Intellectual Debates

Suharto and the post-Suharto era was a period of great awareness and consciousness for Indonesia. The wave of awareness generated a chain of debates among traditionalist'NU',modernist'Muhammadiyah'and neo modernist independent intellectuals which led Indonesia to the heights of intellectual growth. The emergence of independent scholarship in form of no-modernists was considered a reaction, to the failure of modernists, providing any suitable solution to the needs of the Muslim community. Among the pioneers of these debates were scholars like Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid who were blamed for professing thoughts apparently influenced by Western ideas. This book shows that these scholars were actively concerned and representing their respective Muslim communities at large.Their concern for secularism, the role of Islam ,synthesis of Islam with other cultures, demand for democracy, tolerance, all suggests how anxious they were in finding a solution to the above issues. This study is significant to accentuate and explore the intellectual facet of the debates to enlighten the reader with a pragmatic approach towards the political aspect of religion in third world countries.