Mobilizing Mainstream Islam: The Politics of Orthodoxy in Indonesia in Comparative Perspective

by Saskia Schäfer

Overview

Mobilizing Mainstream Islam explains the rise and changing shape of religious nationalism in Indonesia after the fall of Suharto in 1998. In the 2000s, a time of electoral democratization, Indonesia's religious and political landscape experienced significant competition and reshuffling as religious and political elites formed an alliance to challenge Indonesia's official policies of tolerance and religious pluralism. As Saskia Schäfer argues, state and religious authorities have in the post-Suharto era constructed a homogenized, bureaucratized form of Islam—which she terms "Mainstream Islam"—that deliberately marginalizes people framed as minorities, such as Ahmadiyya, Shia Muslims and LGBTQI people, through securitization and theological delegitimization. She shows how the discourses of human rights have only sharpened the contours of these identities within the national imaginary.

Through diverse case studies, Mobilizing Mainstream Islam explores how competitive electoral politics, decentralization, and media fragmentation facilitated the emergence of Islamist majoritarian rule, and compares Indonesia's decentralized model with Malaysia's state-driven approach. Schäfer examines how competition over resources and public support shape religious nationalism. As the case of Indonesia illuminates broader global trends of religious nationalism, this book offers fresh insights into the challenges of maintaining pluralism in electoral democracies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501785252
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2026
Series:	Religion and Conflict
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Saskia Schäfer is Senior Researcher at Humboldt University in Berlin.

What People are Saying About This

Jeremy Menchik

Mobilizing Mainstream Islam is a deeply researched and theoretically compelling explanation for the decreased political space available for religious pluralism in Muslim Southeast Asia. The scope of the work—long term field work in Indonesia and Malaysia but with a remarkable grasp of the literature on Turkey and the Middle East—advances scholarly discourse in multiple fields and provides a capstone to twenty years of research and writing on the topic of pluralism and modernity in Muslim Southeast Asia. Saskia Schäfer has produced a major book by any indicator.