1A conspicuous phenomenon in the dynamics of Indonesian Islam over the last two decades is the increasing renewal of Muslims’ religious faith or intra-faith conversion who call their movement hijrah. The notion of hijrah is rooted in Quranic verses and Islamic traditions and refers to the change of a Muslim to become more pious. In its development and dynamics, hijrah is interpreted according to various social, political, and cultural contexts. Notwithstanding its importance in Indonesia, practices of hijrah can be found in other parts of the Muslim world. Likewise, in both Abrahamic and Indian religions, endeavours to come back to the letter of religious texts and norms can be found in various forms and expressions. In Christianity, for instance, this phenomenon is known as the born-again movement that has emerged since the 1960s, and it is also central to one of the latest branches of Christianity, Pentecostalism. In line with that, Olivier Roy (2004) explained that born-again Muslims of the second and third generation who live in Western culture welcome capitalism and modern lifestyles, even though they hold Islam as a marker of identity. Roy calls this paradoxical attitude neo-fundamentalism. In the Indonesian context, several scholars have examined the dynamics of Islamic expression from various perspectives, ranging from the symbolization of Islam through the wearing of the veil as a representation of the Islamic resurgence movement of the later 1970s (Brenner, 1996); institutionalization of piety through Islamic schools that encourages the removal of local customs and traditions from mainstream Islam (Bryner, 2013); to the intertwining of Islam and popular culture, especially in the younger generation (Heryanto, 2011; Hoesterey & Clark, 2012).
- 1 The word “santri” popularized by Clifford Geertz (1976) refers to the pesantren, or Islamic boardin (...)
2Currently, the hijrah communities are seeking to attain acceptance among Muslims in Jakarta and other big cities by implementing cultural strategies in both physical and digital spaces. They convey Islamic da’wah (Islamic mission) in unprecedented ways, such as approaching hobby-based communities, broadcasting pengajian (recitations) in mosques to social media channels, engaging with influencers, providing counselling services to youth in various domains including taaruf (matchmaking), publishing Quran hijrah, novels, songs and films, while still looking cool and not rejecting urban lifestyles. Interestingly, these communities were initiated by public figures and preachers from Middle East alumni. They attractively play on the emotions and psychology of the masses by offering Islam as a solution to the challenges of everyday life in urban areas. Hijrah communities are also attractive in expressing their identity and piety in Islam by glorifying and symbolizing Islam through clothing, language, and others that can still accommodate consumer culture. The movement’s followers are a new generation of Muslims, varied, highly mobile and connected to the Internet and social media. Unlike santri 1 who are more mature in Islam because they are educated in pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), the hijrah communities are generally filled by urban youth with superficial religious knowledge, because this knowledge does not come from conventional institutions, such as mosques, pesantren, or madrasa, but from anonymous sources, through courses, books, magazines, cassettes, CDs, VCDs, Internet, radio and television. In other words, an Indonesian Muslim scholar, Kuntowijoyo, calls it Muslim Tanpa Masjid (Muslims Without Mosques) (Kuntowijoyo, 2001).
3One of the most influential hijrah communities in Jakarta is the Kajian Musawarah which was founded by several Indonesian celebrities. Some of them are married couples, such as Arie Untung and Fenita Arie; Dimas Seto and Dini Aminarti; Teuku Wisnu and Shireen Sungkar; Irwansyah and Zaskia Sungkar; Dude Herlino and Alyssa Soebandono, among others. Since they are public figures, they have popularized the hijrah movement through their respective social media channels, be it Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. Similarly, through the official account of the Kajian Musawarah community, which has nearly one million followers on Instagram. Aside from the Kajian Musawarah, there are other hijrah communities in Jakarta that are networked with each other. Since 2018, these communities have organized an annual Islamic exhibition at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) with the label Hijrah Festival which attracts tens of thousands of young Muslims. To strengthen the hijrah community network, the community exchanges their respective ustaz (preacher) such as Abdul Somad, Felix Siauw, Adi Hidayat, Umar Mita, Salim Fillah, Hanan Attaki, Habib Muhammad bin Anis, and Lukmanul Hakim. The ustaz, who have millions of followers on social media, especially YouTube and Instagram, are known to be able to deliver Islamic da’wah in the language of the younger generation and easy to understand. The involvement of famous ustaz, besides being mentors for the hijrah community, also consists in being a medium of da’wah by developing the activities of Kajian Musawarah, especially in the field of education. In this respect, the community currently has a pesantren tahfiz (an Islamic boarding school for memorizing the Quran) called Rumah Quran Musawarah, located in Ciputat, South Tanggerang City, Banten. In addition, the Kajian Musawarah also operates a charity called Musawarah Peduli which has been engaged in providing social services since the pandemic hit. Meanwhile, their entrepreneurial activity called Musawarah Merchandise is a forum for business collaboration among Muslim businessmen, especially from the lower middle class.
4Scrutinizing the hijrah community initiated by the capital’s celebrities, of course, requires a variety of perspectives to understand the extent to which the religious activities they carry out give meaning to their followers and the ability of the community to survive in the future. From different perspectives, we can examine the birth of the Kajian Musawarah itself. For instance, we can relate it to the political moment during the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, where the tension among Muslims such as Islamists versus moderate Muslims as well as among religious groups rose sharply due to accusations of blasphemy against the incumbent candidate who was a Chinese-Christian, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, familiarly called Ahok. At that moment, Ahok’s opponent was Anies Baswedan who was fully supported by Islamic-affiliated political parties and almost the entire Indonesian Muslim organizations, including some ustaz and the Kajian Musawarah activists. A year after the election, the Kajian Musawarah was established and introduced to the public. Thus, there is a political tendency behind the birth of this community.
