social movements, and democracy in Indonesia', in:
Robert W. Hefner (ed.), Making modern Muslims: the politics of Islamic education in
Southeast Asia, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009, pp. 55-105.
Further Readings:

Week Nine (Date) :

The post-1980 Islamic resurgence; Muslim political parties
The world-wide Islamic resurgence affected both countries differentially. In the early
2000s, however, parties inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, the AKP and PKS
respectively, appeared well-positioned to play a central role in the political liberalisation
of both countries. Both appeared eager to show the world that Islam, democracy and
cultural pluralism were compatible. Indonesias PKS (and Malaysias PAS) looked upon
the AKP and its electoral success as a model to be emulated. We shall discuss the
following aspects of the rise of these Muslim parties:
predecessors: the Milli Gr parties of Turkey; domesticated Muslim parties
and the Islamic underground in Indonesia
Islamist parties under secular law: accommodating divine will and popular will
attitudes towards women and religious minorities
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13

Islamisation of the secular political system, or secularisation of the Islamist party

through participation in the system
Islamist party and extra-parliamentarian Islamist activists

Required Readings:
Ahmet Yildiz, 'Politico-religious discourse of political Islam in Turkey: the parties of
National Outlook', The Muslim World 93 (2003), 187-209.
Ahmet T. Kuru, 'Reinterpretation of secularism in Turkey: the case of the Justice and
Development Party', in: M. Hakan Yavuz (ed.), The emergence of a new Turkey:
democracy and the AK Party, Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2006, pp. 13659.
Munim A. Sirry, 'Transformation of Political Islam in Post-Suharto Indonesia', in:
M.Ibrahim Abu-Rabi (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought,
Oxford: Blackwell, 2006, pp. 466-81.
Jourdan Khalid Hussein, 'Not secular enough? Variation in electoral success of postIslamist parties in Turkey and Indonesia', Studia Islamika 18(3) (2011), 389-462.
Further Readings:
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Genealogies of Islamic radicalism in Indonesia', South East Asia
Research 10 no.2 (2002), 117-54.
Munim A. Sirry, 'Transformation of Political Islam in Post-Suharto Indonesia', in:
M.Ibrahim Abu-Rabi (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought,
Oxford: Blackwell, 2006, pp. 466-81.
Greg Fealy and Bernhard Platzdasch, 'The Masyumi legacy: between Islamist idealism
and political exigency', Studia Islamika 12 no.1 (2005), 73-99.
Robert W. Hefner, 'Islamization and democratization in Indonesia', in: Robert W. Hefner
and Patricia Horvatich (ed.), Islam in an era of nation-states, Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1997, pp. 75-128.
Ahmet Yildiz, 'Politico-religious discourse of political Islam in Turkey: the parties of
National Outlook', The Muslim World 93 (2003), 187-209.
Ahmet T. Kuru, 'Reinterpretation of secularism in Turkey: the case of the Justice and
Development Party', in: M. Hakan Yavuz (ed.), The emergence of a new Turkey:

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14

democracy and the AK Party, Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2006, pp. 13659.
Jenny B. White, Islamist mobilization in Turkey: a study in vernacular politics, Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 2002.
Metin Heper and ule Tokta, 'Islam, modernity and democracy in contemporary
Turkey: the case of Recep Tayyip Erdogan', The Muslim World 93 (2003), 157-84.
Menderes inar and Burhanettin Duran, 'The specific evolution of contemporary
political Islam in Turkey and its difference', in: mit Cizre (ed.), Secular and Islamic
politics in Turkey: the making of the Justice and Development Party, London: Routledge,
2007, pp. 17-40.
Cihan Tugal, 'Fight or Acquiesce? Religion and Political Process in Turkey's and Egypt's
Neoliberalizations', Development and Change 43(1) (2012), 23-51.

Week Ten (Date) :

Gender and Islam; Muslim feminism
The secular elites that founded both republics adopted a patronizing attitude to
womens rights and ensured the emergence of a small, privileged elite of highly
educated women allowed to play public roles. The Islamic resurgence was generally
perceived, by secularists, as a major threat to womens rights (along with minority
rights), but one of the paradoxical effects was that it brought many Muslim women
who had hitherto been highly marginalised into the public sphere. Veiled women
became symbols of the Islamic movement, giving rise to contradictory interpretations of
what this meant for womens emancipation. In this session, we shall consider:
secular feminism, Muslim feminism, Islamic feminism
debates about gender equality
womens participation in Islamist parties and movements
Muslim womens increasing participation in the public sphere
Required Readings:
Barbara Pusch, 'Stepping into the public sphere: the rise of Islamist and religiousconservative women's non-governmental organizations', in: Stefanos Yerasimos, et al.
(eds), Civil society in the grip of nationalism, Istanbul: Orient-Institut der Deutschen

