Dialectical Relations of Modernity and Tradition

E. Conclusion

Muhammadiyah has made great efforts both to modernize Indonesia and to reform the interpretation of Islam in Indonesia. In the first part, it has been relatively successful in establishing modern infrastructures such as schools, hospitals, and banks, to mention a few. In the second part, it is still not able to attract rural Moslem communities who compose majority of Indonesian Moslems. The cause of this failure can be traced back to the sociological background of its followers in the urban area of Jogjakarta, which did not accommodate the religious thinking of the rural areas.

Muhammadiyah’s slogan of anti-TBC (Takhayul, Bid’ah, Churafat) was to confront to religious life in the rural area s and culminated in Sufi sm Its modern religious interpretation focused on using ratio nality to manage the worldly, and it did not accept the emotional relationship with God. Its strong opposition to TBC changed as it needs spiritual feeling recently because of the presence of such immense materialism. It took a long time from 1912 to the 1990-s to see this dialectical thinking from opposing Sufi sm into accepting Sufi sm to such extend This process can be shortened if there existed a mutual dialogue with other groups, or had there been comparative history studies with already advanced societies in the West.