5Other studies analysed the hijrah phenomenon as a challenge to traditional religious authority (Alatas, 2021; Feillard, 2010; Saat & Burhani, 2020). The dynamics of Indonesian Islam in the last two decades indicated the rise of various new religious authorities, such as the presence of new media and new preacher figures who are popular on television channels and social media, especially YouTube and Instagram, challenge traditional religious authorities such as Kiyai (Islamic clerics), pesantren and madrasa. From another point of view, previous studies that looked at the phenomenon of hijrah celebrities underline the efforts of these celebrities to maintain their existence in the entertainment industry, as newer and younger figures are emerging (Fitri & Jayanti, 2020). Thus, they promote different types of businesses by packaging them with the sharia label. Scholars mention this tendency as the commodification of Islam and the commercialization of religion (Fealy & White, 2008; Muzakki, 2005), or the spread of popular culture in Islam (Heryanto, 2011).
6However, some aspects of the hijrah phenomenon remain to be explored. How do daily urban mobilities affect the construction of the Islamic identity of hijrah communities, both activists and their followers who are Muslim urbanites? Which identities do they construct when they identify themselves as urban modern Muslims? Why are activists of the hijrah community able to carry out religious orders, but at the same time still be able to enjoy an urban lifestyle, as a global trend? Further, is there a contradiction when there is a hybridization between religious messages and the material culture in their life?
- 2 Pancasila consists of five pillars, namely: 1) Ketuhanan yang maha esa (Belief in the one and only (...)
7This article specifically studies the Kajian Musawarah community for two reasons. Firstly, its initiators are mostly public figures of young Indonesian Muslims. Secondly, because this community is based in Jakarta, it has a wide-spanning effect throughout Indonesia. The Kajian Musawarah has succeeded in gaining the sympathy of urban Muslims through several routine religious activities, such as pengajian (recitations) and Islamic talk shows about everyday life, and through its skills in using digital and social media to promote its message and activities. Further, this article would like to understand how this hijrah community contest and emphasizes a new Muslim identity that can still relish an urban lifestyle and preach Islam at the same time. Some of the Kajian Musawarah activists articulated that they have their way as celebrities, either in looking trendy Islamic or delivering Islamic da’wah. Thus, those ways can easily be in-line with the younger Muslim generation’s emotions. Interestingly, these efforts are carried out in the megacity of Jakarta, where dense and massive mobility is a feature of people’s daily lives, on the one hand. On the other hand, people experience alienation due to inequality, social disruption, and how the ideals of social justice of Pancasila (the five pillars)2 state have not been realized wherein disparities of economic and social dilate continually. In addition, the pluralistic life of the city of Jakarta with many aspects of social life is also a challenge for the existence of this hijrah community. By using the new mobilities paradigm (Urry, 2007) and ethnographic field research where conversations with interlocutors have been conducted, this article discusses how the hijrah community constructs and promotes its identity through interdependent mobilities. The article starts with an analysis of the hijrah narrative and the way it participates in the construction of urban Muslim identities, then focuses on the case of Kajian Musawarah activists to examine the role that urban mobilities play in this construction process.
8The idea of becoming a pious Muslim is not recent in the dynamics of Indonesian Islam. Indonesia has already witnessed similar phenomena in various configurations, including the movement of urban piety (Bryner, 2013; Heryanto, 2011) and urban Sufism (Darmadi, 2001). Yet, urban Muslims have various interpretations of the hijrah movement. Some affirm it as an effort of ethical puritanism, some interpret hijrah as having a political background. Some have historical roots and are fighting for in the contemporary context.
- 3 It happened in mainstream Islam in 2005 when modernist and liberal thought that had gained wide app (...)
9Over the last two decades, the articulation of ideas, expressions, and resistance of Indonesian Muslims in urban public spaces has regained its place after being repressed during the New Order regime (Gibson, 2000; Hefner, 2011; Liddle, 1996), although, in the 1980s and 1990s, Suharto’s regime got closer to Islam to try and control it. When the Suharto regime collapsed, Muslim aspirations came to the fore. The contestation of Islamic political force from multiple groups immediately overwhelmed the public spaces. Not only that, there are fears of increasing Islamic piety that might trigger political tensions, threaten local customs and traditions, threaten women’s rights, and intensify religious conservatism (Beatty, 1999; Bryner, 2013; Hefner, 2005; Robinson, 2008). Some scholars even mention that the conservative turn has coloured the mainstream of post-authoritarian Indonesian Islam (Van Bruinessen, 2013).3 The increasing strength of religious identity politics is the result of but one current interpretation of Islam, which contains the general principle of the call to command what is right and forbid what is wrong, as well as the promise of happiness in life after death.