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Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft & Institut Franais d'Etudes Anatoliennes, 2000, pp. 475506.
Cathy Benton, 'Many contradictions: women and Islamists in Turkey', The Muslim World
86 (1996), 106-29.
Andre Feillard, 'Indonesia's emerging Muslim feminism: women leaders on equality,
inheritance and other gender issues', Studia Islamika 4 no. 1 (1997), 83-111.
Clare Harvey, 'Living Islam', Inside Indonesia 103 (2011). Online at:
http://www.insideindonesia.org/feature-editions/living-islam.
Further Readings:
Nilfer Gle, The forbidden modern: civilization and veiling, Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1996.
Yesim Arat, Rethinking Islam and liberal democracy: Islamist women in Turkish politics,
Albany NY: SUNY Press, 2005.
Jenny B. White, 'The new Islamic woman in Turkey: dilemmas of space, place and class',
in: Kazuo Ohtsuka and Dale F. Eickelman (ed.), Crossing boundaries: gender, the public,
and the private in contemporary Muslim societies, Tokyo: Research Institute for
Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 2008, pp. 49-70.
Sally White, Gender and the family, in Greg Fealy and Virginia Hooker (eds), Voices of
Islam in Southeast Asia, A Contemporary Sourcebook, Singapore: ISEAS, 2006, pp. 273352.
Saskia Wieringa, 'Islamization in Indonesia: women activists' discourses', Signs 32(1)
(2006), 1-8.
Pieternella van Doorn-Harder, Women shaping Islam: reading the Qur'an in Indonesia,
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
Suzanne Brenner, 'Private moralities in the public sphere: democratization, Islam, and
gender in Indonesia', American Anthropologist 113(3) (2011), 478-90.
Rachel Rinaldo, 'Envisioning the nation: women activists, religion and the public sphere
in Indonesia', Social Forces 86(4) (2008), 1781-804.
Rachel Rinaldo, Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism in Indonesia, Oxford University
Press, 2013.

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Week Eleven (Date) :

The Islamisation of everyday life
Whereas Muslim parties and associations may have attempted to Islamize society from
above, through legislation, Islamization from below has been far more successful. In this
session we shall focus on the Islamization of culture and lifestyles, which appear closely
related with the emergence of a self-consciously Muslim, consumption-oriented middle
class. We shall look into:
the emergence of a Muslim middle class and how it defines its Muslim identity
through (conspicuous) consumption
Muslim appropriations of urban public space
Neoliberalism and the Islamisation of society
Islamisation of the market and marketization of Islam
Required Readings:
Banu Gokariksel and Anna Secor, 'Post-secular geographies and the problem of
pluralism: Religion and everyday life in Istanbul, Turkey', Political Geography 46 (2015),
21-30.
Jenny White, 'Islamic chic', in: aglar Keyder (ed.), Istanbul: Between the Global and the
Local, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999, pp. 77-91.
Ugur Kmeoglu, 'New sociabilities: Islamic cafs in Istanbul', in: Nilfer Gle and
Ludwig Ammann (ed.), Islam in public: Turkey, Iran, and Europe, Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi
University Press, 2006, pp. 163-89.
Carla Jones, 'Materializing piety: gendered anxieties about faithful consumption in
contemporary urban Indonesia', American Ethnologist 37(4) (2010), 617-37.
Rachel Rinaldo, 'Muslim women, middle class habitus, and modernity in Indonesia',
Contemporary Islam 2(1) (2008), 23-39.
Daromir Rudnyckyj, 'Market Islam in Indonesia', Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute 15, special issue (2009), 183-201.
Further Readings:
Berna Turam, Gaining freedoms: claiming space in Istanbul and Berlin, Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2015, Introduction (pp. 1-23)and Chapters 1 3 (pp. 25-76).

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Andrew N. Weintraub (ed.), Islam and popular culture in Indonesia and Malaysia,
London: Routledge, 2011.
Noorhaidi Hasan, 'The making of public Islam: piety, agency, and commodification on
the landscape of the Indonesian public sphere', Contemporary Islam 3(3) (2009), 229-50.
Daromir Rudnyckyj, 'Spiritual economies: Islam and neoliberalism in contemporary
Indonesia', Cultural Anthropology 24(1) (2009), 104-41.
Daromir Rudnyckyj, Spiritual economies: Islam, globalization and the afterlife of
development, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.

Week Twelve (Date) :

Transnational connections; Conclusions
In this final session we shall look at the transnational aspects of developments in
Indonesian and Turkish Islam. Here we shall notice major differences between the two
societies: whereas several Turkish Islamic movements have become very active in
missionizing abroad, Indonesian Muslim associations are only hesitatingly beginning to
adopt a more visible international profile. Indonesia also appears to be more open to
transnational movements originating elsewhere than Turkey is. We shall briefly survey
the following:
transnational expansion of Turkish Islamic movements
the international role of Indonesias Muslim community
the international perception of Turkish and Indonesian Islam as alternatives to
Arabian Islam
Required Readings:
Martin van Bruinessen, 'Indonesian Muslims and their place in the larger world of Islam',
in: Anthony Reid (ed.), Indonesia rising: the repositioning of Asia's third giant, Singapore:
ISEAS, 2012, pp. 117-40.
Mcahit Bilici, 'Ummah and Empire: global formations after nation', in: Ibrahim M. AbuRabi` (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought, Oxford:
Blackwell, 2006, pp. 313-27.

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Further Readings:
Sophia Pandya and Nancy Gallagher (eds), The Glen Hizmet movement and its
transnational activities. Case studies of altruistic activism in contemporary Islam, Boca
Raton, FL: BrownWalker Press, 2012.

Week Thirteen (Date) :

Examination

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