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Michael Buehler is a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of The Politics of Shari’a Law: Islamist Activists and the State in Democratizing Indonesia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
Informal Networks, Formal Politics and The Politicization of Islam in Indonesia
When Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the Christian governor of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, was sentenced to two years in prison for “blasphemy” in May 2017 it created world headlines. The verdict was seen as emblematic of a broader “Islamization” of Indonesian politics and society that has allegedly been underway since the collapse of the New Order military dictatorship in 1998. However, as this essay shows, Indonesia is experiencing a politicization of Islam rather than an Islamization of politics.