10Furthermore, as the post-New Order Indonesian state has less control over identity matters, various social movements, transnational flows, media representation, market forces and local politics, along with social experiences and individual choices, impersonate a more crucial role in the formation and contestation of Indonesian Muslim identities (Hew, 2017a). Therefore, several da’wah movements that are affiliated with transnational Islamic movements such as Salafism, Wahhabism, Muslim Brotherhood, and Tablighi Jamaat have developed into political activism and then triggered the spread of Islamic populism in the country (Hadiz, 2016; N. Hasan, 2007; Jahroni, 2015). The ustaz educated in the Middle East exert a strong influence on the hijrah movement, notably on the affiliated Islamic schools, which are inspired by purist conceptions of Islam and the Islamic Brotherhood (Bryner, 2013; Pribadi, 2021). Unlike Bassam Tibi (2012), who explained the phenomenon of Islamic politics, both within the country and outside, the hijrah movement did not have such political ideals. They consider the ummah (community) to consist only of all believers who follow the right path, wherever they are. In line with this, they have an imagination of the global ummah through interconnected communities. They call on and encourage Indonesian Muslims to behave and have an Islamic way of life, besides offering an Islamic identity as they practice it. This movement appears to resonate with the contemporary Islamic resurgence that targets the community rather than the state and calls for individual spiritual needs. It leads to the expression of diverse religious practices and discourses, related to social movements and the strategies of groups or individuals (Roy, 2004).
11Correspondingly, the narratives surrounding the political and religious resurgence of Islam that usually emerge in the hijrah movement can be comprehended as a constant and shifting tension among proponents of the local worldview and customary ritual practices —who regard it as local religion or Agama Asli Nusantara— and trans-local religions of foreign origin having a claim to universalism and excluding local traditions and religious practices. This tension plays a significant role in the construction of Indonesia’s state-recognized religious identity (Picard & Madinier, 2011). Such conditions are reinforced by the mastery of narratives on social media by hijrah groups, some of whom openly prohibit Islamic cultural artefacts such as bedug (drums) and calligraphy. Besides, they are also trying to seize public spaces, including town squares, roads, and the National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta. In such public spaces, the hijrah groups and Muslim urbanites hold religious activities such as tabligh akbar ( mass religious meeting) and tarawih prayers in the congregation. In Bandung, for instance, together with the biker community, they held a convoy around the city after the tarawih prayer. Such activities often receive support from the government.
12In the recent context, the rise of political Islam is gaining momentum from two directions at once, namely general elections at the national and provincial levels and the acceleration of social media which enables the extended circulation of its ideas and propaganda. The last two presidential elections (2014 and 2019) and the Jakarta gubernatorial election (2017) are illustrations of this political momentum where Muslim movements are seeking to seize dominance over the public sphere. A renewed religious awareness has emerged namely of the belief that as the majority, Muslims are not only a statistical representation of the population but a mass that could be effectively mobilized for political and cultural purposes.
13The idea of hijrah is a reinterpretation of Quranic verses, referring to an episode of Islamic history: the migration of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 (Watt, 1981). Meanwhile, in Indonesian history, we can scrutinize how the genealogy of hijrah correlates with the voices of Indonesian Muslims since the foundation of the country. The political struggle of the Partai Syarikat Islam Indonesia (PSII) in the early years of independence, under the figure of Kartosuwiryo reinterpreted the hijrah in a political sense. PSII had to seek falah (happiness) and fatah (victory) by pursuing its hijrah and starting a new era. Kartosuwiryo explained the meaning of jihad (holy war), iman (faith), and tauhid (unity), made generous use of Quranic verses, and put forward its practical implications for the political struggle, namely the establishment of Daurah Islamiyah (Islamic state). Hence hijrah to an Islamic state —is marked by three steps : jihad, iman, and tauhid (Formichi, 2012). Furthermore, the passionate debate in determining the state ideology between secularism, Islam, and Pancasila was the beginning of the struggle of some Muslim communities, represented by various parties such as Islamic-based political parties and established Islamic organizations in struggling for the enforcement of Syariat Islam (Islamic law) (Ichwan, 2011). Although Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the two major organizations of Indonesian Muslims, have agreed to accept the Pancasila state (Barton et al., 2021), some Muslims still resist it, by promoting their own interpretation of its first precept, Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa (Belief in One Godhead). Moreover, when the successful campaign against the Chinese-Christian Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, fuelled Islamist protests, the sharia idea of the Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia (the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia/ NKRI) was constructed by the leader of the Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front/ FPI), Habib Rizieq Syihab (Facal, 2020 ; Sebastian & Arifianto, 2017). In short, the group, which was one of the mobilizers of the 212 Islamic Defense Action, accepted the NKRI concept but added the term sharia to become NKRI Bersyariah. Genealogically, the notion of hijrah in the historical context of Indonesian Islam has features of continuity and discontinuity at the same time, as discussed later in this article. Hence, although hijrah tends to concentrate more on Islamic da’wah and also struggles with the ethics of puritanism, the political contestation enclosing the birth of this movement cannot be ignored.
- 4 Since 2020, the Indonesian government has officially disbanded FPI as some of its actions were deem (...)
14Hijrah as an urban Muslim phenomenon stems from urbanization, which gave birth to a new generation of Muslims. The new generation of urbanites undergoes distinct alienation in every layer of society. For the urban poor, their concerns include limited access to education and health services and other social problems. Meanwhile, hoping for the government is in vain, they claim. Frequently criticism arises from them against the non-implementation of the ideals of social justice in Pancasila. Thus, being actively involved in religious forums held by mass organizations such as Front Pembela Islam (the Defenders of Islam Front/ FPI)4 has given them the ethos of life, and also feel that their existence as Muslims becomes more meaningful (Wilson, 2014).
