Sumanto Al Qurtuby

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals | KFUPM · Global Studies

Since the downfall of Suharto’s authoritarian government in 1998, Indonesia has witnessed a variety of violent conflicts, intergroup tensions and Islamist radicalism, which in turn pose threats to the country’s security, safety and peace. This article examines various forms of religious violence, particularly Islamist violence, and ways of overcomi...

This article is a comparative study of Filipino and Indonesian migrant workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It investigates how these two different transnational communities envisage their lives in the Kingdom. It examines (1) the historical dynamics and contemporary developments of Filipinos and Indonesians in Saudi Arabia, (2) the underlying m...

Agama sering menjadi sumber aksi-aksi kekerasan, tapi agama juga bisa menjadi sumber upaya-upaya binadamai. Kita sering terpaku pada yang pertama, kurang sekali melaporkan dan mempelajari yang kedua. Kita sudah tidak adil sejak dalam pikiran: kita mau agama menyebarkan kasih, tapi yang kita perhatikan melulu agama yang membawa perang. Dua pengaruh...

Fenomena munculnya “agama publik” di berbagai negara, termasuk Indonesia, menunjukkan bahwa dunia agama dan spiritualitas tidak lenyap dari muka bumi. Artikel-artikel pada edisi ini melukiskan sebuah benang merah bahwa agama dan spiritualitas tetap dipandang dan diyakini sebagai entitas yang penting oleh (sebagian) masyarakat yang mampu dijadikan s...

This paper examines various views, ideas, opinions, understandings, and interpretations among Indonesian societies, including Islamic scholars and Muslim social organizations toward tobacco products and smoking practices. It also traces the history and contemporary developments of smoking practice in Indonesia. Historically, as the article shows, s...

Saudi Arabia has long been portrayed as a “hub of polygyny,” a practice of marriage in which a man marries several women simultaneously. However, my recent research among Saudi male youths suggest that this practice is waning nowadays. A younger generation in the Kingdom seems to prefer monogamy—a man marrying one wife—to polygamy for several essen...

The chapter analyzes the Indonesian government’s efforts, approaches, strategies, programs, tactics, and policies concerning counterterrorism as well as examines their strengths and weaknesses in countering and preventing terrorism and radicalism from happening in the future. Although the government, especially its anti-terror unit, has done many e...

The present chapter examines Saudi society’s views, opinions, and ideas regarding domestic terrorism as well as appropriate approaches of counterterrorism in their home country. This chapter, in particular, focuses on Saudi youths’ perspectives that might offer indispensable, alternative insights on notions and ways of combating and transforming te...

This chapter sketches and analyzes pros and cons of opinions, notions, and thoughts of Indonesian societies regarding (1) terrorist acts that happened in their country and (2) effective ways and approaches of countering and preventing terrorism. Assessing society’s ideas on factors contributing to terrorism as well as productive models for combatin...

The chapter examines the Saudi government’s approaches and strategies of counterterrorism, especially since the reign of King Faisal (r. 1964–75). It examines the Kingdom’s initiatives of counterterrorism, anti-terrorism, and violence deterrence by highlighting their programs, policies, and measures related to strategies and tactics of counterterro...

The chapter traces the history and contemporary developments of terrorism in Indonesia, highlighting the tendency of changing phenomena of terrorism from the Old Order (1945–1966) and the New Order (1966–1998) to the Reformation Era (1998 onward). The chapter examines local and global factors that contributed to and changed faces of Indonesia’s dom...

The present chapter specifically outlines and analyzes similarities and differences concerning terrorism (e.g. factors, roots, objectives, groupings, networks, and so on) between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Although Saudi Arabia and Indonesia have long suffered from terrorism, the nature and local dynamics of terrorism in the two countries differ f...

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has experienced terrorism long before the 9/11 tragic events in the United States. This fact shows that the Kingdom has long been the object or the target of terrorist threats committed by a variety of radical individuals and extremist groups from multiple backgrounds with varied means, motives, and objectives. The chapt...

The chapter explores and compares policies, strategies, approaches, tactics, or programs of the Saudi and Indonesian governments related to counterterrorism, anti-terrorism, or terrorism prevention. Even though the two countries have applied “hard” (military) and “soft” (non-military) approaches in combating—and preventing society from—terrorism, i...

Sumanto Al Qurtuby focusses on Indonesia since the fall of Suharto's New Order dictatorial government in 1998. This period has witnessed an increase in civil liberties and in tensions and violence across ethnic and religious lines. Al Qurtuby showcases some of the grassroots peacebuilding initiatives that have confronted these challenges. For examp...

