Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Producing Believers, Contesting Islam: Conservative and Liberal Youths in Indonesia

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Graduate student Nur Amali Ibrahim, under the supervision of Dr. Michael Gilsenan, will carry out comparative research on youth socialization processes in conservative and liberal Islamic organizations in Indonesia. In many parts of the world, Muslims contest the idea that Islam should not function merely as a religion but should also provide the legal and political framework in society. These struggles can be observed clearly in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, where conservative youths call for the establishment of an Islamic state, while liberal youths reject this vision. This research asks: How do youth believers become attached to different religious orientations? Instead of conceptualizing socialization processes in each groups as separate, this study analyzes how young conservative and liberal Muslims influence one another's beliefs and actions in concrete, everyday contexts. The research will be conducted over 18 months in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital city and the site of intense conservative-liberal debates. The research will be conducted primarily at one mosque and one university, both of which are known for active youth participation in religious groups. The researcer will employ a range of ethnographic research methods, including participant observation, open-ended interviews, and structured surveys. This rsearch is important because by examining how Islam gets shaped by debates and socialization processes occurring in specific historical contexts, it will contribute to building a nuanced and dynamic social science theory of the processes that shape religion today. Given that youths are instrumental in social movements globally, the analysis of how they come to support a religiously-based movement provides greater insight on how sociopolitical struggles transpire. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.