15For middle-class and wealthy Muslims, alienation derives from an array of disillusions, mainly due to poor rule of law in terms of the absence of legal certainty, lousy governance, inflation, recession, corruption, and severe economic mismanagement. Moreover, there is a perceived threat to their security and income. Ultimately, these displeasures are overcome by collective sentiments that are increasingly tied to religion. In other cases, various wake-up calls for hijrah emerge from experiences of great losses such as business collapses, debt, the death of a loved one, and break-ups. By first experiencing inner turmoil, deep down, they believe that the nature of their relationship with God will remain, no matter how far they deviate in living life. In fulfilling the spiritual needs of this new generation of Muslims, new preachers have sprung up and dominated narratives in television, mosques, offices, town squares, and even malls. Some of these new preachers graduated from Middle Eastern education, others are Christian converts and celebrities, and they are not affiliated with mainstream Islamic organizations in Indonesia. In addition to encouraging urban Muslims to be good Muslims in terms of being pious and obedient Muslims, they also urge to help people in need through zakat and sadaqah. For instance, Munzalan and Kajian Musawarah initiated Gerakan Infaq Beras (Rice Disbursement Movement) and Pasukan Amal Saleh (the Charity Troops) which have spread to many cities to invite urban Muslims to help each other.
16Not only that, the mastery of social media such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok by these new preachers has proven to be very effective in attracting urban Muslims, especially among young people. Conversely, preachers with Muhammadiyah or Nahdlatul Ulama backgrounds seem to be less aware or late to realize the importance of broadcasting recitations to various social media channels. In addition, recitation content that is related to daily life, easy to understand and practice is the choice for most urban Muslim communities. The popularity of these new preachers has thus outperformed those preachers who represent Indonesia’s older Islamic organizations. Despite their sometimes controversial sermons including their silence on domestic violence or the destruction of wayang puppets (Javanese puppet theatre), considered haram (forbidden) by them, urban Muslims nevertheless sympathize with them. To borrow a concept from Max Weber, these new preachers have a charisma that builds their authority before a new generation of Muslims who listen and follow their advice and commands. This wide niche between Muhammadiyah and NU, thus, has been well stuffed by new communities and foundations of urban Muslims in the case of hijrah. Thus, the insensitivity of Muhammadiyah and NU and other old Islamic organizations in recognizing the emergence of new generations of Muslims who move dynamically in real and digital public spaces dwindled their role in urban communities.
17Undoubtedly, the increasing use of social media has significantly influenced recent contestations within the Islamic religious arena in contemporary Indonesia (Saat & Burhani, 2020). Some scholars have investigated how new media shape the dynamics of Islamic life in Indonesian cities (Barendregt, 2009; Husein & Slama, 2018; Nisa, 2018b; Slama, 2017). In contemporary dynamics, challenges to religious authority, as discussed above, continue to this day although it is not monolithic as it has always been decentralized and contested (Feillard, 2010; Mandaville, 2007; Saat, 2018). Moreover, these challenges to religious authority are more complex since in addition to the charisma that shapes authority, there are persuasion and power relations at work in the production of knowledge (Foucault, 1980), and also resistance to the dominant culture (Scott, 1985, 1990).
18In the case of urban Muslims trying to become more pious in their religion, the Marxian argument of “false consciousness” is not sufficient to understand the strengthening religiosity of urban Muslims in Indonesia. A further understanding is needed that the novel massive and organized hijrah movements are not merely the spread of ideas but a set of practices that involve self-cultivation and ethical practice. Borrowing the terminology from Mahmood, the hijrah movement lies its attention elsewhere: namely, the cultivation of submission to what its members interpret as God’s will (Mahmood, 2005). Thus, neglecting the potential transformation of the hijrah movement makes us fail to understand its potential influence and power in society. The phenomenon of the hijrah movement proves that this movement has adequate economic, social and cultural capital in addition to intellectual capital and the strength of networked actors.
19The continued growth of the Indonesian Muslim middle class, despite being hit by the 1998 economic recession, shows promising economic potential among Muslims. This fact goes hand in hand with the increasing willingness among Muslims to overcome economic inequality through social practices such as zakat and infaq (spending), especially in the fields of education and health. The emergence of Islamic organizations which are involved in philanthropy and charity outside Muhammadiyah and NU has also enabled the raising of ever-growing amounts of funds from Muslims over the last two decades. However, as is characteristic of the middle-class, Indonesian urban Muslims are open to the self-consciousness of the autodidact which is concerned with conveying appropriate and legitimate signals through their consumption activities (Featherstone, 1990). The ways they negotiate their Islamic identity and social status, thus, are through the activity of consuming all products and services labelled as Islamic. This is what causes Islamic-labelled products to dominate the market with tremendous profits. SWA5, an economic and business magazine, reported that the Muslim middle-class population reached 112 million people out of the 255 million total population in 2014. Their money turnover and market value reached 112 trillion rupiahs or approximately 6.8 billion euros per month while the growing business sector related to Islam included clothing, cosmetics, banks, insurance, halal food, umrah, hotels, education, mutual funds, and beauty salons.
20The outburst of the Muslim middle-class market depicts that piety and ethical purity are not at odds with the materialistic and consumerist model of urban life, but rather closely aligned. It is despite the Quranic recommendations to the contrary, namely how to live a life of simplicity and modesty, among others, in Surah At-Takaathur 102:1-8 and Al-Israa 17:27. By followers of the hijrah movement, this contradiction does not seem to be a concern and Islam has been understood as a religion that can conform to material culture without being secularized.
