Indonesia Update Conference 2007
Islamic Life and Politics
7–8 September 2007
VENUE:
Coombs Lecture Theatre, H C Coombs Building, No. 9
Cnr Fellows Road and Garran Road, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200
OUTLINE: Some 190 million Indonesians profess Islam as their faith. But what precisely is the role of Islam in their private and public lives? How is this changing in contemporary Indonesia?
Considerable research has been done on specific aspects of Indonesian Islam, such as politics, liberal thought and violent radicalism, but a great many other aspects are little studied and poorly understood outside Indonesia's Islamic community. For example, growing numbers of Muslims, particularly in urban areas, are seeking more overtly Islamic expressions of their identity. This is evident in the rising popularity of shari'a banking and insurance, Islamic spiritual healing and traditional treatments such as cupping and herbal remedies, Muslim fashions, Islamic multi-level marketing, corporate mystical brotherhoods and new electronic preaching media such as video-stream sermons to mobile phones, cyber chat rooms and satellite television programs.
This conference will examine the multi-dimensional nature of contemporary Indonesian Islam. It will take a critical look at developments in politics and radicalism, as well as the increasing Islamisation of the economy, marketing and health and education services. The aim is to capture the complexity and rapidly changing nature of Islamic religiosity.
The conference is free of charge.
Conference Convenors
Greg Fealy
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Faculty of Asian Studies
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
AUSTRALIA
Email: greg.fealy@anu.edu.au
Sally White
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
AUSTRALIA
Email: sally.white@anu.edu.au
Conference Administrator
Indonesia Project
Arndt-Corden Division of Economics
Crawford School of Economics and Government
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
AUSTRALIA
Phone: 61 2 6125 3794
Fax: 61 2 6125 3700
Email: indonesia.project@anu.edu.au