Shari‘a and Social Engineering: The Implementation of Islamic Law in Contemporary Aceh, Indonesia by R. Michael Feener

Abstract

Reviewed by: Shari‘a and Social Engineering: The Implementation of Islamic Law in Contemporary Aceh, Indonesia by R. Michael Feener Michael Buehler1 R. Michael Feener. Shari‘a and Social Engineering: The Implementation of Islamic Law in Contemporary Aceh, Indonesia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 335 pp. In his most recent book, Michael Feener calls for a fresh perspective on the adoption of Islamic law in Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost province. Such a new analytical focus is necessary, according to Feener, because the existing literature has a tendency to portray the adoption of shari‘a laws in Aceh as the result of a national government plan to bring the province under its control and to suppress support for the Free Aceh Movement. However, the adoption of shari‘a laws in Aceh is not politically motivated, Feener argues. Rather, it is primarily driven by a distinct history during which Aceh’s religious establishment developed an increasingly instrumentalist view of Islamic law, in combination with a local desire to “remake” Aceh in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated large parts of the province on December 26, 2004. The dynamics behind the adoption of shari‘a laws in Aceh are indicative of a broader shift in the legal discourse surrounding Islamic law and show the need for a reinterpretation of why Islamic law is being adopted within the context of modern nation states. Shari‘a law in other countries, too, is increasingly seen in an instrumentalist fashion and understood to stand in the service of “future-oriented agendas for social transformations” (p. xi), which aim at “stimulating and channeling social change in desired directions” (p. 3), according to Feener. In Chapter 2, Feener provides a history of shari‘a law in Aceh province and shows how Islamic law has become a defining element of Acehnese identity over time. Feener is particularly interested in examining the discourses that occurred within Acehnese society on how to position itself vis-à-vis “Islam.” The first part of the chapter shows how, initially, shari‘a law was adopted to bolster the legitimacy of rulers and how, over time, justification for shari‘a law has shifted to a discourse about the role of the state in managing religious affairs. Feener then shows in the second part of the chapter how this discourse gave birth to a new “da’wa paradigm” in the latter half of the twentieth century that emphasized the use of Islamic law as a tool for social engineering and how this discourse shaped the formation of the legal system in Aceh province. Chapter 3 shows how the education system in the province has formed present-day views on what role Islamic law ought to play in contemporary Aceh. The education system has not only shaped the definition and understanding of what “Islamic values” are, but has also contributed to the organizational structure of the shari‘a regime in the province. Concretely, Feener shows that the campus of the State Institute for Islamic Studies (Institut Agama Islam Negeri, IAIN) “has played a primary role in the design, development, leadership, and day-to-day operations of the state institutions responsible for the implementation of Islamic law under the current Shari‘a system” (p. 12). [End Page 147] Another institution that has played a pivotal role in the “shari‘a-ization” of Aceh province and in shaping the discourse around it is the Ulama Council. Chapter 4 shows how the Ulama Council had been established by the Indonesian national government in an attempt to curb dissent in the region. Later, the government used the council to propagate the state’s “development” programs. Today, the Ulama Council occupies a pivotal role in the discourse on what constitutes “acceptable” forms of Islamic belief and practice in the province and is also a key player in the dissemination of “modern Islamic discourses of social transformation” across Aceh (p. 13). In chapter 5, Feener examines Islamic law in Aceh in its concrete manifestations over time. He shows that much of current Islam-influenced legislation is linked to efforts in the 1960s to introduce such laws in the province, including laws on the consumption of alcohol, gambling, and relations between the...