21Hijrah communities have particularly fostered the expansion of business activity among Muslims. It has become one of the distinctive characteristics of hijrah in the contemporary sense. The success of the 2018 Hijrah Festival which is not only a gathering of hijrah communities but also a forum for assembling several Islamic-based business groups, such as Islamic housing, Islamic banking, and halal culinary (H. Hasan, 2019) shows that the economy is one of the factors that trigger urban Muslims’s attraction to hijrah. Some hijrah activists in Kajian Musawarah cultivate entrepreneurial values by promoting Islamic-nuanced products and services. Some of them are important figures in the marketing of Islamic clothes for women such as Shireen, Zaskia Sungkar, and Oki Setiana Dewi. Not only that but since the hijrah, each of them has been in business, and some have partnered with each other. There is a cake business scattered in big cities, hajj and umrah travel services, film production, and others. In addition, they also sell all kinds of products that already have their brand and logo in an Instagram account. The trend of marketing Islamic products is also taking place in other hijrah communities in Jakarta and other cities. Along with the highly consumptive culture of Islamic symbols in urban communities, digital spaces such as the Internet, social media, and shops that market a variety of products and services have become a profitable medium (Nisa, 2018a). Nevertheless, they have also become a place where various ideas and practices of Islam are not only upheld and promoted but also negotiated and contested (Hew, 2017b).
22After looking at several factors that influence the development of the hijrah movement among Indonesian urban Muslims, we need to comprehend better how the Kajian Musawarah community moves attractively in urban areas, especially in inviting urban Muslims to hijrah and become better Muslims. There is a paradigm to see that nowadays, urban mobilities construct a hybrid space that appears when every community that utilizes digital spaces then migrate to physical space through the use of mobile technologies as interfaces. Thus, it blurs the traditional boundaries between physical and digital spaces. Mobile interface such as mobile phones allows users to be constantly connected to the Internet while walking through urban spaces. These hybrid spaces, therefore, are also interpreted as connected spaces, mobile spaces, and social spaces (de Souza e Silva, 2006). This is the so-called new mobilities paradigm (Urry, 2007) which is rooted in the understanding that the world is fluid and always in motion. Everyone is a moving subject who is constantly moving to interact, work, consume, attend recitation, and so on. In other words, there is an emphasis on practice and the meanings, subjectivities, and spaces of movement in all its diverse forms.
23Examining urban mobilities in relation to the hijrah movement relies on the understanding that religion, religiosity and religious practices are dynamic components in the negotiation of urban lives and spaces (Kong, 1993). It requires an understanding that cities are spatially open and cross-cut by many different kinds of mobilities, from flows of people to commodities to information (Amin & Thrift, 2002). This article, therefore, investigates how the five intersecting mobilities (physical travel of people; physical movement of objects; imaginative travel; virtual travel; and communicative travel) (Urry, 2007) play a role in hijrah communities like the Kajian Musawarah, and also examines the interconnections between these mobilities that are central to making and maintaining complex connections in a ‘networked society’ (Castells, 2000). Further, this article also examines the contestation of Islamic identity through urban mobilities that take place in the realm of the popular culture industry, social media content, and sharia products, both individually and on a community scale. The contestation occurs with other Islamic groups, including mainstream Islamic organisations in Indonesia.
- 6 Mutia Ibrahim is a 23-year-old graduate student. All names of the interviewees in this article are (...)
24The Kajian Musawarah has succeeded in gaining the sympathy of urban Muslims through several routine religious activities, such as pengajian (recitation) and Islamic talk shows about everyday life. Through pengajian, people who idolize these celebrities want to hear and be inspired by their hijrah experiences. It is generally held at the Kebayoran Residences Grand Mosque and recorded before being uploaded on the YouTube channel, @musawarah. When the sermon was only conducted for celebrities, the Kajian Musawarah community was very exclusive. However, with programs other than the pengajian, they began to open up and interact with their followers. This is what created proximity among urban Muslims who choose hijrah. However, virtual travel (especially via new mobile devices) produces a kind of uncanny life on the screen that may change what is meant by “co-presence.” Virtual and imaginative travel does not simply substitute for corporeal travel, since intermittent co-presence appears obligatory for sustaining much social life (Urry, 2002). One of the followers of the hijrah community, Mutia Ibrahim6 like many other Muslim youths, for instance, expressed her exceptional longing to listen to tabligh akbar face-to-face as at the 2018 Hijrah Festival. Although since the early 2020 pandemic, several pengajian had to take place online, they convey different emotions when they take place offline.
“... I can participate in online recitations on YouTube. However when I can attend directly with other Muslim sisters, I feel something different, a shared emotion to become a kinder Muslim. It strengthens me in living life.” (Interview with Mutia Ibrahim, 16 January 2020).
25One common reason for urban Muslims to attend face-to-face sermons is that being together in a religious forum involves not only the emotions of being among fellow Muslims but also serves as support for a firm stance on the road of hijrah. According to them, committing to the path of hijrah is not easy. It is necessary to meet regularly with fellow Muslims who hijrah. Not only that, but co-presence also allows for eye contact that enables the establishment of intimacy and trust, as well as sincerity, power and control (Urry, 2002). As Simmel puts it, the eye is a unique “sociological achievement,” since looking at one another is what affects the connections and interactions of individuals (Frisby & Featherstone, 2000). In other words, face-to-face encounters enable the intimacy that is essential in building up the community.
