FITTED SHARIA IN DEMOCRATIZING INDONESIA

Abstract

This article argues that the so-called sharia-inspired regulations have been locally fitted through democratic processes that engaged together the elected legislative body and the executive office as well as various social groups. It bases on a qualitative fieldwork in Cianjur, a district in West Java Indonesia. There are three underpinning factors to the fitted sharia. First, it is possible because the discursive elements of sharia that enabled the Islamists to find a local and perhaps diluted, and more moderate formulation of sharia. Second, social diversity with no single group predominating required compromise and political alliance within and between the Islamist and non-Islamist groups. Third, the so-called sharia has number of secular functions related to politics, economy, and local custom that eventually brought the contesting groups to compromise. Thus, the resurgence of the sharia-inspired regulation is driven by various factors ranging from religiosity and piety to the practical and pragmatic reasons.

Keywords

• sharia
• democracy
• islamism