25 Years on, Vanguard Liberal Indonesian Muslim Activists are in Disarray

On many critical issues, such as the war in Gaza, Jaringan Islam Liberal figures stand on opposite sides. In this picture, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather outside the United States Embassy in Jakarta on 14 June 2026 | Photo by Agoes Rudianto / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP

In this article for Fulcrum, Ary Hermawan asserts that Indonesia’s Liberal Islam Network (Jaringan Islam Liberal) lacking a clear ideological stance is diminishing the movement’s relevance for liberal Indonesians, despite the prominence of their leaders.

It has been 25 years since Indonesia’s Liberal Islam Network (Jaringan Islam Liberal, JIL) was established in March 2001, just three years after Reformasi.

The intellectual network has been in disarray over the past decade, reflecting the current state of the broader liberal and progressive Islamic movement in Indonesia. The old guard of liberal Indonesian Islam, represented by the establishments within Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, are facing elite co-option as they seek access to state resources, and are grappling with ideological challenges from their younger members affiliated with progressive, leftist and environmentalist Islamic groups such as Islam Bergerak and Muhammadiyah Green Cadres (Kader Hijau Muhammadiyah). 

This ideological split has made it difficult for former JIL figures, as well as the overall progressive Indonesian Islam movement, not only to advance the interests of the ummah (Muslim community), but also to effectively turn the tide against Islamic conservatism.

Scholars have attributed JIL’s decline to the group’s “boundary-testing strategies”, its elitism and Indonesia’s “conservative turn”. Ideologically, while all JIL thinkers claim to support civil liberties in matters of religion, they do not share the same political and economic orientations. Some JIL figures are staunch libertarians and free-market supporters, while others lean towards democratic socialism and could even be considered “liberal left”.

Although JIL no longer stands behind a coherent “liberal” brand, its individual members continue to shape Islamic discourses in Indonesia through their activism and respective platforms. Some former JIL figures have become hosts of the liberal YouTube channel CokroTV, and leaders or members of social and political organisations such as NU or Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Their prominence, however, has done little to revive institutional coherence; these internal ideological differences have instead hastened JIL’s irrelevance within Indonesia’s liberal movement.