- 7 Suaramuslim.net accessed on 25 January 2020.
26Although virtual and communicative travel become more significant ways of meeting up, especially since the pandemic, physical travel as a fundamental movement remains irreplaceable. Physical travel such as travelling from one to another using private or public transportation becomes central to maintaining social capital in most urban communities. Because people do not always act as rational, calculating subjects, it is also important to ask how people experience, understand and negotiate their travel (Easthope, 2009). Accordingly, after the Kajian Musawarah was launched in 2018, its activists organized the Hijrah Festival as an assemblage medium between various hijrah communities, urban Muslims, their preachers, and Muslim businessmen. The success of the Hijrah Festival shows the enthusiasm of urban Muslims for three activities at once: visiting exhibitions, shopping for Islamic products, and listening to Islamic recitations from well-known preachers. Arie Untung, one of the founders of the Kajian Musawarah, even mentioned that in 2018, the capacity of the two halls at the JCC, where the Hijrah Festival is regularly held, was 8.000, but the Muslims who came reached 20.000 people from several suburbs of Jakarta such as Bekasi, Bogor, Tanggerang, Depok and other cities in Indonesia. The circulation of money during the three days of the Islamic expo reached 28 billion rupiahs or about 1,7 million euros.7 At the same event, in addition to holding pengajian, the Kajian Musawarah also held congregational prayers which showed the importance of religion beyond houses of worship: urban religious practices do not only exist in a sacred space apart but amid social life as well (Orsi, 1999).
27The Hijrah Festival is a meeting point for the physical journeys of the Kajian Musawarah and the urban hijrah movement. In this forum, the Kajian Musawarah activists highlight the spirit of hijrah for their followers and the Indonesian Muslims by resorting to numerous attributes. As celebrities, they also embody a modern combination of religious practice, fashion and urban lifestyle. Such figures attract the sympathy of urban Muslims, who identify themselves as both modern and religious by participating in the spirit of hijrah. The co-presence, therefore, also conveys a special meaning for the followers of the Kajian Musawarah. They are willing to attend pengajian, in order to meet ustaz and hijrah celebrities who are their role models.
- 8 Hasan is a 29-year-old civil servant at Jakarta provincial government.
“... The Kajian Musawarah and Hijrah Festival events were extremely valuable, the entrance fee and our travel costs to JCC were equivalent to the experience gained. We felt the related emotion, namely the longing to unite and gather among Muslims.” (Interview with Hasan, 14 February 2020)8
28On October 28, 2021, the Hijrah Festival was held again during the Covid-19 pandemic. Coinciding with the commemoration of Sumpah Pemuda (the Youth Pledge Day), the Hijrah Festival took the theme of the joint youth movement to revive Indonesia’s sharia economy. Although not as lively as in 2018 and 2019, Arie Untung said that the Hijrah Festival and the face-to-face tabligh akbar in 2021 were mediums to allow Muslims and their ustaz to meet directly. According to him, this event is like creating an oasis in a barren desert, after almost two years of online pengajian. Travel, thus, is manifested as a necessity for everyone to be physically in the same space with others, including fellow Muslims, business associates, friends, and family, or to be physically present at certain live events. Travel produces moments of physical closeness to certain people, places or events and that closeness is felt as obligatory, appropriate, desirable or inevitable. Physical travel is especially important in facilitating those co-present conversations, to the making of links and social connections, albeit unequal, that endure over time (Larsen & Urry, 2016).
29Just like the Hijrah Festival, the Rumah Quran Musawarah is also an example of how the Kajian Musawarah provides a space for Muslims to meet each other, and learn Islam, in particular, to memorize the Quran. It is also the response of the Kajian Musawarah community to the growth of the Pesantren Tahfiz in many cities over the last two decades. Situated in South Jakarta, precisely in Ciputat, Rumah Quran Musawarah is a new Islamic boarding school launched on April 3, 2021. The recruitment of santri (students) is opened to the younger Muslim generation, with an average age of 19-23 years old. As many as twenty male santri from different cities in Indonesia were recruited for the first batch. The santri are provided with clothes displaying the logo of the Kajian Musawarah to brand their community. The santri are not only prepared for one year to become new tahfiz but also to become teachers who can preach Islam in the community. Through this pesantren, the Kajian Musawarah proves its determination in spreading Islamic da’wah and promoting its community among Indonesian Muslims as well. Collaborating with other hijrah communities in Jakarta and other cities, this pesantren has received many food donations thanks to the Instagram @musawarahpeduli platform and Gerakan Infaq Beras (Rice Disbursement Movement). The teachers of this pesantren are alumni from Maskanul Huffadz, a pesantren tahfiz founded by another hijrah celebrity, Oki Setiana Dewi. The mutual support between the hijrah communities and the skills of the main actors of the Kajian Musawarah in funding and seeking mutually beneficial cooperation with various parties have played a significant part in the success and sustainability of each of these programs. It has implications for the spreading of the hijrah movement and the way it fosters a modern Muslim identity which is now widely accepted in Indonesia, especially in the younger generation.
