Islamic Political Thought without Sovereignty: Sunni–Shia Coexistence, Authority, and Pancasila in Bondowoso, Indonesia
Abstract
This article examines Islamic political thought beyond sovereignty-centered paradigms. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Bondowoso, Indonesia, it analyses Sunni–Shia coexistence within Sadah communities where political reasoning unfolds through mediated religious authority, communal negotiation, and constitutional belonging. The study finds that Islamic normativity in this context is not oriented toward capturing or restructuring the state but is articulated through genealogical legitimacy, moral leadership, and socially embedded mechanisms of dispute resolution. Sectarian difference is stabilised through recognised religious authorities who enjoy cross-sectarian legitimacy, allowing doctrinal distinctions to persist without escalating into political antagonism. The article further argues that Pancasila functions not merely as a constitutional framework but as a normative horizon that enables Islamic ethical commitments to acquire public legitimacy. By decentring sovereignty and foregrounding relational authority and constitutional embeddedness, this study advances the concept of Islamic political thought without sovereignty as a distinct and analytically significant mode of political reasoning within plural nation-states.
Downloads
References
Abbas, Nurlaelah. “Escalation Of Iranian Shia Theology In Indonesia.” Proceeding International Seminar Da’wah And Communication, 2022.
Abd Hannan and Ach Fatayillah Mursyidi. “Social Media and the Fragmentation of Religious Authority among Muslims in Contemporary Indonesia.” Digital Muslim Review 1, no. 2 (November 2023): 84–104. https://doi.org/10.32678/dmr.v1i2.10.
Agrama, Hussein Ali. “Secularism, Sovereignty, Indeterminacy: Is Egypt a Secular or a Religious State?” Comparative Studies in Society and History 52, no. 3 (July 2010): 495–523. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417510000289.
Ahmad, Dr Sajjad, Abdul Jabbar Qamar, Muhammad Asad Akram Bhatti, and Usman Bashir. “Integrating Islamic Ethics with Modern Governance: A Comprehensive Framework for Accountability Across Religious, Social, and Economic Dimensions.” Al-Irfan 8, no. 15 (June 2023): 51–79. https://doi.org/10.58932/MULB0043.
Ahmed, Sundus Serhan. “The Evolving Role of Sustainable Development in Shaping Political Progress: A Contemporary Islamic Perspective on Human Rights and Civil Institution.” MILRev: Metro Islamic Law Review 4, no. 1 (2025): 1–30.
Ahyar, Muzayyin, and Alfitri Alfitri. “Aksi Bela Islam: Islamic Clicktivism and the New Authority of Religious Propaganda in the Millennial Age in Indonesia.” Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies 9, no. 1 (May 2019): 1. https://doi.org/10.18326/ijims.v9i1.1-29.
Alatas, Ismail Fajrie. What Is Religious Authority? Cultivating Islamic Communities in Indonesia. Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
Alatas, Ismail Fajrie, and Martin Slama. “Rethinking Diasporic Returns: Ḥaḍramī Trajectories in Indonesia’s Religio-Political Field.” Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde 178, no. 4 (2022): 410–39.
Almond, Gabriel Abraham, and Sidney Verba. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. 2015, 1–576.
Al-Qarawee, Harith Hasan, Elie Abouaoun, Moataz El Fegiery, Mohammad Fadel, Omar Iharchane, Driss Maghraoui, Imad Salamey, and Asma T. Uddin. Religious Leaders and the Sunni-Shia Divide in the Middle East. Islam and Human Rights. Atlantic Council, 2017. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep03717.6.
Amal, M. Khusna. “Anti-Shia Mass Mobilization in Indonesia’s Democracy: Godly Alliance, Militant Groups and the Politics of Exclusion.” Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies 10, no. 1 (2020). https://doi.org/10.18326/ijims.v10i1.25-48.
———. “Towards a Deliberative Conflict Resolution? A Reflection on State Inclusive Response to Sunni-Shi’a Tension in Indonesia’s Democracy.” QIJIS (Qudus International Journal of Islamic Studies) 8, no. 2 (December 2020): 226–56. https://doi.org/10.21043/qijis.v8i2.7146.
