Sammendrag
In Indonesia, many charismatic NRM leaders have been targets of blasphemy allegations. This paper compares some of these channelers, visionaries, and religious entrepreneurs who claim to receive divine revelations and be rightly guided (e.g., claim to be the Mahdi, channel Gabriel, or being a reincarnation of Mohammed).
Their innovative message is, among other things, inspired by New Age spirituality and Islam, and their vision is to guide people on the right path. This includes alternative practices, e.g., claims that daily prayers are not a ritual obligation or can be fewer than five. Their proclaimed purpose is often to restore true Islam.
Some of these have gained quite a following, and their visions and movements have an obvious political bias – such as establishing cooperatives, declaring the Indonesian Pancasila model a religion, relating UFO expectations to the presidential elections, or claiming that Mohammed was Indonesian.
A recent case involves the prophetess Aisyah Tusalamah, “Queen” of The Jellyfish Kingdom”, a NRM combining elements of animism, Javanese mythology, Indonesian nationalism, pop culture, the goddess movement, and Islam. Aisyah, who seems to retain a Muslim identity, asserts that the Qur’an is holy and that Allah is God, but also interprets the hajj as an erotic act and claims Mohammad was a woman.
The prosecution accused Aisyah of distorting the Prophet’s message and violating the concept of monotheism and sentenced her to prison for the dissemination of blasphemous material online. As such, she is a typical target for those who seek to purify religion by policing religious boundaries, and are backed by the system. However, the emergence of such NRMs among Muslims demonstrate also demonstrates the appeal of religious creativity and resistance to the homogenizing forces.
Paper part of panel Divine Interventions with Roland Clark. Conference topic: Religion - freedom and constraints
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