Selective moderation: Indonesia–UAE spiritual diplomacy

A lot has been written of late on the rising relationship between Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), significantly its financial elements. Over the previous 5 years, the UAE has emerged as the most important Gulf-state investor in Indonesia, with bilateral commerce projected to develop from the US$4 billion in 2021 to US$10 billion by 2030. Some US$44.6 billion in future Emirati funding has been promised, together with joint growth of main infrastructure, vitality and IT tasks.

Much less consideration has been paid to the burgeoning spiritual relations between the 2 nations, particularly a professed shared dedication to combatting radicalisation, selling Islamic moderation and deepening inter-faith understanding. Such commentary as has appeared in media and scholarly shops has usually been beneficial, incessantly citing the complementarity of Indonesia’s wealthy custom of spiritual tolerance with the Emirates’ well-funded worldwide packages on peace and cross-faith dialogue.

Little essential scrutiny has been given to the main points of spiritual relations between Indonesia and the UAE. Behind the rigorously crafted statements and stage-managed occasions lie a tangle of home political and strategic pursuits, not all of that are shared, and nor are they essentially prone to lead to larger spiritual moderation in both nation, not to mention globally.

Right here I argue that Indonesia–Emirates spiritual diplomacy has a number of drivers, not all of which accord with liberal notions of moderation. Moderation is often outlined because the avoidance of extremes and show of self-restraint and reasonableness. A key problem right here is that it is a relational definition, in that moderation is outlined vis-à-vis behaviour or views which are deemed extreme. Deciding what’s extreme or unreasonable is usually extremely subjective. Is the propagation of puritanical spiritual views excessive or pious, for instance? Are requires main adjustments to a political system dangerously extreme or official remark?

Sure elements of the moderation agenda put ahead by Indonesia and the UAE do enjoin spiritual openness and trade, whereas contesting faith-based militancy. However different elements level to essentially excessive intentions, significantly associated to the suppression of home political dissent. Certainly, one purpose of the diplomacy of moderation is to legitimise autocratic state actions that curtail the rights of civil society teams in each international locations.

A ceremony marking the naming of the Jakarta–Cikampek tollway after UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, April 2021 (Photograph: Setkab RI on Fb)

The expansion in bilateral spiritual diplomacy

Within the more and more heat private relationship that has grown between Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and UAE President Muhammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan (generally shortened to MBZ), faith comes second solely to financial issues as a characteristic of their public utterances and coverage initiatives.

When the 2 leaders meet, they commonly reward their respective nations’ efforts to fight radicalism and to strengthen spiritual moderation. Throughout his 2021 go to to Abu Dhabi, Jokowi stated: “I see that spiritual moderation and variety within the UAE are extensively revered. And that’s the space of cooperation we wish to discover extra as a result of we each share the closeness within the imaginative and prescient and character of reasonable Islam that propagates tolerance.”

This has been accompanied with bilateral agreements and cooperation to advertise counter-radicalisation efforts and advocacy of spiritual tolerance. In 2020, the 2 governments signed a memorandum of understanding, the paramount level of which was to “promote ideas of spiritual moderation, values of tolerance and elevating public consciousness of the dangers of extremism.” Explicit reference was made by Indonesian officers to wasatiyyah, an Arabic time period which means “centre” or “center”, however which can be typically used to indicate moderation.

Over the previous three years, greater than 200 Indonesian imams have been despatched to UAE to take up interim roles in main mosques and to “research how Islam in UAE is totally tolerant and contributes to creating peace in society”. Indonesian politicians and Islamic students have additionally participated commonly in worldwide spiritual conferences run by the Emiratis and numerous eminent Indonesian lecturers have been appointed to the advisory boards of UAE Islamic establishments.

Commanding essentially the most headlines has been UAE’s “mosque diplomacy”. Just lately, development was accomplished on a lavish US$20 million reproduction of Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Surakarta, Jokowi’s dwelling metropolis. MBZ and Jokowi formally opened the mosque in November 2022, previous to the G20 summit in Bali, to which Jokowi had invited MBZ to be a visitor of honour. The mosque has been described by native officers as a “pioneer of spiritual moderation” which helps “tackle the modern society’s vulnerability to fragmentation”. The UAE can be at the moment erecting a big mosque in Jokowi’s honour in Abu Dhabi.

At first sight, there seems to be a lot to applaud in these nearer spiritual ties between Indonesia and UAE. Indonesia has not beforehand had robust relations with any of the Gulf states, except Saudi Arabia, and even these have typically been strained as a consequence of maltreatment of Indonesian home employees and accusations that Saudi spiritual affect fuels intolerance and jihadist violence in Indonesia. The UAE’s bold worldwide spiritual moderation program brings the prospect of elevating Indonesia’s profile and clout as a supply of progressive pondering on spiritual reform.

