Religious Ideological Rigidity: Political Attitude of Muslim Group’s Leaders who are Compatible with or Oppos Democracy in Indonesia

Abstract

Criticizing motivated social cognition perspective (Jost et. al, 2003) and ideological rigidity (Greenberg and Jonas, 2003) that caused differences in political attitude; this study sugests that high religious ideological rigidity in individuals and groups contests democracy while low religious ideological rigidity supports it. Concerning political context in Indonesia, there are some groups of Muslims who are compatible with democracy (as a secular system), while the others oppose it and wants to establish Daula Islamiya (with khilafa-sharia). The case study in this research is Abu Bakar Baasyir, the leader of Jamaa Anshoru Tauhid (JAT), and Jamaa Islamiya (which is affiliated with Al-Qaidah) who wants to establish Daula Islamiya. Also Hasyim Mujadi, leader of / Nahdhlatul Ulama/NU (Renaissance of Islamic scholars) who supports democracy and deradicalization for militant Muslims in Indonesia, South-Thailand and Mindanao. Thematic analysis was used for analyzing data. The result shows that Baasyir‟s religious ideology is more rigid, authoritarian, dogmatic and closed-minded compared to Mujadi‟s. Baasyir‟s ideology is also absolute, reluctant to adapt and interpret Islamic law according to current situation and condition. Meanwhile, Mujadi explained that we can wisely express religion as a claim of truth by having dialogue with others. High religious ideological rigidity of Baasyir caused him to contest democracy while low religious ideological rigidity of Mujadi caused him to support it. Religious ideological rigidity of the political attitude was discussed. Keyword: Religious ideological rigidity, authoritarian, dogmatic, closed-minded and political attitude