The conflict between the various groups of Muslims in Indonesia started when contact with the Middle East intensified in the early 20th century. The conflict was more pronounced after various Islamic groups emerged during the second and third decades of 20th century. The emergence of modern Islamic groups such as Muhammadiyah and NU has made manifest the conflict among Muslims at the grassroots level. This conflict was intensified when political competition between the Islamic aliran (streams) reached their peak during the liberal democracy period.

The groups' various standpoints in terms of Islamic practice have resulted in continuous hidden conflict since each group feels its own interpretation and practice of Islam is better. In addition, each group has tried to extend its own particular practice to groups where other practices of Islam are performed. In the past, conflict in Javanese villages was commonly expressed in the struggle to manage a mosque or in the struggle to lead the village. As a mosque was not only a symbol of Muslim existence in society but also a representation of a particular practice of Islam, a group which owned or managed a mosque could expand the influence of the group and its Islamic parties. An NU mosque would represent traditionalist beliefs and practices, while a Muhammadiyah mosque would promote ‘more purified Islamic beliefs and practices’. A mosque was a very important medium through which religious beliefs and practices were disseminated since Muslims gathered there five times daily to perform their practice of Islam. Since most of the mosques in Javanese villages were erected by member of the wider society rather than by certain Islamic groups, they constituted a place where the conflict between Islamic groups, especially between NU and Muhammadiyah, was manifest.

The problem of bid'a in certain aspects of Islamic rituals, such as tahlil or ziyara ^[12], has been deemed by Muhammadiyah as amounting to shirk. Muhammadiyah members consider that much of NU's practice of Islam is mixed with that of other religions, so that NU has been called syncretic. For NU members, however, their practice of Islam can not only enriched the culture of Islam itself due to its adoption of the existing local culture, but can also be backed by strong arguments. In the opinion of one NU member, Islam not only comprises pure ritual practices as described by the Qur'an or the hadith, but also pays attention to understanding the psychological aspect of its adherents’ lives. By this he means that any effort to understand the social life of an Islamic society should not neglect the psychological aspect. He suggested further that “the application of a certain interpretation in regard to such ‘ibada (devotional action) as tahlil, should take into consideration the psychological dimension of the local people's lives”. The ritual practices conducted by NU, in his opinion, have been more ‘ibada in character rather than deviating from the ‘real’ Islam itself. “Tahlil, for example, which is regarded by Muhammadiyah members as heretical, is actually very Islamic since all the tahlil rituals are dhikr (stating the oneness of Allah)”, he emphasised. So the tahlil itself is Islamic in essence. “What is wrong with doing a lot of such ‘ibada as reciting tahlil or tahmid ^[13]?”, this NU member asked.

The different Islamic practices have also been emphasised by their proponents’ different political orientations, especially during the liberal democracy period. Throughout Java, the ideological conflict between the traditionalists and the modernists at the grassroots level has been tremendous. The unwillingness of NU and Muhammadiyah members to assimilate or cooperate has been sustained by the political situation. Relations between the groups have also deteriorated because of their views which encourage them to be continuously different^[14]. As indicated by their unwillingness to marry, few NU members in villages in Java, and especially in Madura, have a negative perception of Muhammadiyah. Such a perception is still alive even today, and can be extreme in regions where NU's embeddedness has been particularly strong, and the Muhammadiyah is less known.

As the culture or religious practice of the Javanese is essentially traditional and syncretic, and hence very close to that of NU society, the Muhammadiyah's efforts to change the existing practice represent a threat to most Javanese Muslim villagers. The conflicts which flourished among Muslim groups in Indonesia during the 1950s has given rise to another situation where every group feels that it has done the correct thing in terms of its practice of religion. This ideological conflict resulted in a situation where each group humiliated the others. Among Javanese villagers there even emerged a subtle accusation that the conduct of Muhammadiyah members was less Islamic or outside Islam itself. A simple but significant case illustrates this problem in the relationship between the modernist and traditionalist (orthodox) Muslims in Java. Due to its simplicity, this case has become a joke in any conversation or social encounter between Islamic intellectuals. I will quote an extract written by an NU intellectual and published in an NU magazine of East Java. This intellectual was disappointed with the fact that among members of NU society there still exist such naive perceptions of other Islamic organisations. He wrote and I translate and paraphrase:

It is evident that some NU members at the grassroots level have a very negative view of Muhammadiyah. This is expressed not only in their unwillingness to allow inter-marriage, but also in their perception that Muhammadiyah is not Islamic. I need also to give a description of how the conflict still continues to the present time. The following quote from a report in the monthly magazine, AULA, concerns the battle between NU and Muhammadiyah for ownership of an Islamic educational institution in a regency in East Java:

 

The Muhammadiyah tendency in Jombang to try to increase its influence in society, in addition to its efforts of purification, has not only provoked internal conflict in Islamic society, but has also resulted in confusion among members of society who are mainly NU members or sympathisers. For lay Javanese, who have no appropriate basic knowledge in regard to their Islamic understanding, the competition between Muhammadiyah and NU has made them unsure about the essence of Islam itself.