Jokowi meets Dubai’s ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on the Dubai Exhibition Heart, November 2021 (Photograph: Setkab RI on Fb)

Indonesia’s Islamic tender energy

Jokowi has at all times had a supremely pragmatic method to overseas affairs, viewing diplomacy as being primarily about producing financial alternatives for Indonesia, whether or not it’s attracting overseas capital and know-how or promoting Indonesian items and providers overseas.. However faith—and particularly spiritual moderation—has been a significant secondary think about his worldwide interactions. Actually, it has change into a key type of Indonesian “tender energy” that he has constantly championed throughout his presidency.

Over the previous half century, Indonesia has loved a popularity overseas as a tolerant and harmonious Muslim-majority nation. Following the 11 September 2001 assaults on New York and Washington DC, and the following “International Conflict on Terror”, Indonesia attracted Western consideration as one of many few Muslim-majority democratic nations on the earth that proudly proclaimed its moderation, and was thus feted for instance from which different Muslim international locations ought to study.

Jokowi’s predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s most diplomatically adept president, traded closely on this reasonable picture and strode the world extolling his nation’s spiritual virtues. Main Indonesian Islamic organisations additionally sought to profit by searching for funding from overseas donors for his or her “reasonable” instructional and outreach packages, together with scholarships, cash for faculties and growth of anti-radicalisation tasks.

Quickly after turning into president in 2014, Jokowi took up the Islamic moderation theme in a extra particular approach than Yudhoyono. He adopted the Islam Nusantara (Archipelagic Islam) idea formulated by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation. The idea’s essence was that Indonesian Islam had distinctive and commendable traits as a result of it married native tradition with Islamic authorized and theological traditions. NU meant the idea to problem what it noticed as a rising “Arabisation” of Indonesian Islam pushed by the assumption that Center Japanese Islam was superior to, or extra pure than, indigenous variants. Jokowi gave prominence to Islam Nusantara in quite a few speeches overseas for a number of years (albeit with out mentioning Arabisation) and he additionally instructed his overseas ministry to include Islam Nusantara into its official messaging.

This had each political and diplomatic motivations. NU is Jokowi’s chief base of assist amongst Muslim voters, a majority of whom voted for his opponent, Prabowo Subianto within the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections. With out NU’s backing, Jokowi would seemingly have misplaced each races.

A grateful Jokowi was glad to expound NU’s Islam Nusantara and lift the organisation’s profile globally. NU had lengthy felt that it had far much less worldwide consideration than it deserved, given its dimension and the standard of its Islamic scholarship, and due to this fact welcomed having its concepts offered overseas. Jokowi most likely additionally felt that Indonesia’s spiritual moderation was a pure diplomatic promoting level amongst Western leaders preoccupied with the specter of Islamic militancy.

Jokowi with former NU chair Stated Agil Siradj (left) at an NU convention, West Java, February 2019 (Photograph: Setkab RI on Fb)

After a number of years, Jokowi shifted the main focus of his moderation messaging as the restrictions of Islam Nusantara grew to become obvious. Most Indonesian Islamic organisations had been cool on the idea, seeing it as too NU-centric and never consultant of their very own spiritual views and practices. Furthermore, doubts arose concerning the applicability of Islam Nusantara to different Muslim societies.

In 2018 Jokowi signalled a change of tack by appointing Din Syamsuddin, the previous chairman of Muhammadiyah, NU’s nice rival, to a brand new place of Particular Presidential Envoy for Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation. A convention of worldwide students was organised in Indonesia in the midst of that 12 months, which endorsed “Islam Wasatiyyah” as a pivotal idea for selling peace and tolerance. The time period wasatiyyah had the benefit of already being in frequent worldwide utilization and acceptable to a variety of Muslim states and actions. Thereafter, Jokowi and his officers made frequent reference to Islam Wasatiyyah, thereby permitting Indonesia to extra simply align with worldwide Islamic discourses.

The election of Yahya Cholil Staquf as NU chairman in late 2021 has seen Jokowi once more present robust favour to NU as a supply of spiritual diplomacy. Yahya, who has lengthy been near Jokowi and is a member of the president’s advisory council, had been diligently pursuing constructing worldwide networks over a number of years, utilizing numerous ideas, the latest of which is known as Humanitarian Islam.

NU chair Yahya Cholil Staquf (centre) receives an award from a delegation of monks from Cambodia on the R20, Bali, November 2022 (Photograph: R20 Indonesia 2022 on Fb)

Probably the most controversial a part of the Humanitarian Islam idea is its name for thorough-going reform of Islamic jurisprudence as a method of delegitimatising radical interpretations and creating extra tolerant and irenic understandings. Yahya persuaded Jokowi to assist a brand new spiritual dialogue initiative generally known as the Non secular Discussion board 20 (R20) within the run as much as the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022, of which Indonesia was the chair. Beneficiant funding for the occasion was secured from Saudi Arabia’s Muslim World League.

