Explaining islamic populism in Southeast Asia: An Indonesian muslim intellectuals perspective

Abstract

Why do religious populism can strengthen in contemporary Southeast Asia? The recent rise of mass mobilization that uses religious identities in Southeast Asia has driven scholarly debate about what caused the unprecedented religious populism. This article seeks to explain an Indonesian Muslim intellectual discourse on the rise of Islamic populism, and it’s causes through a close examination of the case of Islamist-populist mobilization in Indonesia in late 2016. As already well known, there has been no singular explanation of Muslim intellectuals, in this case, are moderate and progressive groups, in response to the Islamist mobilization. Some scholars have argued that increasing conservatism among the Muslim population is an important factor, while others have disputed such a view, arguing that the crisis of democratic representation is the main factor. Borrowing Faucoult’s perspective, the article argues that the plurality and even contradictions of thoughts among moderate-progressive Muslim intellectuals are not only due to differences in their perspectives but also their position in the power/knowledge constellation.