What happened in Puton, a village in Jombang where the majority of the population were less devout Muslims, can illustrate this phenomenon. In the beginning of the New Order government, Muslims in Puton were trying to practise Islam in a more correct way. Their reassertion of Islam pushed them to be more active Muslims in terms of Islamic practice (not just nominal Muslims as before). Their practice of Islam was traditionalist, since in this village NU had long been the sole representative of Islamic organisations. In a tarawih ^[15], however, a Muhammadiyah member tried to introduce a practice commonly performed by modernists. As this practice differed from that of NU members, many people were confused, since they were new in their practice of tarawih and in their acquisition of Islamic knowledge. The people in Puton and in many other villages in Jombang have not been inclined to accept Muhammadiyah practice. Not only have most people in these areas been oriented to NU for a long time but also the practice of Islam offered by Muhammadiyah is culturally alien to them^[16].

This conflict between the two dominant Muslim groups in Jombang, which basically derives from their different interpretation of Islamic precepts as applied in their daily Islamic practice, has extended to other areas. It has impinged on the social and political domain of Jombangese lives. ‘Asabiya or group fanaticism^[17] is the driving force that affects the relationship between Muslims in Jombang. Such ‘asabiya, according to a Muslim intellectual in Jombang, has even weakened the pillars of unity which had been established for a long time.

The change in the bureaucratic structure brought about by the Suharto government at the beginning of the 1970s had a big impact on the relationship between various Muslim groups in Jombang. The promotion of a Muhammadiyah intellectual, Mukti Ali, to the position of Minister in the Ministry of Religion, not only constituted government social engineering that aimed to curtail the influence of NU in this department, which it had dominated for a long time, but it also changed the constellation of the social structure in the bureaucracy of the Ministry of Religion. The change in the political map by the promotion of Mukti Ali was followed by the restructuring of all personnel in the Ministry of Religion throughout Indonesia from the central office down to the district level. NU's domination of this department was replaced by Muhammadiyah's even in cities like Jombang where the number of NU members constitutes an absolute majority.

The change in the pattern of bureaucratic leadership through politics is impressive, ignoring as it does the objective condition of the local society. It is likely that a gap has emerged which characterises the relationship between local society and these bureaucrats. The character of the bureaucratic machine is impersonal, and this condition can be attributed or applied to the existing bureaucracy from the central government to the regency level. At the district level in Java, however, the bureaucracy had been better staffed by personnel well known to local society. At the district level individual members of society know each other. Furthermore, their understanding of Islamic precepts and norms is applied more directly in their daily lives. The fact that a Muhammadiyah officer of the Ministry of Religion at the district level (Kantor Urusan Agama=KUA) has a different understanding of these precepts from the surrounding NU society can lead to problems.

An important conflict also occurred between these organisations and the LDII (the preaching institution of Islam). LDII was formerly called Islam Jamaah (lit. the group of Muslims). This group is more responsive to the existing condition of Muslim society. Socially, however, it is more exclusive since what it conceptualises as “the real Islam” is restricted to the group's own practices. Accordingly, they regard both Muhammadiyah and NU as outside Islam. The group's first move when it emerged in Ngoro, was to burn kitab ^[18] (books) which had been used by traditionalist kiai as their references. In the opinion of members of this movement, these books would lead to stagnancy among Muslims in Java. They could divert Islam from its true course. This very exclusive and extreme conceptualisation of Islam estranged the followers of this organisation from the rest of the Islamic community. The feeling that they are the only Islamic group provoked a negative relationship with other Muslim groups since such an attitude is offensive. Due to its exclusivism, other Islamic groups cannot help but be suspicious of LDII.

The members’ relations with the rest of society are not established and maintained with reference to the existing social order. The concepts of purity and impurity, derived from their self acknowledgement as the only pure Muslim group, have guided the development of such a relationship. I was told by people that a member of Ngoro society, Muhadi (my next door neighbour during my research; not his real name), has maintained very rigid relations with other members of society. He is a small trader in Ngoro, selling such daily needs as rice. Being a member of LDII, he looked down on other Muslims who did business with him. In his shop, Muhadi tried to avoid any hand contact with his customers just because the latter were deemed impure. 

