Experts are raising concerns that a growing religious revival in Indonesia could lead to exclusive attitudes among those who have performed hijrah, a journey toward a more devout Islamic way of life, as they tend to see themselves as better than those who have not. 

“The increase of Islamic conservatism has sharpened polarization in society,” said Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. The polarization has consequently fostered intolerance and discrimination against religious minority groups, he said.

While religious revival movements such as Terang Jakarta and Pemuda Hijrah have claimed they never espoused exclusivity among their followers, those who attended an Islamic gathering held by the Rabbaanians, a group promoting the ultra-conservative teachings of Salafism, a reform branch of Sunni Islam that favors a literal interpretation of Islamic texts, learned otherwise.

Thousands attend when the Rabbaanians routinely gather every Wednesday night at Al-Azhar Grand Mosque in South Jakarta.

When The Jakarta Post attended a recent gathering, the sermon that Wednesday night was given by a Salaf preacher named Subhan Bawazier who introduced the doctrine that the kafir — so-called infidels who are considered to not believe in Allah and Muhammad — were trying to destroy Islam in any way they could.

He said Muslims should avoid infidels during their social interactions.

“Let them [kafir] gather with their own kind, controlling the world, money and all, but we must not quiver,” Subhan told his congregation. “Do not separate yourself [from your Muslim brothers and sisters], or even depend on kafir.” 

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, recently urged Muslims to refrain from using the word kafir to describe non-Muslims as the word is said to “hurt” them and is perceived to be theologically violent.

The Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute research fellow Quinton Temby specifically said that “Salafis sometimes distance themselves from others” — including from Muslims who have not experienced hijrah.

However, members of other hijrah groups have offered different interpretations. Both Terang Jakarta founder Dimas Wibisono and Pemuda Hijrah spokesperson Wildan Walhidayah said that even the Prophet Muhammad himself maintained good relations with adherents of other beliefs. 

“We focus on making Muslims better at worshiping Allah and kinder to other human beings,” Dimas said, while Wildan argued that those who had performed hijrah were “supposed to respect diversity”.

Both movements were aimed at Muslims who had limited knowledge of Islam, but were interested to know more about the religion. 

Wibisono, who used to work in the country’s entertainment industry, said that he founded Terang Jakarta in 2016 to provide Islamic teachings to his colleagues who felt uncomfortable to learn Islam in mosques because of their not-so-pious appearances or their past sins involving drugs, alcohol and other things.

The community’s first activities, therefore, were held at a restaurant in the Pondok Indah shopping center in South Jakarta to create a relaxed ambience for those attending. As Terang Jakarta attracted a great number of followers, its activities were transferred to more spacious facilities like the Pondok Indah Grand Mosque and the As-Syifa Mosque in Central Jakarta.

“We aim to invite more Indonesians to hijrah berjamaah [collectively shift toward a religious way of life],” Dimas said, adding that the community had gained more than 50,000 followers on Instagram and thousands of others in WhatsApp. He had set up at least 20 WhatsApp groups, consisting of at least 250 people each, to discuss Islam and its teachings.

Meanwhile, Pemuda Hijrah, founded in 2015 in Bandung, targeted the urban communities of bikers, street musicians and skaters, among others, as their first members “to make a massive change” in society.

Community founder Hanan Attaki explained, in one of his sermons uploaded to YouTube, that the majority of the Prophet Muhammad’s first followers consisted of people less than 30 years old. 

“So, if we are talking about dakwah [preaching], we are actually talking about youths. If we are talking about revolution, we are also talking about youths,” said the graduate from Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

To ingratiate himself with his followers, the 37-year-old preacher attempted to adjust his appearance to look younger and trendier by wearing casual T-shirts or sweaters and beanies.

Despite trying to inculcate in others the spirit of shifting to more pious lives, Hanan did not ask the youths to discard their hobbies as long as they did not lose themselves while committing sins like doing drugs, drinking alcohol and such like things.

Pemuda Hijrah’s slogan is: “Lots of play, lots of benefits, lots of merit, a little bit of sin.”

It quickly attracted large congregations to its learning forums, which were usually conducted at the Trans Studio and Al-Lathiif mosques in Bandung. 

Another key to Pemuda Hijrah’s success was a catchy social media marketing campaign on both YouTube and Instagram.

Hanan’s sermons were uploaded online using catchy thumbnails and titles like “Woles” (Indonesian slang for “taking it slow”), “Don’t panic, just enjoy the show”, “Booster” and “Go-Shift” (to play off the name of one of the country’s technology startups, Go-Jek).

Hanan has 6.3 million people following him on Instagram and 280,000 on YouTube. Meanwhile, Pemuda Hijrah’s Instagram account has about 1.9 million followers.

“We want to make more Indonesian’s youths shifting to a more pious life [hijrah]. We have a vision to spread the hijrah trend to every corner of the country,” Wildan said.

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