Defending the Majesty of Islam: Indonesia's Front Pembela Islam, 1998-2003 » (New Edition)

Indonesia's 1998 reformation movement spawned numerous organizations aimed at either establishing an Islamic state or applying Islamic law. The present monograph focuses on one such movement, Front Pembela Islam (FPI). The study presents the biography of Habib Muhammad Rizieq Syihab, one of FPI's founding fathers and its current head, and discusses the group's creation, activities, and ideology. Finally, it analyzes FPI's organizational bases, recruitment practices, and training methods, including the use of religious teachings to justify the deliberate destruction of entertainment venues where gambling, prostitution, and drinking occur-activities which are seen as corrupting according to Islamic teaching.

About the Author:
Jajang Jahroni is a lecturer at the Faculty of Literature an Humanities at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta

Introduction     1
Status of Muslims during the New Order (1967-1998)     3
Islamic Movements in the 1980s     6
Global Influences on the Islamic Movement     9
The Threat of Modernization     11
Biography of Habib Muhammad Rizieq Syihab     13
The Emergence of Front Pembela Islam (FPI)     18
FPI as a Muslim Paramilitary Group     25
Amr bil ma'ruf wal nahi al-munkar-The Movement to Command Righteousness and Prevent Corruption     31
Ideology of FPI     37
The Jakarta Charter and Islamic Law     46
Organization and Social Bases of FPI     50
Concluding Remarks     58
Notes     59
Bibliography     70