30Contestation of Islamic identity takes place when this hijrah community experiences interpersonal relationships and faces new situations, which require rethinking and negotiating their understanding of Islam as well as the right Islamic way to deal with problems that arise in everyday life. In the secular life of Jakarta, coupled with the crushing economic burden, people have sought protection. They join the “holy brotherhood” with limited resources and become part of a solid community. Within these hijrah communities, people receive more concrete social support and even financial assistance, In this sense, many people come to believe that God is the best “spiritual and psychological sanctuary”. Hijrah communities, in certain cases, also become a spiritual oasis for Indonesian Muslims because there is an early experience of religiosity that is imprinted on their subconscious, namely being exposed to all aspects of Islamic nuances such as learning to recite the Quran, attending Islamic holiday events and others. When they experience the hustle and bustle of city life and its lifestyle, the awareness to return to religious beliefs arises from the memory of the past. Angga, a 32-year-old driver at a Jakarta private company, was confronted with this type of experience:
“I felt something different in myself compared to before joining the hijrah community. Being together with fellow Muslims who hijrah is a strength for me to learn Islam and become a better person. Hijrah in Jakarta’s urban life is a challenge in itself, because of the attraction of lifestyle, promiscuity, and hedonism. However, the hijrah community has creative and varied media in preaching such as online and offline sermons, and Islamic content, which is regularly disseminated through various media and is willing to embrace hobby-based youth communities. It makes me feel able to refrain from the un-Islamic life in the capital city.” (Interview with Angga 2 November 2019)
31However, the contestation of the hijrah movement became even more flagrant when the 2022 Hijrah Festival chose to be held in the city of Surabaya, East Java. Kajian Musawarah, as one of the event organisers, chose the title Surabaya Islamic Festival. The event, scheduled to be held at Jatim Expo on 14-16 October 2022, was condemned by NU and MUI. The condemnation stemmed from the profiteering of the NU and MUI logos. But then, it was also caused by the fact that the Hijrah Festival was held by a group that indicated a movement that tended to discredit the existence of the NKRI and Pancasila. This refers to some of the ustaz names in the festival, previously known as supporters of organisations that have been officially banned by the Indonesian government.
32In the case of the Hijrah Festival and Rumah Quran Musawarah, we can identify two forms of mobility at once, namely physical travel and physical movement of objects. The latter emphasizes the travel of objects and goods as a result of the capability to advertise and market within a consumptive society (Abaza, 2004). As mentioned above, the activists of the Kajian Musawarah shrewdly handle their followers as a market for their products and services. Urban Muslims then recognize them as both celebrities and businessmen or “Muslim entrepreneurs.” Each of their products and services is not only marketed in the conventional sense but also packaged in Islamic labels and symbols. They have an impression that so far, Muslim clothing producers tend to be non-Muslims. For them, they must be the leading producers and maximize every opportunity. Hence, hijrah celebrities launched Muslim fashion brands, spanning from the everyday style of women dress, men, and children into formal wear and wedding dresses. Most of these entrepreneurs are themselves, Islamic fashion models. Thus, their brands and products quickly took up the Indonesian Muslim fashion market (Triana, 2021). Their success relies on their creativity in designing Islamic clothing that is fashionable and in accordance with the tastes of urban Muslims (Thimm, 2021). Besides, it implies for them an effort to build a narrative and imagination of the Islamic resurgence through the economy, an intention which cannot be interpreted merely as the commodification of Islam. The commodification of Islam is, thus, not a mere search for profit, but an additional expression of the Islamic revival.
“... This is a sign that the moment of Islamic economic revival will arrive, based on the evidence of the Quran and hadith. The time will come, why do not we join in ?” (Arie Untung 29 September 2020)
33Furthermore, the narrative of Islamic revival also developed through tour and travel businesses. Entrepreneurs narrate the rise of Islam not only through the economic revival of Muslims but also through the imagination associated with the rise of Islamic populism in many countries, especially Turkey. Thus, in addition to hajj and umrah, they also organize religious tours to Turkey. The country and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are held as symbols of the rise of Islam by some Indonesian Muslims (Nursya, 2021). Indeed, Erdogan’s rhetoric of Islamic nationalism has effects on the global scale on the way some Muslims define their identity and place within society.
34Apart from these physical and material movements, the activities of Kajian Musawarah also involve imaginative movements based on memories, texts, images, TV and films (Larsen & Urry, 2016). As an urban Muslim phenomenon, the hijrah movement has also penetrated popular culture through books and various online channels and represented its material culture. Islamic books, Holy Quran, and novels about hijrah are easy to find in bookstores and online stores. One of them is Gramedia, a well-known bookstore that is present in almost every city. These books are even on display on best-selling shelves. Unlike religious books, which tend to be rarely sought after by the younger generation, books with the theme of hijrah appear in attractive, colourful packaging, feature comic-style illustrations, and use the language variant associated with the urban youth. Most of these books lead to one goal, namely invitation to hijrah. The storylines of the novels are based on daily life themes, such as teenage love problems, juvenile delinquency, and break up. The portrait of a life that is close to everyday life has proven to be very attractive because it offers Islamic views as a way to solve every problem. Likewise, some hijrah books feature stories of celebrities, most of whom are currently involved in the Kajian Musawarah. These books narrate how celebrities and influencers have managed to become new role models for the Muslim youth thanks to hijrah, after a prior life far from Islamic values and experiencing various forms of great loss. The examples often insist on the change of visual appearance, for women who use the veil, and for men maintaining a beard but still looking fashionable. Other examples deal with the behavior favorable to hijrah, such as the frequent use of Arabic language, the courage to stay away from the entertainment world, which is seen as not in line with Islamic values, to chose, on the contrary, pursuing a business world which they assume uses good Islamic principles such as fashion, food, or services.
