Examining Jakarta office mosques: Islamic teaching practices and views of Islamic ideological issues

This paper discusses Islamic teaching practices and perceptions of mosque stakeholders concerning the ideological issues of: a democratic system of government versus formal implementation of Islamic sharia; gender equality; jihad, and pluralism in the Jakarta office mosques. After describing the research findings, the paper concludes that the phenomenon of neo-fundamentalism (in Olivier Roy’s words) is growing and developing in office mosques. This can be seen in the dominance of literal and scripturalist Islamic interpretations, the importance given to implementing Islamic sharia and the rejection of democracy, a hatred of Jews and Christians and the emergence of Muslim youth actors in Islamic neo-fundamentalism. Other findings concern the influence of the Tarbiyah movement, an offshoot of the Ikhwanul Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood), which is being felt in the office mosques studied. Learning about Islamist understandings will allow us to check its development, which may destroy the friendly, peaceful face of Islam.