ABSTRACT

A global debate is raging within Islam about how to coexist with democ-

racy. Radical movements opposed to the inequalities of globalisation are

reviving long-discredited simplifications that scriptural authority requires

either Islamic rule (dar al-Islam) or a state of war with the illegitimate

authority of non-Muslims or secularists. Pressures of rapid globalisation

and urbanisation are nowhere more intense than in Asia, where the pre-

cious lessons of a diverse past seem in danger of being forgotten. In Indo-

nesia, conceived since its 1945 origins as a plural state with full equality between all its extremely diverse citizens, the Ulama Council issued a fatwa

in 2005 condemning pluralism as unlawful.