An-Na’im, Abdullahi Ahmed. “Religion, the State, and Constitutionalism in Islamic and Comparative Perspectives.” Drake L. Rev. 57 (2008): 829.
Arifianto, Alexander R. “Practicing What It Preaches? Understanding the Contradictions between Pluralist Theology and Religious Intolerance within Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama.” Al-Jami’ah: Journal of Islamic Studies 55, no. 2 (December 2017): 241–64. https://doi.org/10.14421/ajis.2017.552.241-264.
Asfiyah, Wardatul. “Akulturasi Budaya Arab Dan Lokal Dalam Membangun Harmoni Sosial Pada Masyarakat Kademangan Bondowoso.” Mozaic: Islamic Studies 01, no. 01 (2022).
Bahar, Moh Syaeful, Muhammad Taufiq, Muhammad Fauzinudin Faiz, Dodik Harnadi, and Abdul Haq Syawqi. “Managing Sunni-Shia Tensions: Socio-Political and Cultural Peacebuilding in Sādah Bā ‘Alawiyyah, Indonesia.” Jurnal Ilmiah Peuradeun 13, no. 3 (September 2025): 2195–222. https://doi.org/10.26811/peuradeun.v13i3.1623.
Bayat, Asef. Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn. Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2007.
———, ed. Post-Islamism: The Changing Faces of Political Islam. Oxford University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199766062.001.0001.
Biesta, Gert J. J. Good Education in an Age of Measurement: Ethics, Politics, Democracy. New York: Routledge, 2015. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315634319.
Bondowoso, D. I. Kabupaten. “Harmonisasi Sunni Syiah (Studi Kasus Kelurahan Kademangan Kampung Arab Bondowoso).” PhD Thesis, Institut Agama Islam Negeri (IAIN) Jember, 2018.
Brown, Jonathan. “Even If It’s Not True It’s True: Using Unreliable Hadīths in Sunni Islam.” Islamic Law and Society 18, no. 1 (2011): 1–52. https://doi.org/10.1163/156851910X517056.
Buehler, Michael. The Politics of Shari’a Law: Islamist Activists and the State in Democratizing Indonesia. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316417843.
Burhani, Ahmad Najib. “Hating the Ahmadiyya: The Place of ‘Heretics’ in Contemporary Indonesian Muslim Society.” Contemporary Islam 8, no. 2 (May 2014): 133–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-014-0295-x.
Cholil, Suhadi. “Freedom of Religion amid Polarization and Religious Moderation Policy.” Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology 6, no. 2 (March 2023): 196–204. https://doi.org/10.1558/isit.24603.
Damai, D. A. N., Studi Tentang, Iain Tulungagung, Relasi Sosial, Sunni-syiah Konflik, and Studi Tentang. Relasi Sosial Sunni-Syiah Yang Konflik Dan Damai: Studi Tentang Faktor Pembentuk Dan Kebijakan Negara Yang Berbeda Di Sampang Dan Yogyakarta. 2019.
Damanhuri, Noffiyanti, and Andi Eka Putra. “Social Media, Shifting Religious Authority, and Contemporary Da’wah in ‘Post-Secular’ Indonesia.” Kodifikasia 19, no. 1 (June 2025): 149–73.
Eickelman, Dale F., and James P. Piscatori. Muslim Politics. 2. ed. Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Faiz, Muhammad Fauzinudin, Khoiruddin Nasution, and Ali Sodiqin. “Converging Religious Doctrine: Sunni-Shi’i Marriages in Indonesia.” Al-Ahwal: Jurnal Hukum Keluarga Islam 17, no. 1 (June 2024): 123–46. https://doi.org/10.14421/ahwal.2024.17108.
