Islamic Groups and their World-views and Identities: Neo-Traditional Salafis and Progressive Muslims

Abstract

This paper presents a snap-shot discussion on the origins and the world-views behind two global contemporary movements among Muslims, namely Neo-Traditional Salafis and Progressive Muslims. It endeavours to historically situate and position them in relation to the cumulative Islamic historical harvest and delineate their approach to modernity. Additionally the paper briefly examines the concept of the role and the function of women within these respective world-views. Finally, it analyses the implications of the underlying ideology of these movements on the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims in both Islamicate and non-Islamicate societies.

The Socio-religious Construction: The Religious Tolerance among Salafi Muslim and Christian in Metro

“…Salafi pada dasarnya bukanlah sebuah gerakan yang menolak modernitas melainkan mencoba untuk mengkombinasikan antara modernitas dengan konteks Islam yang otentik (Duderija, 2007). Berkembangnya fasilitas teknologi membuat dakwah Salafi dapat bekerja lebih optimal dalam menyebarkan informasi-informasi tentang Islam.…”

“…Temuan penelitian ini (berbeda dengan temuan penelitian sebelumnya) mengungkap bahwa asumsi publik tentang Salafi tidak dapat digeneralisir ke dalam semua kelompok Salafi (terkait konservatisme, radikal, pengasingan diri dan ekslusif) karena Salafi menyebar dan berkembang dalam banyak varian. Di masa modern saat ini mereka memiliki misi untuk mengembalikan ajaranajaran Islam yang otentik seperti yang telah dipraktikkan oleh Nabi dan tiga generasi awal Islam (Duderija, 2007). Bahkan ditemukan sebuah realitas baru bahwa kelompok Salafi di Kota Metro juga membangun ruang intensif dengan kelompok Islam lainnya dan umat Kristiani dalam sebuah Paguyuban untuk melakukan penjagaan dari aktivitas kriminalisme.…”

Worldviews: overarching concept, discrete body of knowledge or paradigmatic tool?

“…Therefore, ascribing ‘institutional’ worldview status to religion(s), or using the terms interchangeably, is problematic: the Christian worldview or the Islamic worldview. Indeed, Duderija ( 2007 ), challenges the idea of a single Islamic worldview and in attempting to delineate between differing Islamic worldviews, notes the key role that the interpretation of scripture plays in this process of differentiation. Similarly, Wolters ( 1985 ) attempted to differentiate between proposed ‘Christian’ worldviews by defining a Biblical worldview yet, rather than prove which one is the biblical worldview, his work actually demonstrates the existence of authentically held different interpretations of scripture.…”

“…The term ‘Weltanshcauung’ or worldview has evolved from its philosophical roots in Kant’s ( 1790 ) initial use to infiltrate a range of disciplines including philosophy (Hegel 1807 ; Dilthey 1907 ), sociology (Walsh and Middleton 1984 ), anthropology, history, theology (Naugle 2002 ; Duderija 2007 ), and psychology (Freud 1933 , 1938 ; Jung 1942 ). Within each discipline, differing definitions and employment of the term have evolved which, even within the same discipline, can be contradictory: within Psychology, for example, Freud ( 1938 ) deems worldviews as static, yet Jung ( 1942 ) saw his comparable ‘philosophy of life’ as elastic and flexible.…”

The Anomaly of Good-Looking : The Relationship between Spirituality and Extremism on Hadith and Social Religious Perspective

“…Moderate understanding is formed by or the result of a broader understanding of religious texts. Inversely, the radicalist's view was generated by their limited textual understanding of Islamic literature, specifically text of Qur'an and Hadith (Duderija, 2007;Wiktorowicz, 2005). By limiting their study on the textual meaning of these Islamic literature, they failed to understand the broader context between extremism and violent behavior.…”