Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia Repository
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Recent Submissions
Globalizing Nahdlatul Ulama : religion, diplomacy, and the politics of representation
Wildan Rahmat Hidayat; Yanwar Pribadi (Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia, 2025-08-06)
This study critically examines the globalization efforts of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), particularly through the narrative of Islam Nusantara and Humanitarian Islam, its role in the Religion 20 (R20) forum, and the transnational activities of its diaspora networks (PCINU). As the world’s largest Muslim organisation, NU is frequently portrayed as an actor offering a culturally rooted articulation of Islam that contrasts with more politicised or scripturalist expressions often dominant in global Islamic discourses. However, such claims have yet to be empirically and theoretically examined, particularly in relation to power dynamics, epistemic production, and center-periphery relations within global Islamic networks. Drawing on postcolonial frameworks and representation theories, this study explores whether NU’s global project constitutes a genuine epistemic transformation or merely reproduces domestic logics within a symbolic global framework. By analyzing formal narratives, diasporic practices, and the tensions between NU’s structural and cultural domains, the article identifies the limitations of NU’s epistemic infrastructure, the fragmentation of its global diaspora, and the disarticulation between the institution and its intellectual diaspora. The study argues that NU’s globalization cannot be read as a horizontal, grassroots expansion but rather as a project shaped by national interests, elitedriven initiatives, and state-mediated representational logics. In doing so, it offers a critical reading of religious globalization from Indonesia’s organizations, revealing how such efforts may become trapped in reproducing power through globally legible, yet epistemically hollow, forms.
The ongoing debate on the umm al-qura calendar in the global Islamic context
Sahar; Zezen Zaenal Mutaqin (Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia, 2025-08-06)
The Umm al-Qura calendar is a universal Islamic calendar developed by the Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Saudi Arabia. It is a lunar calendar based on astronomical calculations and is followed by many countries, including those in the Arabian Peninsula and Europe. This calendar was created by observing and calculating the phases and movements of the moon to determine the beginning and end of Islamic months and Hijri years. This calendar contains two types of dates: civil dates to regulate Muslim life, and dates for religious events, including the beginning of Ramadan and Eid, which is vital for the Muslim communities. In addition to calculations, the Kingdom relies on the naked sighting of the crescent moon to determine sacred days, which is why official announcements sometimes do not coincide with the dates previously set in the calendar. This calendar has been controversial, especially since actual crescent sightings often align with the calendar, even if it is scientifically incorrect; hence, many countries have refrained from adopting it. However, Saudi Arabia still maintains that its aim is to establish a universal calendar that can unify Muslims globally. This qualitative research uses a descriptive and analytical approach to answer two questions. First, why do some Muslim communities accept the Umm al-Qura calendar while others reject it? Second, can the Umm al-Qura calendar unite Muslims on a universal calendar? This research draws data from secondary sources of books and articles related to the Umm al-Qura calendar. It will also rely on public sources such as media reports and articles published on the websites of crescent-sighting institutions.
The UAE's religious soft power : the Muslim council of elders' dual role in Indonesia's religious landscape and global religious discourse
Mukhammad Hubbab Nauval; Syamsul Rijal (Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia, 2025-08-05)
This thesis examines how the Muslim Elders Indonesia (MEI) operates as a sophisticated instrument of UAE religious soft power, designed to advance Abu Dhabi's post-Arab Spring strategy of containing democratic Islamist movements while presenting itself as a locally rooted Islamic organization. Situated in Indonesia, a strategic battleground for competing visions of Islamic governance, the research investigates how MEI navigates its role as both a vehicle for UAE geopolitical interests and a locally legitimate religious actor. By conducting a qualitative examination using digital ethnographic methods and critical discourse analysis of MEI's initiatives, partnerships, and public communications, the study reveals how the organization strategically deploys "glocalization" to mask its foreign policy objectives. The research objectives are to (1) examine how MEI leverages transnational resources (Al-Azhar's theological authority, UAE financial support) alongside local partnerships to build legitimacy, and (2) identify the tensions between its geopolitical mandate to promote state-controlled religious authority and Indonesia's democratic Islamic traditions. Following these objectives, it argues that MEI functions as a hybrid entity that operates strategic glocalization, merging transnational religious diplomacy with local legitimacy. However, this hybridity fundamentally serves the UAE's broader project of delegitimizing political Islam and promoting authoritarian models of religious governance. Through initiatives framed as interfaith dialogue and counter-extremism, MEI advances a depoliticized vision of Islam that aligns with UAE state interests, while carefully minimizing its Gulf connections and maximizing its Al-Azhar credentials. However, this model faces inherent limitations: MEI's inability to engage meaningfully with marginalized Muslim communities, its avoidance of democratic Islamic discourse, and its need to maintain strategic ambiguity about its geopolitical agenda reveal the fundamental tensions between authoritarian religious management and Indonesia's pluralistic Islamic landscape. Ultimately, while MEI achieves tactical successes through elite co-option and resource provision, its effectiveness as a geopolitical instrument remains constrained by the democratic vitality of Indonesian civil society and the sophisticated ability of Indonesian Muslims to distinguish authentic religious authority from foreign influence operations.