Faizin, Khoirul, Hepni Hepni, Kunawi Basyir, and Ahmad Fauzi. “Language, Authority, and Identity: Shia-Salafi Debates on Imamate and Nationalism in Indonesia’s Online Sphere.” Teosofi: Jurnal Tasawuf Dan Pemikiran Islam 15, no. 2 (December 2025): 313–49. https://doi.org/10.15642/teosofi.2025.15.2.313-349.
Fauzan, Ahmad. Doctrinal Differences and Social Cohesion: A Study of Sunni-Shia Interactions. n.d.
Fealy, Greg, and Sally White. Expressing Islam: Religious Life and Politics in Indonesia. Indonesia Update Series. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008.
Feldman, Noah. The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400845026.
Gul, Seema, Riaz Ahmad, and Faisal Shahzad Khan. “Beyond Force Majeure: Rethinking Contractual Risk through the Lens of Shariah and Common Law Doctrines.” Research Journal of Psychology 3, no. 2 (May 2025): 443–54. https://doi.org/10.59075/rjs.v3i2.144.
Hakim, Fany Nur Rahmadiana. “Re-Understanding Tolerance through Intrareligious Dialogue: The Discourse of Anti-Shi’ism in Indonesia.” Ulumuna 25, no. 2 (December 2021): 350–72. https://doi.org/10.20414/ujis.v25i2.449.
Hallaq, Wael B. The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament. Paperback edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
Hartwig, Friedhelm. Contemplation , Social Reform and the Recollection of Identity . Hadramī Migrants and Travellers between 1896 and 1972 Author ( s ): Friedhelm Hartwig Source : Die Welt Des Islams , New Series , Vol . 41 , Issue 3 , The Making and Unmaking of Published By. 41, no. 3 (2015): 311–47.
Hasan, Harith. Islamic Endowments and Shia Religious Authority. Religious Authority and the Politics of Islamic Endowments in Iraq. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2019. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep20966.7.
Hasan, Noorhaidi. “The Making of Public Islam: Piety, Agency, and Commodification on the Landscape of the Indonesian Public Sphere.” Contemporary Islam 3, no. 3 (October 2009): 229–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-009-0096-9.
Hashemi, Nader. Islam, Secularism, and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies. New York: Oxford University press, 2009.
Hashemi, Nader, and Danny Postel. “Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 15, no. 3 (July 2017): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2017.1354462.
Hefner, Robert W. Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia. Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
———. Shariʻa Politics: Islamic Law and Society in the Modern World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011.
Hosen, Nadirsyah. “Religion and the Indonesian Constitution: A Recent Debate.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 36, no. 3 (2005): 419–40. JSTOR.
Iqbal, Mohammad. “Sunni-Shia Division in Islam: It’s Origin, Development, Political & Socio-Economic Implications & Contemporary Relations.” SSRN Scholarly Paper No. 3692983. Rochester, NY, September 15, 2020. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3692983.
Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. “Between Separation and Unity: The Interplay of Law and Morality in Islamic Jurisprudence.” In Sharia Law in the Twenty-First Century, 21–46. World Scientific, 2022. https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/q0344#page=68.
Latif, Yudi. “Building the Soul of the Indonesian Nation: Mohammad Hatta on Religion, the State Foundation, and Character Building.” Studia Islamika 32, no. 2 (August 2025): 241–78. https://doi.org/10.36712/sdi.v32i2.45220.
———. Negara Paripurna: Historisitas, Rasionalitas, Dan Aktualitas Pancasila. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2011.
———. “The Religiosity, Nationality, and Sociality of Pancasila: Toward Pancasila through Soekarno’s Way.” Studia Islamika 25, no. 2 (August 2018): 207–45. https://doi.org/10.15408/sdi.v25i2.7502.
Liddle, R. William, and Saiful Mujani. “Indonesian Democracy: From Transition to Consolidation.” In Democracy and Islam in Indonesia, edited by Mirjam Künkler and Alfred Stepan, 24–50. Columbia University Press, 2013. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7312/kunk16190-006/html.
Louër, Laurence. Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf. Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies. New York : Paris: Columbia University Press ; In association with the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, 2008.
