Surabaya, NU Online
The idea of Islam Nusantara is genealogically inspired by the indigenization of Islam stated by the late KH Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) in the latter half of the 80s.

Member of the Advisory Board of Nahdlatul Ulama KH M. Tholhah Hasan, popularly known as Kiai Tholhah, made the remarks on the sidelines of a meeting with NU Online here on Saturday.

He said that tn the "indigenization of Islam", it could be seen how Islam as a normative doctrine coming from God could be accommodated into the cultural spaces without losing its identity.

"For Gus Dur, the Arabization and processes to identify ourselves with Middle Eastern cultures are a proof that we have been deprived of our own cultural roots. Furthermore, The Arabization is necessarily not in line with the needs,"he said.

According to Kiai Tholhah, the indigenization is not an attempt to avoid the emergence of resistance from the forces of local cultures, but instead the culture is not lost. Therefore, the core of indigenization of Islam is not to do a polarization between religion and culture, because it thus is not inevitable.

"The indigenization of Islam has actually taken the spirit taught by Walisongo in their dakwa (propagation) to the archipelago around the 15th century and the 16th in Java. In this context, Walisongo could successfully incorporate the local values in the teachings of Islam that are typically Indonesian,"he said.

This creativity spawned a new cluster for the reason of Indonesian Islam that not literally and textually imitates Islam in Arab countries.

"There is no reason of Arabization inherent in the spread of Islam in the archipelago. It is of course different from that in the next period, namely the 17th century through such prominent ulema as Abdurrauf Sinkili and Muhammad Yusuf al-Makassari that based their lines of thought more on the purification in the renewal of Islam."

Kiai Tholhah said that Walisongo could precisely accommodate Islam as a religious teaching through the process of history along with local cultures.

"For example, what is done by Sunan Bonang by changing the Javanese gamelan that was in the time condensed with Hindu aesthetics by encouraging a love of transcendental life. The song "Tombo Ati" is one of his works. Even, in the puppet show, Sunan Bonang changed its characters and inserted Islam nuanced interpretations in it." (Masdar)