Dissertation Research: Indonesia, Democracy and the Practical Politics is Islam

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This project involves the dissertation research of a cultural anthropology student from American University. The project is to investigate the relationship between Islamization and democratization in Indonesia, the largest Islamic nation in the world (with a population as large as that of Egypt and Iran combined). Based in a university town in central Java, the student will interview Muslim university students in groups whose religious orientation ranges from very fundamentalist to less rigidly doctrinaire. The students will be asked about their relation to fundamental elements of liberal democracy such as freedom of speech, minority and women's' rights and the role of an independent judiciary, and will be asked how they deal with personal issues such as individual versus group rights, rights versus duties, and the principles of social equality and hierarchy. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews the student will learn how local people think about these issues. At the end of the project a survey questionnaire will be administered to samples of 150 students living in each of two student boarding houses to get information on a representative range of persons and experiences. This research is important because militant Muslim fundamentalists are active in an enormous area of the world, in tense relation to local often fledgling democracies. Advances in our understanding of the nature of Islamic discourse about democratic issues and principles is vital to developing realistic policies leading to successful relations. In addition this project will add to the nation's expertise about this important area of the world.