Transgressing the sacred : gender norms, ritual propriety, and the limits of religious freedom in Islamic discourses
Muhammad Fahmi Reksa Alfarisi; Haula Noor (Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia, 2025-07-21)
The viral case of Isa Zega, a well-known Indonesian transwoman who performed ‘umrah while dressed and act as a woman, and openly documented their journey on social media in late 2024, has ignited fervent debates among Indonesian Muslims. This occurrence highlights the profound tensions inherent in the rigidity of gender norms, the sacredness of Islamic rituals, and the limits of religious freedom within both classical and contemporary Islamic discourses. This thesis focuses on the case study of Isa Zega (Syahrul), exploring how their ‘umrah transgressed the gendered ritual propriety prescribed by Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). And in what ways does the Muslim Indonesian society’s response to Zega’s actions illustrate the delicate equilibrium between hurriyah al i’tiqād (individual belief) and maṣlahah ‘ammah (public interest)? This study employs a qualitative examination rooted in library research and discourse analysis, analyzing both classical and contemporary Islamic legal sources, fatwās, and scholarly commentary concerning the historical context of khunthā (intersex individuals) and mukhannath (effeminate men) within mediaeval Islamic society. The research situates Zega’s actions within a wider tension between personal piety and the enforcement of communal religious norms. This study integrates historical jurisprudence with theories of the body, ritual, pollution anxiety, and religious freedom, depicting how Zega’s ‘umrah challenges established perceptions of gendered devotion within Islam. The analysis posits that although Islamic jurisprudence protects hurriyat al i’tiqād (liberty of belief), public acts that breach ritual norms may warrant legitimate limitations based on the principles of maṣlahah ‘ammah (public welfare). Zega’s meticulously curated performance of ‘umrah, characterized by the donning of hijāb and the widespread public documentation of their journey documentation virtually on social media, confronts not only fiqh rulings on gendered devotion but also the Indonesian state’s pluralistic yet moralistic governance of religion. The results indicate that the sacred is not a static realm, but rather a contested space where bodies, attire, gestures, and visibility technologies intersect and contend with one another. This thesis elucidates the theological and legal ambiguities revealed by Zega’s ‘umrah, thereby contributing to current debates on how Muslim societies navigate gender non-conformity within spaces deemed inviolable. Ultimately, it necessitates profound reflection on the possibilities and constraints of freedom within the sacred, prompting scholars and policymakers to reassess the regulation of the ritual body in an era characterized by digital representation and gender diversity.
Reassessing spiritual hermeneutic : a post-colonial reading of Ibn Arabi’s tafsir
Muchamad Faiz Ubaidillah; Farid Fachruddin (Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia, 2025-08-07)
This paper considers epistemological precedents of Quranic hermeneutics through a reclassification of Ibn Arabi, not simply as a mystic, or a metaphysician, but as a mufassir in whose esoteric exegesis radical intervention in Islamic intellectual history. In contrast to the mainly monolithic background of colonial modernity and institutional postenlightenment rationalism whose systematic disenfranchisement of mystical knowledge has generally excluded such methodology of hermeneutical expression as that of Ibn Arabi, grounded in tajallî (divine disclosure), kashf (unveiling), and hayrah (bewilderment)—as a paradigm of spiritual epistemology. Upon developing a critical engagement with postcolonial and post-secular thinkers like Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood and Charles Taylor, the research uncovers the ways in which the subjugation of tafsîr indicates the prevalence of structure of epistemic violence. Hermeneutics in the works of Ibn Arabi is non-closural, rejecting encoding of divine meaning in either linguistic or historical determinism. Rather, meaning is enabled by ontological-experience, and inner witnessing. Therefore, this paper becomes the postcolonial interpretation of tafsir by breaking and resituating the hegemony of modernist and reformist frameworks through the lens of Ibn Arabis’s tafsîr, reinstating the validity of spiritual knowledge in Islamic and scholarly discourse.