The National polemics on the idea of Islam Nusantara shows no sign of reaching any consensus since it was first tabled and deliberated at the National Congress of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation, in 2015 in Jombang, East Java. With the Indonesian presidential election approaching in 2019, the debates are likely to sharpen.

In essence, the idea of Islam Nusantara is understood differently by different parties who see it not only as a theological, but also a political and ideological construct. Although NU, a traditionalist Islamic organisation established in 1926, has declared that Islam Nusantara is the way of NU scholars in understanding Islam, it argues that this idea remains open to interpretation and negotiation within the larger Islamic community.

…Syafiq Hasyim is a Visiting Fellow at the Indonesia Programme of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.