Chapter One - Introduction

Summary

As said in the Preface, this book examines Islam as it is experienced by Muslims in Bima in Sumbawa, Indonesia. The point I wish to put across is that, although the Muslims in Bima are unified in the name of Islam, Islamic expressions are highly diverse. The Sultan and Raja Bicara (the prime minister), the basic dyadic social and political organization in Bima, who reflect the historical and cultural legacies of the area, has been very significant in the forming of the religious orientations in the region. The Sultan's attachment to the traditionalist Islam and the Raja Bicara's affiliation to the reformist Islam has had a wide impact on the dynamics of Islamization and being a Muslim in Bima. The argument presented in this book is that, being Muslim is not a single trajectory but influenced by many aspects, and is continuously in the making. As discussed later, the book shows that even within one single Islamic community, different religious orientations on the same issue exist next to each other. The focus is on the productive agency of Muslims in the embodied meanings of being Muslim in everyday life. The book investigates Islam in Bima as experienced by the local Muslims.

Focusing on agency places this book in an important shift in the anthropology of Islam, which recognizes that self-cultivation plays a pivotal role in religious practices. I argue that my study represents a turning away from the description of Islam as a “fatalistic religion” in which Shari’at (Islamic religious law) predetermines all forms of action to a view that Islam enables Muslims to be active agents. The book introduces readers to a new discourse suggesting that Islamic presentations in the public lives of Bima Muslims, or public religious expressions (PRE) as put by Stewart et al. (2017), cannot be always equated with Islamic radicalism and Islamism, a political ideology. My findings show that the vast majority of Bima Muslims simply want their identities as Muslims and their cultural products to be recognized by the outside world. Muslims in the eastern part of Indonesia are proud of their historical legacy and traditions, as I demonstrate within the context of contemporary Bima.

In this respect, this book touches on the process of what local Muslims practize as cultural meanings, religious symbols and systems which are expressed through rituals and festivals.