Societal suspicion of this Islamic group pushed the government to ban it. The group changed its name twice following the government's ban. In spite of kiai pressure, the government is reluctant to ban it again. The tendency of the group to emphasise the importance of zakat (alms giving) has made it self-sufficient in terms of financial support. Members are urged to allocate some of their income to support their organisation, since zakat is an important task they have to perform on the path of Allah. The former Minister of Home Affair, Rudini^[19], suggested that this group is potentially very strong, since it is economically independent.

Despite these facts that characterise the life of Muslim groups in Jombang and their relations, the degree of tension between them, especially between NU and Muhammadiyah, in present day Jombang has decreased significantly. The tendency to reconcile and reach mutual understanding about their differences is also growing. The NU kiai are occasionally invited to Muhammadiyah pengajian, and vice versa. Also the domination of Muhammadiyah in the management of a mosque as big as Mesjid Jami‘ (the great mosque) of Jombang is much reduced. The imam (the person who leads the prayer) and the sermon giver at Friday Prayer in this mosque, for example, may come from Muhammadiyah or NU. If the imam is of Muhammadiyah background, the Friday Prayer will follow the Muhammadiyah style. If the imam is an NU member, it will be carried out in the NU style.

From several interviews with NU members in Jombang, I did not find a negative perception of Muhammadiyah, such as I have described above, since Muslims here are more open to the modern situation. NU society now rarely tries to humiliate Muhammadiyah. The term ‘Kamandulah’^[20], which was popularly used among NU society of East Java to humiliate Muhammadiyah adherents, is not known among the younger generation in present day Jombang. Several factors sustain this situation in Jombang. Firstly, Jombang is strategically located and connects many cities in East Java. This made the flow of information concerned with either Islamic development or its politics easier to reach the Muslim society in Jombang. This was because Muslims in Jombang were more sensitive to their problems, including their internal conflicts. Secondly, Jombang has produced some well known national Islamic figures, such as Kiai Hasyim Asy‘ari or the current Muslim intellectuals, Dr. Nurkholis Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid, the NU national chairman. The emergence of national leading figures in Jombang has made its Muslim population proud. This has reduced differences^[21] among groups, since these figures derive not only from NU but also from Muhammadiyah. Thirdly, around one third of the devout Muslims in Jombang are involved in the tarekat movement. The existence of the various tarekat movements in Jombang has not only resulted in the clear delineation of Muslim groupings but can also broaden their members’ perspectives. Despite the divisions between the various groups due to different political orientations, they are sociologically still bound together, since these tarekat groups have the same cultural roots. NU members’ affiliation with various tarekat groups has laid down the basic principles of unity. The consciousness of the members has been raised and they can see that similarity in membership (in NU) can be complemented by different affiliations (with the tarekat movements). Their grouping as members of NU does not prevent them from acknowledging the existence of other Islamic groups, such as Muhammadiyah which tends to be anti-tarekat. In practical Islam, the practices of other Islamic groups must be acknowledged as real a practice of Islam as their own. Finally, Muhammadiyah in Jombang is relatively small in size and poses little threat to the established culture of traditional Muslims. In addition, most Muhammadiyah leading figures in Jombang come from families with NU background.

In brief, it is evident that the socio-political situation that surrounds the life of Muslim society in Jombang has not provoked extreme antagonism between Muslim groups. There has been no significant conflict between the traditionalist and modernist Islamic groups in present day Jombang. This situation is supported by the fact that the number of followers on both sides is not comparable. The traditionalist followers constitute half of the Muslim population in Jombang, while the modernists only exist in a few districts as a minority. The rest are abangan and others.

The discordant situation based on different ideological understandings has declined significantly, although each Islamic group retains a cynical attitude deriving from such differences which are expressed in everyday life. The pengajian (religious teaching) is a common forum used by Islamic groups to criticise or even humiliate others. In one pengajian session, for example, I noticed that a Muhammadiyah leader in his speech criticised a certain group of Islam for persisting in doing what he called a blind taqlid, that is following a madhhab (school of Islamic thoughts) without being critical. He suggested that among a certain group of Muslims all texts spoken or written in Arabic are deemed as sacred, whereas the content or meaning of these words might not have any relation to Islam or could even be classified as ‘bahasa cinta’ (words of love). The failure to understand correctly what comes from religion and what is added to it, in his opinion, is due to people's ignorance (kebodohan, literally stupidity). This criticism was actually made and directed to those Muslims, that is NU members, who due to their tendency to be more religiously minded, are inclined to be uncritical of everything that sounds Arabic.