2 The Mosque as a Religious Sphere
Looking at the Conflict over the Al Muttaqun Mosque
Syaifudin Zuhri^1
1 Introduction
For Muslims, the mosque is a central institution. Not only does the
mosque serve as a religious institution where sermons, prayer and
devotional acts are performed in order to create a ‘moral community’,²
but also as a ‘religious sphere’.³ Theoretically, the notion of ‘mosque as
religious sphere’ is derived from the idea of public sphere in the Western
context, something that is considered as lacking theoretical significance
in the Muslim world. The narrow definition of the so-called public sphere
in the Western context implies the receding role of religion, limiting the
significance of religion to the household and private sphere. Introducing
the concept of a religious sphere makes it possible to do justice to the
considerable role of religion in public space.⁴ Within the just mentioned
An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Research
Conference on Muhammadiyah (ircm) in December 2012. I would like to thank
two discussants, Azyumardi Azra and Rizal Sukma, for their invaluable comments
on the draft. The greatest thanks go to Kees van Dijk for invaluable suggestions
and comments.
Barbara D. Metcalf, ‘Islam in Contemporary Southeast Asia: History, Community,
Morality’, in Robert W. Hefner and Patricia Horvatich,Islam in an Era of Nation
States: Politics and Religious Renewal in Muslim Southeast Asia(Hawai’i: Hawai’i
University Press, 1997), 309–320.
Dale F. Eickelman and Armando Salvatore, ‘Public Islam as an Antidote to
Violence?’, in Esther E. Gottlieb (ed.),Identity Conflicts: Can Violence be Regulated?
(New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2007), 80–81.
Armando Salvatore and Dale F. Eickelman, ‘Preface Public Islam and the Common
Good’, in Armando Salvatore and Dale F. Eickelman (eds.),Islam and the
Common Good(Leiden: Brill, 2006), xi–xxv; José Casanova,Public Religions in
the Modern World(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Craig Calhoun
(ed.),Habermas and the Public Sphere(Studies in Contemporary German Social
Thought) (Cambridge: mit Press, 1993); Reinhard Schulze,A Modern History
of the Islamic World(London: ib Tauris, 2000); Dale F. Eickelman and James