Nationalism, Islam, ‘secularism’ and the state in contemporary Indonesia

This article seeks to explain the impact of Muslim politics on the Indonesian nation and, in particular, why Islamism has found so little political traction. It argues that Islamist ideas were late in emerging in modern Indonesia, and long remained marginal to Indonesians' ideas of what their nation should be and do. It notes, however, that Indonesia's deepening Islamisation has resulted in a sense of growing sectarianism and a developing accommodation of Islamic agendas by Indonesia's pseudo-secular state that requires careful management if respectful pluralism and mutual tolerance is to be maintained.