Incidentally...

Incidentally, Muhammadiyah’s efforts to reform Islamic life, especially with the regard to the Sufi’s malpractices, have contributed also to the disruption of some of the Moslem’s spiritual aspects from its depth and its originality. That is why people acknowledge more Muhammadiyah the anti-TBC (Tahayul, Bid’ah, Churafat) movements than the socio-religious reformation (Mulkhan, 2000: ix).

It is due to Muhammadiyah’s reformation based solely on the normative values of the Koran and Hadits and its failure to accommodate the socio-cultural realities of the Moslem societies as its missionary target. This stigma lasted for a long time until there occurred the constructive dialogue with its counterpart, the NU.

The dialogue was hindered for long time because Muhammadiyah disregarded NU as tolerating “impure Islamic practices of TBC” so that it viewed the NU as having diverted from Islamic monotheism. Islam is in nature is not theology-minded religion comparable to Christianity, however theology has been perceived deeply by some Moslems ever since the early history of Islam, so that this hinders constructive dialogues amongst Islamic groups.

Some Moslems make use of theology to judge the people either as Moslem or non-Moslem. Here more precisely it is used to judge other Moslem groups either true-Moslem ( kaffah ) or not. Most Moslem groups in Indonesia fall into the Sunni sect, however sub-divisions ( furu ) amongst them often make it difficult to develop an open dialogue because they are often related improperly to the sub-division into theological judgment.

Consequently each group assumes itself as practicing true Islam and views others as not-truly practicing Islam. It lasted for long time and then some of Muhammadiyah’s followers become aware of their stagnant religious thinking. One of them, M. Thoyibi (2000: 160-163), evaluates correctly that this is due to overconfidence, religious orthodoxy, and contact avoidance with development outside.

Recently all impediments have resulted in another stigma that its claim as a modern Islamic group often contradicts with its conservative views as to modernization. It is not surprising given its reference only to the Koran and Hadist, while ignoring the Islamic history and Moslem societies sociologically. As further consequence, its membership is limited to urban areas and the majority of Moslems are still associated with NU.

There are two currents propelling Muhammadiyah into more intense dialogue with NU.