Moderate Muslim: Mapping the Ideology of Mass Islamic Organizationsin Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is rich with religious traditions, and the people show their various religious attitudes to respond their problems in unique ways based on factors, such as education backgrounds, family, customs, and religious environment. When Islam entered Indonesia, adherents of various religions did not notice their difference, nor do they accentuate their identityies. Difference is not important to talk about, and the main one is that they can live in harmony.It means, dinferences in religious understandingoes not have mucheffects on their lives. Lately, we see something different. Apperson’s identity or a community’s religious attitude is the first thing to consider. A community is characterized by their activities of such circumstances: religious, social, and political, and these are in parallel their religious attitudes: radical, liberal, and moderate. Other groups also demonstrate different activities, such asSufism or thariqat, but they did not possess certain characteristics.Ttheir attitudes are moderate. Thee paper provides general description on moderate Muslim and observes how this community dominates the religious models and attitudes in Indonesia. In addition, the paper describes factors that help the community survive and deal with radical and liberal groups. Key words: attitude, moderate, radical, liberal, movement, religion, tradition.