By Karel A. Steenbrink, August 30, 2012
Today, 29 August 2012, we celebrated the doctoral examination of Hilman
Latief in Utrecht. The cover of his dissertation shows PKO Muhammadiyah (
Penolong Kesengsaraan Oemoem) or charity organization of Muhammadiyah at a rice distribution, probably in the 1920s or 1930s.
This is a very rich dissertation: many facts, especially from the last
15 years, suggestions for various interpretations, personal
observations. The book has a large number of organizations:
Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama, Persis, DDII as the older ones, but many
recent developments. After the introductory and more general chapters,
chapter 4 concentrates on health centres for poor people, many
institutions while Muhammadiyah Hospitals and clinics still are the
leading ones. Chapter 5 is on activists defending women's rights.
Chapter 6 is the result of fieldwork in Nias, where some
muballigh or
da'i
from outside the island have settled and concentrate on activities in
mosques and small prayer houses, instructing children how to pray.
Chapter 7 is on the attention given by Indonesian Muslims to
international affairs, like war in Afghanistan, occupation of Palestine.
Chapter 8 has some general conclusions.
One conclusion was challenged by Birgitte Meyer at the oral examination. On p. 312-3 it is stated that traditionally
zakat
is given from person to person. Nowadays even rich people donate some
5-10.000 Rupiah to poor people who line up by hundreds. When charity is
given through organizations and not through individual benefactors
directly it is neutral: not an imbalance between giver and receiver. 'It
is within this context that charitable associations, in the form of
collective action, can diminish this psychological dimension.' This
sentence is not absolutely clear, but it wants to explain that people
will feel easier and free to apply here. This is what happened in the
Dutch system when in the 1960s poor people received the right for
government allowances. The same is, however, not the case with Muslim
organizations. Latief even gave a nice example of Muslim charities that
distributed rice to people, but women had to use the veil at the process
of application. Some of these women immediately after receiving their
share, took of the veil! Also here there is not true reciprocity between
giver and receiver!
I concentrated on chapter 6 in my questions. The majority of people in
Nias are Protestant, some 25% are Catholic and few are Muslim. This was
the reason for sending Muslim missionaries to the island. It was not a
competition between various organizations, but I had the idea that here
the 'giver' took the decisions, not the Muslims of Nias themselves. A
first preacher was some Qaimuddin , probably born about 1970 in Flores.
In the 1980s he was in Bangil for the
pesantren or Muslim school
of PERSIS. He had a career as preacher in many places: 1. in Ampah
(Central Kalimantan); 2. Raha (Sulawesi Tenggara), with a local
foundation for one year; 3. with asistance of PERSIS he helped
muallaf
in Flores for 2 years and 3 years financed by a Quwaiti foundation. 4.
Then he was in Buleleng, North Bali with a Muhammadiyah organization; 5.
Again in Flores he was involved in politics and even received a seat in
the local parliament for PBB, a Muslim party during the 1999 elections,
but he did not take his seat, rather moved to 6. a freelance position
in Jakarta and finally 7. to Nias for a proghramme of AAP, Al Azhar
Peduli. (Latief 235-7)
These preachers only receive a low salary, stay often in a room attached
to a local masjid. Their education is not fit for development work,
because their education concentrates on Arabic and Quranic Studies. They
like Islamic Banking, but another informant for Latief was a member of
the Catholic Credit Union in Nias, because there was no money for things
other than
dakwah or direct preaching. On page 252 the charity
is defined as "Progress in this region means the ability to provide
local people with wider access to education, particularly Islamic
education." In fact often not much more than chanting the Qur'an.
Retrieved from: http://relindonesia.blogspot.com/2012/08/hilman-latief-on-islamic-charities.html
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Islamic Charities and Social Activism: Welfare, Dakwah and Politics in Indonesia
By: HILMAN LATIEF
This study examines how the notions of benevolent acts, welfare issues
and social justice are conceived by Indonesian Muslims, and investigates
the multiplicity of roles played by Islamic charitable associations in
carrying out social welfare activities both in rural or urban areas.
By relating three main issues (welfare, dakwah and politics), this study
discusses whether charity activism can generate social mobility among
low income households as the targeted beneficiaries, and whether Islamic
charitable associations are able to promote collective social change
instead of simply strengthening middle class networks or serving certain
religious denominations. In particular, this dissertation also attempts
to answer the following questions: How do Muslims conceive religious
charity in the context of the interplay between the state, society and
the market; and what sorts of social, religious, and political
justifications lie behind their social, religious and political
activism? How do Islamic charitable associations approach the perceived
problems (welfare, religious, and political issues) among Indonesian
societies; and to what extent are they able (or not able) to provide
viable ‘social security’ to the poor as a means of realising the public
good in a pluralistic society?
