Poor, Polygamous, But Deeply Pious: Muslim Masculinities in Post-New Order Film Islami

Abstract

Through events such as the attacks on 9/11 and its global reverberations, the fear of global Islamist terrorism, and the continued intellectual links with the seat of Islamic learning in the Middle East, the Muslim man in post-New Order cinema needs to be worldly and aware of his place in the world. However, this awareness comes equipped with the Othering of masculinities that do not fit the standard of Indonesian Islam and Indonesian Muslim masculinity. This chapter shows that although there have been attempts by post-New Order filmmakers to recoup the image of the Muslim man, the results are more ambiguous and sometimes contradictory. Fear of terrorism, economic disparity, and anxieties about Islamic practice all contribute to an ambivalent cinematic narrative of what it means to be a Muslim man in contemporary Indonesia. This ambivalence has meant that the divide between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslim man in Indonesian Islamic cinema is sometimes less clear than it used to be in the New Order period.