ABSTRACT
Indonesia is a nation comprising some thirteen to 19,000 islands, stretching more than 3,000 miles from the tip of Malaysia across the Indian Ocean to Australia and the Philippines and connecting the Pacific Ocean with the South China Sea. Similarly the most Muslim-majority countries, the fact that Indonesia had to fight for its independence and identity has made nationalism a force that both confounds and complicates the role of Islam in its politics. A very different kind of organization-more perhaps a network than an organization-that became a player in early Indonesian politics was the militant Islamic movement generally known as Dar'ul Islam. Drawing on Robert Hefner's seminal study of Muslims and democratization, it is argued that Indonesia's 'civil Islam' is distinct in its tolerance, civility and culture of participation. In contrast to Turkey and many Muslim-majority countries, moreover, Islam in Indonesia was never part of an Islamic empire.
