The history of Islam in Indonesian politics of memory

Abstract

The article analyses the perception of the history of the Muslim community in the modern Indonesian politics of memory. For the first time in Belarusian historiography, the features of the historical politics or the politics of memory in modern Indonesia are considered. The novelty of the article lies in the integration of Indonesian issues into the contexts of modern interdisciplinary memorial studies. The key subjects of the politics of memory in Indonesia are determined in contexts of the revision of the history of political Islam in the second half of the 20th century. The activity of the media is considered as the main form of the revision of history, criticism of old historical narratives and the formation of a new memorial canon of the history of Indonesian Islam. Attempts to revise the history of Islam are analysed, including new interpretations of Muslim activists, who impact participated in the national movement. The author analyses the contradictions of historical politics in the context of integration of the history of Indonesian political Islam of the 20th century into the secular memorial canon. It is assumed that attempts to construct the history of political Islam in the modern collective Indonesian memory have a compromise character. The author shows how intellectuals assimilate the history of Islam, integrating it into the current memorial canon. It is noted that within the framework of the politics of memory, ideologically and politically controversial points related to the history of radical political Islam, which in the early model of national memory were marginalised and forgotten. Modern manipulations with historical memory are analysed as attempts to achieve a memorial compromise between secular intellectuals and representatives of the Muslim community.