Javanese Santri Islam

Oleh: Gary Dean

Abstrak:

Islam di Jawa sangat beraneka-ragam, yang oleh Gertz dibagi secara vertikal menjadi abangan dan santri. Sedangkan secara horisontal, bisa dibagi menjadi dimensi tradisionalis vs modernis. Awalnya istilah santri adalah pelajar atau pengikut sekolah Islam yang disebut pesantren. Namun, kemudian istilah ini digunakan untuk menamai kelas dalam masyarakat Jawa yang berislam kuat, yang dioposisikan dengan abangan dan priyayi. Dengan adanya pengaruh budaya lokal, timbul pula percabangan dalam Islam di Jawa: Islam Jawa yang bersifat sinkretik, dan Islam modernis yang puritan. Lalu apa yang membedakan santri Jawa dari masyarakat yang lain? Pada dasarnya adalah identitas. Santri secara sadar mengidentifikasikan diri mereka sebagai Muslim, dan berusaha sebisa mungkin menjalani hidup sesuai dengan pemahaman mereka sendiri terhadap Islam, entah itu berupa Islam tradisional yang sinkretik, Islam kaum modernis yang puritan, atau campuran keduanya.

Kata Kunci: santri, pesantren, Islam Jawa, Islam tradisional, Islam modernis, ortodoks.
The Western aversion and distrust towards Islam runs deep, in contrast to how ‘friendlier’ religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism are often considered.1 Even Westerners better informed about Islam have their concerns, so it is probably not simply a case of a ‘misunderstood’ religion. Many see Islam as an inherently undemocratic religion, placing restrictions on, for example, women’s rights or freedom of religion.2 To assert that understanding leads to tolerance is not necessarily true. Islam confronts many of the foundations of Western liberal-democratic culture, and by its very nature does not lend itself to be co-opted into the pluralistic, ‘tolerant’ frameworks of liberal Western societies.

Islam in Java is extremely diverse in the manner of its expression, and highly variable in terms of depth of commitment to the religion. The oft-quoted figure that 90% of the Javanese population embraces Islam is extremely misleading, and in fact, wrong. It is perhaps true that 90% of the Javanese population hold an identity card (KTP) stating that Islam is their religion. However given the lack of religious freedom in Indonesia,3 the life-threatening danger of not professing a government-approved religion, and pressure from within the Ministry of Religion and Islamists to inflate the number of Muslims in Indonesia for political reasons, this 90% figure should be summarily dismissed as an untruth.

Muslims in Java are usually divided vertically according to their level of identification with Islam; ie, Geertz’s abangan/santri dichotomy, with the santri much more closely identifying themselves as Muslim. In addition to this, there is also a horizontal traditionalist/modernist dimension within Javanese Islam.

Baca artikel lengkap: 8-javanese-santri-islam