This determination was controversial because the R20 displaced the long-established US-based Interfaith Discussion board 20 (IF20) which had preceded annual G20 conferences since 2014. Opinion is split inside officialdom and civil society concerning the end result of the R20, and there may be now intense competitors between R20 and IF20 to organise the 2023 pre-G20 spiritual discussion board in New Delhi. Jokowi has sought to strengthen the R20’s bid by making NU the everlasting organiser. If the R20 is unsuccessful, it might be a blow to Indonesia’s efforts to position itself on the centre of world spiritual diplomacy.

The UAE’s reasonable makeover

The Emirates, like Indonesia, regards the financial facet of the bilateral relationship as a very powerful, however in its case, the nexus between spiritual and financial points is way extra tightly interwoven than is the case for Indonesia. The UAE is pursuing a coverage of financial transformation with a purpose to create a thriving, sustainable post-fossil fuel-based financial system. This not solely includes diversifying UAE’s predominantly oil-based financial system by attracting and creating a variety of recent industries—reminiscent of IT, clear vitality know-how, monetary providers and defence manufacturing—but additionally making a cosmopolitan and multi-cultural society which is attractive for expatriates who will convey the required experience to allow sweeping financial restructuring.

A ceremony inaugurating the naming of a boulevard in Abu Dhabi as President Joko Widodo Avenue, October 2020 (Photograph: Abu Dhabi Media Workplace)

The UAE has pursued a “Look East” coverage for the previous decade, inserting larger deal with Asia. Indonesia, the most important financial system in Southeast Asia and with prospects of turning into one of many world’s prime 5 economies within the subsequent decade or two, presents a gorgeous choice to the Emirates.

Faith is a key a part of the Emirates’ makeover. MBZ, the principle architect of this this course of, is set to switch the his nation’s picture as a conventional, relatively puritanical Islamic society with one that’s open, pluralistic and welcoming of various faiths and cultures. An bold program has been carried out over the previous 15 years to attain this, inserting specific emphasis on interfaith outreach and Islamic moderation. The UAE has opened diplomatic relations with Israel as a part of the 2020 Abraham Accords and is now establishing a large multi-billion-dollar Abrahamic Household Home in Abu Dhabi which can characteristic a Catholic church, a synagogue and a mosque—all on an opulent scale. It describes the venture as a manifestation of “Widespread Humanity”. The Emirates can be constructing massive Hindu and Sikh temples and has funded a succession of worldwide interfaith conferences and initiatives.

Establishing itself as a reputable voice for moderation has been more difficult for the Emirates because it lacks home-grown ulema (Islamic students) and establishments of excessive standing within the Muslim world. Because of this, it has needed to recruit respected ulema from overseas and kind new organisations able to elevating UAE’s spiritual profile. Its chief recruits have been Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah, a Mauritanian scholar; his pupil Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, a distinguished US-based scholar; and Sheikh al-Habib Ali al-Jifri, a Yemeni Sufi (mystical) scholar.

New establishments adopted quickly after. In 2013 the Discussion board for Selling Peace in Muslim Societies (FPPMS) was based, headed by bin Bayyah, with the purpose of constructing worldwide networks and producing Islamic scholarship supportive of moderation. Bin Bayyah has printed extensively and travelled the world propounding his views on faith and peace in addition to right political behaviour for Muslims. The next 12 months, the Muslim Council of Elders was arrange, with the said goal of “extinguishing” sectarian and jihadist “fires” within the area and selling humanitarian values. Ali al-Jifri’s predominant automobile was the Tabah Basis, which challenges what it sees as “fundamentalist” thought utilizing Sufi beliefs. The UAE additionally based Hedayah, a global physique to counter violent extremism, and created a Ministry of Tolerance in 2016.

L–R: Hamza Yusuf, Abdallah Bin Bayyah, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong after which Grand Mufti of Singapore Mohamed Fatris Bakaram, on the prime minister’s residence, Singapore, March 2017 (Photograph: Muslim Peace Discussion board on Fb)

UAE spiritual engagement with Indonesia is a part of this effort to rebrand the Emirates; Indonesia’s popularity as a stronghold of spiritual tolerance makes it a helpful companion. In impact, the Emirates is hoping that nearer and extra high-profile relations with Indonesia and different religiously numerous and tolerant nations will replicate positively upon it, serving to it to seem extra like its worldwide companions.

