When things have to fall apart

Calling for Muslim Communities Empowerment

Abstract

It is fair to say that the global society of the 21st century has been in deep crisis, spiritually, socially -- and latterly, environmentally. Most scientists hold that the catastrophic consequences of climate change are inevitable. This paper provides a conceptual framework for community empowerment in the transition towards a degrowth regime which at once synthesizes social, environmental and spiritual concerns. For that purpose, the paper provides comprehensive literature reviews of grass-root relocalisation movements in the developed world, thus, reveals the yawning gaps between community organizations in this part of the world and those in Muslim- majority societies, to effectively and humanely respond to the challenges. The literature review suggests key aspects of empowerment include communitarian empowerment and engagement, freedom of association, and an education that promotes social responsibility towards the environment through sustainability literacy, all of which are barely present in Muslim majority countries. In contrast, what has been standing in the way to the necessary empowerment in Muslim majority countries are the authoritarian legacies, the rise of nationalism, and the global counterterrorism project. The data of this research was collected through fieldwork on Indonesian Muslim groups - starting from the Nahdlatul Ulama’s and Muhammadiyah’s that are perceived to be the world’s largest organizations. Data sources include interviews with leaders, observations, participatory observations, documents, and texts. Inarguably, the moral forces of Islam must be rediscovered, and major reforms in the relationship between state and religion are required given how widely accepted the secularization doctrine is in Indonesia. It is reasonable to assume that other nations with sizable Muslim populations like India and others in Asia and Africa, whose political and economic environments are somewhat comparable to Indonesia's, could face the same predicament.