This chapter outlines Saudi–Indonesian prolonged bilateral relations, discusses cooperation on counterterrorism strategies and programs, underscores lessons learned, and highlights prospects for future peace, safety, and security for both Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Realizing that the two countries have faced the same terrorist threats, since the l...

This book is a comparative study of terrorism and counterterrorism in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. It explores the history and contemporary developments of terrorism, especially Islamist terrorism, in these two Sunni Muslim-majority countries. In doing so, it analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of governments’ policies, strategies, and models of c...

Focusing on both professional and “unskilled” Filipino and Indonesian expatriate laborers in Saudi Arabia, this paper examines how these two transnational communities envisage their lives in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s Filipinos and Indonesians are remarkable because (1) the groups are the largest Southeast Asian transnationals population in the Ki...

This article studies Saudi Arabia–trained Indonesian Islamic scholars, both past and present. It also discusses Saudi Arabia’s non-Islamic studies Indonesian Muslim scholars. Since past centuries, Muslims on the Malay–Indonesian archipelago has journeyed to the Arabian Peninsula, especially Hijaz, either for pilgrimage or learning. This legacy cont...

Since the downfall of Suharto's dictatorial regime in 1998, Indonesia has witnessed a surge of various Islamist groups that have potentially threatened the country's religious tolerance, civil Islam, and civic pluralism. Moreover, it is suggested that the rise of Islamist groups could likely transform Indonesia into an intolerant Islamist country....

Buddhism has long been typified as an ascetic religion that puts emphasis on spirituality and otherworldliness. This article, examining the linkage between Buddhism and worldliness in contemporary Taiwan, challenges this conventional dominant view. Contrary to popular opinion, Taiwan has witnessed the emergence of the ‘earthly Buddha’, characterize...

Since 2001, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been fighting domestic terrorism and adopting policies and strategies in countering radicalism and terrorism. How effective are these policies, strategies, and tactics in combating terrorist ideology, reducing the number of terrorist activists and sympathizers, as well as preventing terrorist acts in the...

This article focuses on the study of the relationship between Islam, travel, and learning by conducting a case study on Indonesian Muslim students who studied (or are studying) in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, it examines the changing dynamics of these students who traveled, immigrated to, and studied in Saudi Arabia in search of knowledge from previ...

Since the downfall of Suharto dictatorial regime in 1998, Indonesia has witnessed the upsurge of various Islamist groups that have in turn potentially threatened the country’s religious tolerance, civil Islam, and civic pluralism. While some have argued that the rise of these Islamist groupings could turn Indonesia into an intolerant Islamist cou...

Chinese Muslim community play a role in the history of Islami- zation in Java, so it should be raised "Theory of China" in the history of the entry and development of Islam in the region. So far, the discussion of Islamization theory is always associated with the Middle East /Arab and India only- like pioneer of the theory of Arab/Middle East is Cr...

This book examines Indonesian educational migrants and intellectual travellers in Saudi Arabia including students, researchers, teachers and scholars to provide a unique portrait of the religious and intellectual linkages between the two countries. Based on in-depth interviews and questionnaires, Sumanto Al Qurtuby identifies the “Indonesian legacy...

This article aims to examine the rise of religiously-inspired violent extremism and Islamist militancy, which challenges democracy and civic pluralism in contemporary Indonesia. Additionally, this article offers possible ways of resolving conflict and building peace and dialogue with the radicals and Islamists in this archipelagic country. Followin...

This article discusses the ambiguous role of religiously-marked civil society organisations during the Christian-Muslim communal violence in Maluku, eastern Indonesia, from approximately 1999 to 2004. During the Maluku violence, some social groups supported peace and reconciliation, while others were major backers for the collective conflict. Using...

In this article, we focus on the bilateral relationship between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, placing the contemporary development of the mutual relationships and cooperation between these two Muslim-majority nations into historical context. Moreover, we describe not only formal political economic relationships but also informal cultural, educational...

This article outlines the origins, development and historical dynamics of Arabs in Indonesia and discusses responses of Indonesians, particularly Muslims, towards this group. It sketches a variety of Indonesia's Arabs-sadah and non-sadah alike-And their contributions to the shape of Indonesian Islam, Islamic cultures and Muslim politics. It also tr...

Maluku in eastern Indonesia is the home to Muslims, Protestants, and Catholics who had for the most part been living peaceably since the sixteenth century. In 1999, brutal conflicts broke out between local Christians and Muslims, and escalated into large-scale communal violence once the Laskar Jihad, a Java-based armed jihadist Islamic paramilitary...

