ABSTRACT
This chapter uses palace gamelan sessions, as in the ethnographic scene, to disseminate Islamic teachings. Besides arts and entertainment tend to make people forget about religious worship and they often miss the substance of Islamic messages amidst the excitement of artistic performances. The music sounded like dangdut, with modern drums and electric guitars playing up-tempo beats, but the woman sang religious songs in Arabic in a style characteristic of acoustic kasidah. Many Muhammadiyah members in Lamongan and Yogyakarta, even some in Kauman, watch cultural arts and attend traditional religious rituals, such as funerary tahlilan, to promote social harmony maintaining ties with their friends and neighbors. The social and cultural dynamism of this "era of reformation" has precipitated their processes of self-reflection including an awareness of becoming increasingly isolated from the "abangan" masses and "remaking", altering their long-standing position of distance and purification of local cultural practices.