In order to engage with the above research questions, an empirical
investigation through a series of fieldwork visits was conducted at
various times between mid-2008 and early 2011 in such places as Jakarta,
Bandung, Yogyakarta, Banda Aceh, and Nias Island.
Since the 1980s, many Muslim countries, including Indonesia, have
experienced an unprecedented development in civil society movements and
increasing economic growth, changes which have affected the social and
economic relations within society as a whole. The rise of an affluent
Muslim middle class with a new spiritual and social awareness has been
instrumental in shaping Islamic social and political activism in
general, and has aided a proliferation of Islamic institutions, ranging
from educational institutions to charitable associations. Moreover,
after the fall of Soeharto, a range of Musim NGOs, including such
charities as DD, RZI, DPU-DT, AAP, and BSMI (some of which were
established in the 1990s) became more conspicuously present and expanded
the range of their activities. Their expansion was supported by a
general turn to religion and an increased interest in the modalities of
Islamic almsgiving and benevolent acts. The associations established
their reputation by efficiently running social services and successfully
carrying out relief operations in Indonesia and abroad. Hence, Islamic
charities become increasingly popular among Indonesian Muslims, and the
types of Islamic social-welfare activities have been materialised in
different forms, ranging from the relief of the poor in urban areas to
supporting dakwah and political activities.
To draw a broader picture of Islamic charities and social activism in
post-New Order Indonesia, this study investigates four types of
charitable activities: health provision for the poor in urban slums;
development projects that are oriented towards female teenager coming
from low income households, dakwah activities in the outer islands, as
well as aid for Palestinians.
The spawning of charitable clinics sponsored by Islamic charitable
associations signifies Muslims’ efforts to translate the notion of
benevolent acts into religiously-inspired good social practices. Health
provision for the poor seems to have become an alternative strategy for
Islamic charities to distributing aid to underprivileged groups, and at
the same time, a means of promoting public welfare at the community
level. Charitable clinics hint at the potential role that Islamic
charitable associations might play in the relief of the poor, especially
in the health sector. They have been active for years and play a
pivotal role in stress reduction among poorer families, while at the
same time attempting to bring the capital held by both individuals and
private institutions down to the grassroots level. This study argues
that while Islamic charitable institutions work with the grassroots and
middle-class groups, Islamic institutions are not sufficiently critical
of the state’s failure to provide social security, unlike some ‘secular’
or traditionalist Muslim NGOs. They speak little of the need for
structural change by, for example, organising an advocacy movement for
health reform. Some Islamic charitable associations have also attempted
to address women issues. The severe problem of poverty, which has put
women in an unfavourable position, as some of them become the victims of
human trafficking, has stimulated Islamic charitable associations to
provide development projects that are oriented towards women.
The objectives of the development projects for women are to prevent
lower-skilled and poorly educated female teenagers from leaving to work
as housemaids overseas, as well as to protect them from the harmful
effects of human trafficking. Providing provisional job-oriented
activities may also prevent disadvantaged teenagers and female school
leavers from entering into early marriage in their villages.
Nevertheless, this study finds that promoting gender equality, changing
‘patriarchal culture’, criticising government gender biased structural
policies, or encouraging the authorities to provide a better and
well-educated work force, are apparently not part of the Islamic
charities’ main agendas, nor even their foremost objectives. Another
case concerns the spread of dakwah activities in the outer island which
are supported by Islamic charitable associations.
The operation of Islamic charitable associations in Nias Island, located
on the western coast of Sumatra, has partly resulted in the spread of
dakwah activities in this non-Muslim majority Island and the increase in
number of madrasah and mushalla/mosque. In practice, there are two
kinds of dakwah: dakwah among Muslims and dakwah among non-Muslims. The
former, dakwah among Muslims, can mean the process of Islamisation in
society, while the latter bears some resemblance to Christian missionary
activities in non-Christian populations. Some Islamic charitable
associations, such as AAP, DDII and AMCF landed in Nias shortly after
the 2005 earthquake hit this region. The objectives of these charities
are to support dakwah activities by sending young da’i (preachers) to
assist the communities, including Muslim converts, in studying Islam,
and to support the construction or reconstruction of the places of
worship. This research suggests that Islamic charities and other
faith-based charities are challenged how negotiate between serving the
Muslim community through dakwah, and serving humanity at large through
social welfare activities.
