Indonesian summit to promote 'renovated' Islam in challenge to global jihadism

Cirebon: It's hard to know for certain what a Muslim saint who was born in 1448 might have looked like, but for a reasonable price you can wear his portrait on a T-shirt.

Kiosks outside the pilgrimage site devoted to Sunan Gunungjati in Cirebon, West Java, do a brisk trade selling tourist apparel along with flower petals, fragrant incense and canisters to scoop holy water.

Inside his mausoleum is a riot of sound and colour. There are gravestones spray-painted silver, a dusty chandelier, models of blue shrimps - Cirebon's nickname is Prawn Town - and walls decorated with porcelain plates.

Pilgrims pray on raised platforms or animatedly chant La ilaha illa Allah (There is no god but Allah).

Sunan Gunungjati was one of the Wali Songo, or nine saints, credited with spreading Islam across Java in the 15th and 16th centuries. Pilgrims might visit his tomb to seek help finding a soulmate or with a financial problem, says Muhammad Jadul Maula, who runs an Islamic cultural school in Yogyakarta.

"They sometimes ask the Wali Songo to say a prayer to God about their problems. They believe Wali Songo are saints, close to God, and it is hoped their prayers will be answered," he says.

Sunan Gunungjati used wayang puppetry, a Hindu art form, to spread the word of Islam. This was typical of the Wali Songo, who embraced cultural practices from pre-existing faiths in their proselytising, including kapitayan, the ancient religion of Java.

This syncretism is part of what gives the Islam of Indonesia, known as Islam Nusantara, its unique flavour. It is also considered heresy by some Muslims, such as those who espouse the ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam known as Salafism or Wahhabism.

Wahhabists oppose the veneration of saints and pilgrimages to tombs, which they see as idolatry.

Saudi Arabia - where this puritanical brand of Islam originated and has official status - has even demolished the tombs of companions of the Prophet Muhammad in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

"Muslims are not allowed to idolise anyone," says Irfan Awwas, head of the executive board of the Wahhabi-inspired Indonesian Mujahideen Council. "(Pilgrims) pray to dead people. They idolise the Wali Songo."

The influence of Wahhabi teaching, funded by Saudi money, is spreading in Indonesia - six satellite TV stations promote its theology 24/7.

But if anything, pilgrimage to the Wali Songo shrines is more popular than ever, in part due to government promotion of the sites as tourist destinations.

"Visiting tombs is an old tradition in Indonesia, so it is difficult to attack this tradition," Jadul Maula says.

A couple of years ago a tomb was bombed in Yogyakarta, with the word kafir (infidel) scrawled across the tombstone.

"What is interesting is that people immediately realised it was a provocation," Jadul Maula says. "Now more people go to the tomb."

Many Indonesians believe the legacy of the Wali Songo is Islam Nusantara, a pluralistic, tolerant form of Islam that inspired the nation's founders to establish a multi-religious state in 1945.

This week the largest Islamic civil group in the world - Indonesia's Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) - will host a two-day international summit of Muslim leaders in Jakarta.

The summit, attended by 300 Muslim leaders from more than 30 countries, is part of NU's global campaign to promote Islam Nusantara as an antidote to extremist ideology and jihadism.

NU's Supreme Council general secretary, Yahya Cholil Staquf, believes the event will be historic because it will discuss frankly the links between terrorism and Islam.

Yahya, whose family has produced kiai (Islamic scholars) for generations, is shocked by the argument often presented in the West that Islam has nothing to do with extremism and terrorism.

He says provisions within fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) allow for slavery and executions. It is from these medieval interpretations of Islam that the so-called Islamic State and al-Qaeda draw justification for their actions.

"If we may implement without questioning any provision of fiqh ... then we may ... butcher people according to the rules of fiqh that still exist today," Yahya says. "This is a problem."

NU is pushing for a debate about how literal interpretations of Islamic law - relevant at the time of the Prophet Muhammad - can be revised to reflect contemporary society.

There is a heightened urgency to this battle of ideas given that IS claimed responsibility for a terror attack in Central Jakarta in January which killed eight people. "We want to encourage people to acknowledge the problem honestly and stop denying it," Yahya says.

Hajriyanto Thohari, an executive board member of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-largest Islamic civil organisation, believes this linkage of Islam and terrorism is simplistic.

NU is pushing for a debate about how literal interpretations of Islamic law - relevant at the time of the Prophet Muhammad - can be revised to reflect contemporary society.

There is a heightened urgency to this battle of ideas given that IS claimed responsibility for a terror attack in Central Jakarta in January which killed eight people. "We want to encourage people to acknowledge the problem honestly and stop denying it," Yahya says.

Hajriyanto Thohari, an executive board member of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second-largest Islamic civil organisation, believes this linkage of Islam and terrorism is simplistic.