When the Middle Class Coincides With Islamism: A Preliminary Study of Islamic Populism in Recent Developments of Indonesia

Akh. Muzakki

Abstract


The growing number of Muslim middle class has turned public attention not only to their economic capacity but also to their religious orientation. The recent developments in Indonesia have witnessed that the Muslim middle class not only come up with the change in public life due to their increasing socio-political and economic influence but also brought about the shifting set of religious and ideological inclinations in their political orientation. This preliminary study contends that the Muslim middle class in Indonesia has increasingly engaged with Islamic populism in recent developments, while simultaneously, their evolving activism has contributed to the emergence of Islamic populism as a novel manifestation of Islamism. It, hence, places the theory of Islamism and the Muslim middle class in a complementary position to sufficiently comprehend the rising Islamism in new faces and expressions among the Indonesian Muslim middle class. In the first part, this article examines the concept of the middle class, including its relation to Muslims in Indonesia. The focus of this debate is the diversity of Muslim middle-class formation in Indonesia and the emergence of Islamism within various segments of this social class. The subsequent analysis focuses on Islamism and the shift of the Muslim middle class towards Islamic populism.

Keywords


Muslim Middle Class, Islamism, Islamic Populism.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21043/qijis.v12i1.19956

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