MODERATING RESISTANCES The Reproduction of Muslim Religious Space in the Dutch East Indies

Abstract

This study seeks to historically elaborate on the roots of moderate Islam, focusing on the productive practices towards religious spaces in the Dutch colonial periods in the East Indies. It analyses the strategic changes in the Dutch reproduction of religious space during the Aceh War and the Sarekat Islam periods. The author argues that the Dutch government frequently seized Muslim religious space to secure its colonial power. The colonial government reproduced Muslim religious space in these two eras, representing symbolic support for the Dutch colonial hegemony. The appropriation of religious space was a spatial strategy to perpetuate the hegemony in social space. This study concludes that the reproduction of Muslim space represented a moderate position towards the Dutch colonial hegemony. Meanwhile, counter-space emerged to reverse such moderating practices. By counter-space, the Dutch moderating efforts on socio-religious space were contested, opposed, and condemned.