1st Announcement and Call for Papers: (pdf)
Muslim Youth as Agents of Change in Indonesia
1st International Conference within the framework of the Indonesian Young Leaders Programme
27-29 November 2007, Klub Bunga Hotel, Butu Malang , Indonesia
We invite you to submit paper abstracts for this conference. You are also welcome to send in panel proposals.
Deadline to send in abstracts: 15 August 2007
Joint conference organised by:
- Leiden University , the Netherlands ,
- The Ministry of Religious Affairs, Indonesia
- Universitas Islam Malang (UNISMA), Indonesia .
· Abstracts should be no longer than 200 words and be accompanied by a short resume/CV (max. 2 pages).
· Funds will be made available to invited speakers and to those selected speakers (from Africa, the Middle East and South/Southeast Asia ) who do not have resources available to cover their travel and lodging expenses. To qualify for a grant, please submit a short letter of motivation to the given email-address.
· For further information:
M.R. van Amersfoort, youngleaders@let.leidenuniv.nl
Or visit: www.indonesianyoungleaders.org
Youth is intrinsically linked with the search for independence, individuality and an own identity, as well as with the Challenging of the status quo. In Indonesia , authority is very much linked to seniority but, despite this, youth have always played an important role in changes in the political, intellectual and social landscape. This was illustrated by the prominent role of youth in the developments which led to the fall of President Suharto in 1998. This conference aims to investigate the role of Muslim youth as agents of change in Indonesia , where Muslims constitute the majority (approximately 90%) and where a majority is under the age of 25.
The conference will investigate under what circumstances Muslim youth have become agents of change by looking at their personal and educational backgrounds, exposure to media, and the influence of Islam (in the form of dakwah and other manifestations), in order to establish what moral values have influenced the youth to act in the way that they have (or have not).
Particular attention will be paid to the context in which Muslim youths seem to radicalise, as well as to the context in which this radicalisation has led to active participation in violent actions. In this case, an investigation will be made into the factors that contributed to this violence, as well as into the factors which prevent Muslim youth from participating in violent actions. Islam will also be an important focus of research, not only as a factor which might have stimulated violence (possibly prompted by transnational Islam in the form of Wahhabism or neo-Salafism), as is often assumed, but also explicitly as a factor which mitigated or even obstructed the occurrence of violence (possibly prompted by more indigenous interpretations of Islam). One possible way to establish the role of Islam or the absence thereof is to investigate whether there is a difference in the behaviour of Muslim youth and non-Muslim youth.
During the conference scholars with expertise from countries other than Indonesia will participate in order to establish foreign influences on Indonesian Muslim youth, as well as to address the same problematic for other regions, so that the Indonesian experience can be understood from an international comparative perspective.
