The Role of Islam and Christianity in Public Space. Perspectives from Indonesia and Germany

Despite longstanding claims by cultural essentialists like Samuel Huntington, Bernard Lewis, and Elie Kedourie that Islam and democracy are inherently incompatible, Indonesia—the world’s largest Muslim-majority country—has challenged that assumption. For over two decades since the fall of Suharto’s authoritarian regime, Indonesia has managed to blend democratic governance with Islamic values....

Indonesia ranks at the top as a country where most people consider religion to be very important in their lives. Religion plays a role as the most important reference in various areas of life and an important part of everyone’s identity in Indonesian society. The importance of religion makes everything related to religion an interesting issue, including the number of religious adherents. An...

Religious authorities shape political landscapes worldwide in different ways: While in Indonesia over the past two decades, socially conservative religious forces have gained political influence and contributed to a growing religious nationalism, other religious actors continue to contribute to democratic education and emancipatory participatory processes.
Drawing on extensive research on the...