Lukens-Bull, Ronald. “‘Politics’ by Other Means: Using Education to Negotiate Change.” In A Peaceful Jihad: Negotiating Identity and Modernity in Muslim Java, edited by Ronald Lukens-Bull, 47–70. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980298_3.
Mahmood, Saba. Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016.
March, Andrew F. “Genealogies of Sovereignty in Islamic Political Theology.” Social Research: An International Quarterly 80, no. 1 (March 2013): 293–320. https://doi.org/10.1353/sor.2013.0011.
Matthiesen, Toby. Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn’t. Stanford, California: Stanford Briefs, an imprint of Stanford University Press, 2013.
Medda-Windischer, Roberta, Kerstin Wonisch, and Alexandra Cosima Budabin. Religious Minorities in Pluralist Societies. Brill, 2023. https://brill.com/display/title/59466.
Menchik, Jeremy. Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316344446.
Menchik, Jeremy. “Productive Intolerance: Godly Nationalism in Indonesia.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 56, no. 3 (2014): 591–621.
Mervin, Sabrina, Rainer Brunner, Jean-François Legrain, Joseph Alagha, Reidar Visser, Thomas Pierret, Roel Meijer, Joas Wagemakers, Stéphane A. Dudoignon, and Farian Sabahi. The Dynamics of Sunni-Shia Relationships: Doctrine, Transnationalism, Intellectuals and the Media. Hurst Publishers, 2013.
Musdhalifah, Musdhalifah. “Amalgamasi Sunni Dan Syi’ah Di Kampung Arab Bondowoso.” Islamika Inside: Jurnal Keislaman Dan Humaniora 5, no. 2 (2021): 238–63. https://doi.org/10.35719/islamikainside.v5i2.92.
Nakash, Yitzhak. The Shiʻis of Iraq: With a New Introduction by the Author. 2nd pbk. ed., with a new introduction. Princeton Paperbacks. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Paralikas, Apostolos G., and Anna Boumpa. “State Recognition and Islamic Legal Authority: Repositioning the Mufti Institution in Greece.” Indonesian Journal of Islamic Law 9, no. 1 (February 2026): 28–49. https://doi.org/10.35719/1gpqja79.
Rahim, Muddathir ʿAbd al-. Review of Review of Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam, by Abdullah Saeed and Hassan Saeed. International Journal of Middle East Studies 37, no. 4 (2005): 614–15.
Razak, Muhammad Syaqiq Al-Azdi Bin Abd, Sharifah Hayaati Syed Ismail, and Siti Arni Basir Basir. “Harmonizing Faith and Governance: A Comprehensive Study of Islamic Governance Frameworks: Menyatukan Agama Dan Tadbir Urus: Kajian Komprehensif Kerangka Tadbir Urus Islam.” Jurnal Pengajian Islam 17, no. 2 (December 2024): 87–101. https://doi.org/10.53840/jpi.v17i2.304.
Stroope, Samuel, and Joseph O. Baker. “Whose Moral Community? Religiosity, Secularity, and Self-Rated Health across Communal Religious Contexts.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 59, no. 2 (2018): 185–99.
Szelenyi, Iván. “Weber’s Theory of Domination and Post-Communist Capitalisms.” Theory and Society 45, no. 1 (2016): 1–24.
Yusof, Shamsul. The Role of Religious Institutions in Mitigating Sectarian Conflict. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), 2018.
Zaenuri, Ahmad, and Ahmad Irfan. “Arab Sunni-Wahhâbism and Shia Iran: From Sectarian Conflict, to the Domination of the Gulf Region.” Al-Bayyinah 7, no. 2 (November 2023): 2. https://doi.org/10.30863/al-bayyinah.v7i2.4721.
Zucca, Lorenzo. “Freedom of Religion in a Secular World.” In Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, 1st ed., edited by Rowan Cruft, S. Matthew Liao, and Massimo Renzo, 388–406. Oxford University PressOxford, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688623.003.0022.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ulumuna
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