The last case relates to the engagement of Islamic charitable
associations and solidarity groups with relief projects in support of
Palestinians. For many Islamic charitable associations and Muslim relief
NGOs, the notion of Islamic solidarity remains an essential factor in
their international exposure. The conflicts in such places as
Palestine/Israel, Bosnia and Afghanistan have appealed to feelings of
Muslim solidarity and given rise to solidarity movements among Muslims
all over the world, including Indonesia. Alongside the involvement of
Indonesian Muslim relief NGOs in providing assistance to victims of
conflict, Muslim solidarity groups in Indonesia have also mobilised
public sources, justifying this with ideas of protecting and helping
their oppressed fellow Muslims in other parts of the world.
The extent to which Islamic charities are set up and operate in response
to political crises in the international arena also signifies Muslim
concerns about the meaning of justice (al-‘adala) and the concept of the
unity of Islamic society (umma). From the overall discussion of Islamic
charities and social activism in contemporary Indonesia, this study
proposes the following main conclusions.
First, there have been contending views among Indonesian Muslims about
how the perceived problems, such as welfare, poverty, and social
injustice, should be resolved. Islamic charities, with their engagement
with social enterprises in the communities, tend to confine their
activities to short-term relief actions, and reluctantly penetrate the
political sphere in order to empower the underprivileged to claim back
their social, economic, and political rights, and to restore their
self-reliance to reach their social and economic goals. Islamic
charities flourishing in post New Order Indonesia have emerged as a new
popular pattern of social activism, the vey antithesis, both
discursively and practically, of development and advocacy NGOs at large,
which primarily promote collective and structural change.
Second, earlier studies of Muslim charitable activities have noted that
welfare associations are typically middle class institutions which
sthrengthen middle class network and which are, in a sense, more
meaningfull to the ‘givers’ than to the recipeints. Although observers
have suggested that charity activism seems to have advanced middle-class
interests ahead of those of the poor, or has become a tool for
establishing patronage socially, economically and even politically, this
does not mean that the poor are always alienated. As the religious
views and political affiliations of the members of the Muslim middle
classes vary greatly, ranging from ‘rightist Islamists’ to ‘leftist
social activists’, the characteristics of Islamic charitable
associations are also shaped by the dynamic interactions among their
members. This, in turn, leads to the ability (or perhaps inability) to
combine charitable acts with development-oriented projects, or even with
activities that promote structural change.
Third, religious and cultural proximity remains essential to the
formation of Islamic social enterprises and the types of beneficiaries.
Most Islamic charities have originated from dakwah (religious
dissemination) movements or from a wide range of politically-oriented
Islamic solidarity groups. This origin has shaped not only the types of
discourse and activities within Islamic charitable associations, but
also has determined the categories of beneficiaries to be served. This
research found that while under the framework of dakwah, Islamic
charities have been able to reformulate notions of brotherhood,
solidarity, mutual help, and even social justice, as a means of
strengthening the welfare of the Islamic community, they still tend to
restrict their work to narrowly defined deserving beneficiaries
belonging to the same religion or even denomination within their
religion. Therefore, Islamic charities are now challenged how to make
their social services beneficial to a wider range of stakeholders in
Indonesia, as a culturally and religiously diverse country.
Finally, the interplay between religion and politics has influenced the
nature of Islamic charities in Indonesia and shaped the relations of
Islamic charities among themselves and with others (non-Muslim charities
or secular NGOs). This research suggests that sharing similar religious
values and having similar identities do not always result in
cooperation, partly because the fragmented political orientations have
put the existing associations to compete with each other instead of
establishing strategic partnerships for long-term welfare projects.
Retrieved from: http://www.hilmanlatief.net/2012/09/islamic-charities-and-social-activism.html
Download the dissertation at:
http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2012-0822-200415/latief.pdf 
About the Publication
Part One of this book is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by
the author during 1970-72 on a local branch of the Muhammadiyah in the
town of Kotagede, a suburb of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This work, first
published in 1983, observed that the Muhammadiyah social and educational
movement had reformed traditional Javanese Islam into a vital living
faith and adapted Muslim life to modernity. The author was one of the
first scholars who had noted that there was continuing Islamization in
Indonesia and predicted its progress in the future.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0333-8344