Maluku in eastern Indonesia is the home to Muslims, Protestants, and Catholics who had for the most part been living peaceably since the sixteenth century. In 1999, brutal conflicts broke out between local Christians and Muslims, and escalated into large-scale communal violence once the Laskar Jihad, a Java-based armed jihadist Islamic paramilitary...

During the Maluku interreligious violence from 1999 to 2002, both Islam and Christianity contributed to the initiation and intensification of the collective conflict. This article examines the role of religion, especially Christianity, and discusses how Christian identities, teachings, doctrines, symbols, discourses, organizations, and networks bec...

This comparative article discusses the local dynamics of interethnic violence and separatist movement in Turkey and Indonesia, and examines the role of the central governments in these two countries in responding to, and resolving, the conflict and separatism. More specifically, the article focuses on Turkish-Kurdish conflict and Indonesian-Acehnes...

From 1999 to 2004, communal violence between Christians and Muslims broke out in the Moluccas of northeastern Indonesia, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries, and displacing hundreds of thousands of others. Unlike previous studies and analyses that give much attention to the political economy of the conflict, the dynamics of nation...

The article focuses on the study of public Islam in Southeast Asia, the world’s most populous Islamic region. More specifically, it examines “late modernity” and its relation to the unprecedented growth of Islam, the Islamic resurgence, and Muslim politics in the public domains of modern Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and the Philippines...

Since the downfall of Suharto’s New Order dictatorial regime in 1998, Indonesia has witnessed a range of sectarian violence and religious intolerance. Rather than examining the nature and dynamics of the communal violence and acts of prejudice among some ethno-religious groupings, this article addresses the phenomenon of “grassroots peacebuilding,”...

This article examines the role of interfaith women in “religious peacebuilding” and post-peace accord reconciliation in the Moluccas (Maluku) in eastern Indonesia, particularly in Ambon city. For more than three years, beginning in 1999, violent conflicts between Christians and Muslims broke out in this region resulting in tens of thousands of deat...

This article aims to examine two major issues: (1) religious roots of reconciliation and forgiveness, which are often unfortunately forgotten in the academic discussion of peacebuilding and peace policy-related issues, and (2) Christians' and Muslims' attempts to quell interreligious violence and prevent renewed outbreaks in the conflict zone of Am...

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia, with more than six hundred million populations, is home to millions of Buddhists, Muslims, Confucians, Protestants, Catholics, and now Pentecostals, as well as many followers of local religions and spiritual beliefs. Notwithstanding its great historical, political, cultural legacies, however, the region has long...

This article discusses the role of Catholics, Muslims, and civic associations in the global politics of the Philippines and Indonesia. The two countries have shared in common with regard to the geographical feature (both are archipelagic countries), the diversity of societies and cultures, and the history of colonialism, dictatorship, ethno-religio...

p class="IIABSBARU">This paper examines socio-historical roots of the emergence of the idea of “Islamic Protestantism” within Iranian Shi’i tradition. The central focus of this study is to present thoughts and activities of so-called “Iranian Luthers” as the agents, actors, and prime movers of the birth of Islamic reformation in Iran. These actors...

Drawing from a variety of historical materials, accounts of early travellers, local sources, including folktales/oral traditions, and a number of historical artefacts, this chapter discusses the imprint of Zheng He’s visits and the legacy of Chinese Muslims in Indonesia (formerly Hindia Belanda or simply Nusantara). The main objective of this chapt...

This paper examines socio-historical roots of Southeast Asia’s Islamist terrorism. Specifically focusing on cases of terrorism in Indonesia, it deals with global, regional, and local factors that underline the emergence of “radical Islamism” as the roots of modern terrorism. Although there had been some connections between Southeast Asia’s militant...

The fact that "Sino-Javanese Muslim Cultures" are scattered over Banten, Jakarta, Cirebon, Semarang, Demak, Jepara, Lasem, Gresik, and Surabaya on the northern coast of Java (see also below) is strong evidence of the encounter between Cheng Ho (and other Chinese Muslims) and Javanese societies over the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. These "Sin...

This paper discusses the notion of “Islamic Protestantism” as a vehicle to create a face of democratic and pluralistic Islam. Drawing from the works of some prominent Muslim reformists and Western scholars, it addresses in some parts the works of Indonesian scholars. The choice of democracy and pluralism as a main focus in this paper is based on th...