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Journal of Religion and Health

Erschienen in:

25.02.2020 | Original Paper

The Narratives of Shia Madurese Displaced Women on Their Religious Identity and Gender Citizenship: A Study of Women and Shi’as in Indonesia

verfasst von: Rachmah Ida, Muhammad Saud

Erschienen in: Journal of Religion and Health | Ausgabe 3/2021

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Abstract

This article explores expressions in how the local Shi’as Muslim women refugees define and interpret their religious identity and gender citizenship in post-authoritarian Indonesia. This article discusses the cases of Shias women from the Sampang Regency, East Java, Indonesia, in the aftermath of the 2012 conflict that made them internally displaced persons (IDPs, Indonesian: pengungsi). This study argues that religious identity and gender citizenship are constructed by these displaced Shias women concerning their belief as to what is considered ‘true’ in Islam, acquired from the ‘Islamic traditions’ of their local Islamic teacher (s). Their loyalty to a religious belief does not arise from any independent search for the ‘true Islam’ but rather from the doctrine of the teachers/spiritual leaders. Enforced loyalty to Shi’as in their everyday communal ritual practices has influenced the formation of these displaced women’s religious identity as Shi’ias.

The paranoia of communism and the use of ‘communist’ label in the Indonesian discourse has long been terrified construction and stigmatized, particularly during the Suharto’s New Order era, and continue through present time. For more discussion on the paranoia about the resurgence of communism to a number of factor in the discourse of Indonesia (see, e.g. Anderson 1990; Heryanto 1999, 2006).

Bruinessen maintains that the Iran revolution in 1979 attracted young Indonesian Muslim scholars at that time and the movement of self-conversion to Shi`ism was started, which the number of Shi`as adherents reached tens of thousands by the end the nineteenthCentury (Bruinessen 2002: p. 11).

The pesantren (boarding school) in the Bangil sub-district of Pasuruan, also known as the ‘Kota Santri’ (religious city), which is identified as a Shia pesantren, was attacked and burned by an anti-Shia group in 2007. The group, called ‘PemudaAhlussunahBangil’ (SunniBangil Youth) consisted of a hundred followers, who on 20 April 2007 gathered in the town square of Bangil after Friday prayer, and marched to the local Attorney General’s office in Bangil to ban Shia as a sect, putting up banners condemning Shia Islam. This action was a response to the spreading of Shia Islam in Bangil and ‘for its outrageous teachings and practices of contractual marriages’, which were significant cases in Bangil at the time.

According to the police officer, the tragedy of Sampang in 2012 was not a Sunni-Shia clash, but rather a family clash between TajulMuluk and RoisulHukama, who fought over a woman. Tajul and Roisul are both sons of KyaiMakmun, a former Shi’ite in Sampang who declared himself Shiite in the early 1980 s when he admired Khomeini of Iran. Tajul and Roisul were both raised as Shi’ites, taught by their father since primary school. It was rumoured that Roisulwas heart-broken after failing to marry a female santri (boarding school student) of Misbahul Huda, a Shia pesantren run by his brother, Tajul. Hurt by the rejection, Roisul declared himself no longer Shi’ite, claiming that he had converted to Sunni Islam. He then campaigned against Shia as analiransesat (sect), while Tajul continued to be Shi’ite. Tajul was sentenced to five years by the court in 2012. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/indonesia/laporan_khusus/2013/08/130731_lapsus_syiah_sidoarjo_kilasbalik.shtml.

It is common for Madurese Muslim families to send their children for schooling to a pondokpesantren (an Islamic boarding school) and/or madrasah (Islamic school) rather than to government or private local schools. Many teenagers and young people in Madura have left their villages to go to such schools in Java or as far as Arab countries to study Islam and the Qur’an. For many Madurese families, studying Islam and the Qur’an is more important than other studies (i.e. acquiring secular knowledge). Therefore, children as young as 7 (first year of primary school) are sent away from Madura Island to a pondokpesantren.

Ali ibn Abi Thalib, Muhammad’s cousin and later became his son-in-law, and considered by the Sunni as one of the Prophet’s companions. Ali is received more admired and very well-liked by majorly Shia adherents compared to other three caliphs of Muhammad’s companions like Abu Bakr, Umar ibn Al-Khattab, and Uthman ibn Affan.

Roisul is Kyai’s Tajul younger brother who was Shi’i, then converted to Sunni because of the influence of the elite Sunni kyais in his area.

Pondok means pesantren (Islamic boarding school) is for many Madurese Muslim families perceive as ‘school’. The Madurese perceive that sending their children to pondok/pesantren are more important than send them to common (secular) school(s).

Robert R. Jay (1963) wrote about a conflict in a Javanese village in the 1950 s. Jay saw Javanese villagers with different beliefs, between syncretism and Muslim orthodox, showing controversy attitudes. The villagers from syncretism neighbourhoods were reluctant to pass along the roads through orthodox neighbourhoods, and vice versa. Dijk (2002) argues that, in local community conflict situations in Indonesia, “a sphere is delineated into which outsiders are not allowed to intrude” (p. 289).

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Titel: The Narratives of Shia Madurese Displaced Women on Their Religious Identity and Gender Citizenship: A Study of Women and Shi’as in Indonesia
verfasst von: Rachmah Ida
Muhammad Saud
Publikationsdatum: 25.02.2020
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Journal of Religion and Health / Ausgabe 3/2021
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01001-y

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