From Sufism to Extremism: Religious Extremism in Indonesia and its Impact on Sufi Traditionalists

Today, it seems that the growth of violent instances of Islamic extremism is not limited to Middle East, West Asia and Africa. Other regions of the world such as Southeast Asia –where Islam has been always known as “smiling” and where the nature of historical consciousness of nations has been replete with tolerance due to the long presence of spiritual and ethical religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islamic Sufism – have inclined toward religious violence and extremism. This is proved by the rise of tens of radical Islamic organizations in this region, the growth of religious intolerance especially between Sunnis and Shias as well as joining of hundreds of Indonesian and Malaysian Muslim youth to ISIS. More importantly, the wave of extremism in this region has affected many traditionalist and Sufi movements – which always had an anti-Wahabi nature – encouraging them to change their approach from Sufism and moderate Islam to Salafi and extremist ones. While explaining the cultural challenges of extremism in Indonesia, this paper examines and analyses domestic and foreign elements of the rise and growth of extremism among Muslim traditionalists in this country.