Competition for Religious Authority and Islamist Mobilization in Indonesia

Bibliographic Data

ID6247366
AuthorsAlexandre Pelletier (0000-0002-3834-5106, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume53
Issue3
Pages525-547
Publication date2021-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4159 • E-ISSN: 2151-6227
PublisherComparative Politics CUNY (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5129/001041521x15974471626004
OpenAlexW3140775802
LanguageEN
Citations received10

This article seeks to explain variations in the success of Islamist mobilization. It argues that Islamist groups do better where competition for religious authority is intense. These religious "markets" are conducive to Islamist success because they 1) lower the barriers of entry to new religious entrepreneurs, 2) incentivize established leaders to support Islamist mobilization, and 3) push moderate leaders into silence. The article develops this theory by examining sub-regional variations in Islamist mobilization on the Indonesian island of Java. Using newly collected data on Java's 15,000 Islamic schools, it compares religious institutions across more than 100 regencies in Java. It also uses dozens of field interviews with Indonesian Islamists and Muslim leaders to show where market structures have facilitated the growth of Islamist groups

Competition (biology · Field (mathematics · Geography · Indonesian · Islam · Java · Mobilization · Political economy · Political science · Silence · Sociology · Asian Studies and History · Islamic Finance and Banking Studies · Law · Religion, Society, and Development

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