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

研究生努尔·阿马利·易卜拉欣将在迈克尔·吉尔塞南博士的指导下，对印度尼西亚保守和自由的伊斯兰组织的青年社会化过程进行比较研究。在世界许多地方，穆斯林对伊斯兰教不应该仅仅作为一种宗教发挥作用，还应该为社会提供法律和政治框架的观点提出了异议。这些斗争在印尼可以清楚地看到，印尼是世界上最大的穆斯林占多数的国家，那里的保守派青年呼吁建立一个伊斯兰国家，而自由派青年反对这一愿景。这项研究问：青年信徒是如何对不同的宗教取向产生依恋的？这项研究没有将每个群体的社会化过程概念化，而是分析了年轻的保守派和自由派穆斯林如何在具体的日常环境中影响彼此的信仰和行为。这项研究将在印度尼西亚首都雅加达进行为期18个月的研究，雅加达是保守派和自由派激烈辩论的地点。这项研究将主要在一座清真寺和一所大学进行，这两所大学都以积极参与宗教团体而闻名。研究人员将采用一系列的人种学研究方法，包括参与者观察、开放式访谈和结构化调查。这项研究很重要，因为通过研究伊斯兰教是如何被特定历史背景下发生的辩论和社会化过程塑造的，它将有助于建立一种关于塑造当今宗教的过程的微妙和动态的社会科学理论。鉴于年轻人在全球社会运动中发挥了重要作用，对他们如何支持一场以宗教为基础的运动的分析，可以更好地了解社会政治斗争是如何发生的。资助这项研究还支持社会科学家的教育。

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.