Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia By R. Michael Feener (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. hbk. 270 pages.)

Abstract

Although it is themost populous country in theMuslim world, Indonesia has
long been overlooked in scholarly discussions of modern Muslim legal
thought. This neglect has been compounded by the fact that western scholarship
on this Southeast Asian country has been dominated by historians,
anthropologists, and political scientists rather than scholars conversant with
the Islamic sciences. Since the mid-1990s this situation has begun to change,
however, as a new generation of scholars trained in classical and modern
Islamic scholarship have come on the scene. These young researchers have
made Islamic thought in Indonesia available to a global English-language
readership for the first time.
Fluent inArabic aswell as Indonesian, R.Michael Feener has established
himself as among the most important members of this new generation of students
of Indonesian Islam. The present book, a significant revision, updating,
and expansion of his 1999 dissertation, seeks to provide a “road map” of
“major trends in IndonesianMuslim thought on issues of law and society” (p.
xvii) by focusing on the intellectual currents from the 1920s to the early
2000s. The author argues, correctly I believe, that this effort is significant not
just because Muslim thought in Indonesia has yet to receive the attention it
deserves, but because “Indonesia has become arguably the world’s most
vibrant center for contemporary Islamic thought” (p. 225) ...