Freedom from Consumption: The Reformist Critique of Consumptive Islam in Indonesia

Abstract

The pious practices of contemporary Indonesian Muslims frequently take form as consumer commodification and material display. The article adds to knowledge of the role of materiality in religion and spirituality by describing and analysing the critique of consumerist piety cultivated by reformist Muslims in Indonesia. We trace the evolution of the ‘emancipation-based’ critique in the ideas of two significant reformist intellectuals of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Kuntowijoyo (1943–2005) and Moeslim Abdurrahman (1948–2012), both of whom are associated with the civil society organisation known as Muhammadiyah. Their objections to material religion are not concerned with the individual morality of consumers but are based on their rejection of Islamic particularity. Noting that Islamic particularity frequently manifests in material practices, they argue that such practices are signs of fragmenting processes that prevent social and political progress. Consumptive displays of piety are also objectionable because they succeed through a material-based sign system that asserts economic differences between people, when the authentic Islamic mission, according to these thinkers, is to work against the social exclusion brought about by those differences.

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