Indonesia and the UAE even have similarities of their authorized and devotional practices that make worldwide partnerships simpler. The Emirates is usually incorrectly seen as sharing the strict Wahhabist doctrine of its neighbour, Saudi Arabia—however it in truth adheres to the mainstream Sunni legislation faculties and has robust Sufi traditions, as does Indonesia. UAE spiritual establishments such because the Muslim Council of Elders and the Tabah Basis immediately contest Wahhabist doctrine, as additionally does NU in Indonesia, they usually deploy the time period Ahlul Sunnah wal Jamaah (“followers of the custom of Prophet Muhammad and the neighborhood”—in impact, mainstream Sunni Islam) in searching for to exclude Wahhabists and different perceived fundamentalist teams.

Indonesian Islamic students with experience in conventional jurisprudence thus have a lot in frequent with their Emirati counterparts. A number of senior Indonesian Islamic students, reminiscent of Professor Quraish Shihab, maintain advisory board positions in Emirati Islamic organisations. In 2022, FPPMS bestowed on Jokowi the Hassan bin Ali Worldwide Peace Prize for his G20 management and likewise invited Indonesia’s vp to be a keynote speaker at their annual Peace Discussion board. For its half, Indonesia ensured that Abdallah bin Bayyah spoke on the R20 convention in Bali and at different interfaith occasions.

Much less reasonable than it appears?

To what diploma is the Indonesian and Emirati rhetoric of tolerance and moderation real?  At one stage, each nations have a robust curiosity in enjoining moderation.  Indonesia has grappled with a severe terrorism drawback because the early 2000s, and, though assaults have been uncommon lately, a lot is because of profitable police counter-terrorism operations relatively than ebbing terrorist recruitment. The UAE’s terrorism risk is much less extreme however nonetheless current.

Whether or not the sorts of “civilisational” discourses favoured by the 2 governments may have any impact on excessive radicalisation is questionable, provided that militant Muslims normally reject the authority of mainstream or official ulema. Undoubtedly, additionally, each Indonesia and the Emirates aspire in a broad sense to have harmonious, plural and tolerant societies, and are bent on inculcating these values of their communities. Their espousal of spiritual moderation thus has some substance.

However at one other stage, Indonesia and UAE are utilizing “moderation” in an instrumental and selective approach for home political functions. Each the MBZ and Jokowi governments have repressed native Islamist actions, typically utilizing strategies that breach civil liberties.  The UAE aggressively targets Islamists, significantly the Muslim Brotherhood and its sympathisers, which it sees as one of many main sources of opposition to the monarchy. Amnesty Worldwide says there are at the moment at the very least 32 political prisoners in jail and lately nearly 100 Muslim intellectuals and activists from the Brotherhood-linked al-Islah Islamist group have been tried and jailed below a vaguely worded however draconian counter-terrorism legislation. Furthermore, the UAE makes use of state-employed ulema, reminiscent of Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf, to argue for political quietism and obedience to the ruler, thus searching for to solid dissent as sinful.

A marketing campaign poster spruiking FPI and different hardline leaders’ assist for Prabowo Subianto’s presidential marketing campaign, 2019 (Photograph: Liam Gammon)

The Jokowi authorities has additionally quashed Islamist activism that it deems a political risk, albeit considerably much less harshly. It banned Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia in 2017 and the Islamic Defenders Entrance in 2020—actions which had tens of 1000’s of members—on grounds together with involvement in terrorism and sedition that many observers imagine to be unsubstantiated. Quite a few Islamist leaders have both been charged and convicted of questionable offences or pressured from public view on risk of investigation into alleged legal behaviour. Each governments behave immoderately with regards to suppressing opposition however use their spiritual diplomacy of moderation to deflect consideration from their autocratic tendencies. Most of their fellow world leaders are glad to disregard or play down such excesses.

It is usually the case that, regardless of their obvious heat relations, the UAE and Indonesia generally pursue opposite agendas. A current case is the R20 convention in Bali, largely funded by the Emirates’ rival, Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah’s Discussion board for Selling Peace in Muslim Societies (FPPMS) pointedly hosted the US-based IF20 as a part of its annual Peace Discussion board in Abu Dhabi final December, enabling the IF20 to display it was nonetheless lively regardless of its exclusion from the broader 2022 G20 program.  FPPMS and IF20 have made clear their want to supplant Indonesia’s NU-organised R20 and restore the IF20 to the following G20. In impact, Indonesia and UAE, by means of their proxies, at the moment are rivals to handle what’s arguably the world’s premier interfaith occasion.

Regardless of the lofty rhetoric of Indonesian and Emirati spiritual diplomacy, hard-headed and politically self-interested issues drive using moderation and tolerance as strategic commodities. If elements of those spiritual packages achieve implanting reasonable and pluralistic values of their respective societies, then there shall be trigger for reward. However additionally it is the case that moderation has additionally change into a device for crimping the flexibility of Indonesians and Emiratis to organise and specific themselves freely. From this attitude, the diplomacy of spiritual moderation has an empty ring to it.