35Borrowing the theory of print capitalism (Anderson, 2006), these books and Holy Quran take part in forming an imagined Islamic community based on the solidarity between Muslims. The imagined Islamic resurgence first involves a change of one’s behaviour as a Muslim, followed by campaigning for Muslim entrepreneurship. The use of language and narratives that are easily digested by the urban Muslims maximizes circulation.
36The Kajian Musawarah also engages in the production of knowledge about Islamic practices that characterize hijrah, in the form of a narrative related to images, which are known in social media as captions. By way of content on their official Instagram accounts: @kajianmusawarah, @rumahquranmusawarah, @musawarahpeduli, and @musawarah.merchandise, narratives about hijrah and the spirit of Islam are presented with attractive visualizations, and adapted to the preferences of the public so that they are easily understood and accepted by urban Muslims. The attention paid to digital and visual settings proves that the community spread the hijrah movement with mindful preparation, and adequate human resources, both in mastering information technology and illustrative skills in compiling content. The following two screenshots depict how illustrative Islamic content can be. The picture on the left is a reminder to do honourable things, while the one on the right is about the practice of eliminating sins.
37Other forms of imaginative mobility are television, films, and music. Although religious soap operas were very popular in Indonesia in the 2000s, some of the former soap opera actors have now retired from the film industry, partly due to their involvement in hijrah. The Indonesian case widely differs from the situation described in the study conducted by Abu-Lughod (1995) on the phenomenon of soap operas in Egypt, where the political content in television films was able to have effects, such as educating people, enlightening them, and making them aware of the socio-political condition in their country. Some soap operas in Indonesia tend to be meaningless even though they are in religious packaging. Stories in soap operas are more portraits of everyday life such as life in the household, Islamic youth-style courtship, domestic violence, and infidelity. However, television is still favoured by Indonesians and is hard to turn off. It is because of the ability of television which allows television programs, especially soap operas, to flow from one scene to another, interspersed with advertisements and back again (Williams, 2004: 66-67).
38Among the Kajian Musawarah activists still playing in soap operas are the couple Dude Herlino and Alyssa Soebandono, for instance, in the soap opera titled Istriku Ajari Aku Shalat (My wife teaches me to pray). These days, they are both still starring in soap operas with Islamic content that airs on private television stations. Although YouTube has been predicted to substitute for television, it should not further accelerate television obsolescence (Van Dijck, 2013). Thus, Islamic content with the theme of hijrah on television still has a loyal audience to this day. A major moment in the recent history of the hijrah movement in Indonesia has been the triumph of Ayat-ayat Cinta (Verses of Love), a film drawn from the eponymous novel by Habiburrahman El Shirazy. The main character was interpreted by one of the hijrah celebrities, Oki Setiana Dewi. The success of the film allowed the spirit of hijrah and the narrative of being a devout Muslim to circulate among the younger generation. Imaginative journeys, then, also generate a desire for trips and travel destinations (Crouch et al., 2005; Riley et al., 1998). For example, the Islamic films Ketika Cinta Bertasbih (When love glorifies God) and Ayat-ayat Cinta were filmed in Cairo, Egypt, which still attracts Indonesian Muslims to travel or study in Egypt. Not only that, one of the activists for the Kajian Musawarah, Mario Irwinsyah initiated an animated children’s film series entitled Nussa & Rara. Since 2019, the film has had more than three million followers on the Nussa official YouTube accounts. Interestingly, Mario revealed that the film was his endeavour to preach Islam in the field of acting. In this case, he emphasizes the Islamic messages in a film as a context that needs to be underlined, not looking at the current situation such as the view that Islamic education for children as early as possible has the potential to be exclusive. He even claimed that animated films with children’s characters are a popular means of da’wah. Therefore, hijrah does not lead him to leave the entertainment industry that has popularized his name as long as it is still in the Islamic spirit:
“The argument for acting is there, you know, how the Prophet Muhammad taught prayer scenes to his friends. So, I am still producing films but how do I keep the production halal ? We have to look at the context, not the situation,” said Mario. (CNN, 8 July 2019)
39The virtual and communicative travel intersect because both represent the activities that people are most familiar with nowadays, namely interacting and networking through computer technology devices and the Internet. It refers to space that has become reorganized, (re)combined, and permeated by technologies of extended virtual connectivity through telecommunications and ICT development (Adey & Bevan, 2006). In an imaginative journey, it emphasizes conventional media where television and film are the main cultures, while virtual and communicative travel put the internet technology as its primary pillar. In other words, borrowing Manuel Castells (2015), individuals, groups, communities, and countries networked more intensively in today’s internet age.
40Based on the discussion above, the distance between space and time is no more a significant problem for religious groups in spreading their message. Nevertheless, social media and the Internet are becoming a battleground for the discourses of different Islamic schools of thought —as is happening in other fields— raising new concerns about the source of truth, which is difficult to define as a shared reference. Within the scope of the hijrah movement, we can examine the dissimilarity of identity among hijrah communities, especially in their affiliation of thought and way of understanding religion. For example, all communities believe in the mission of formally implementing Islamic law, but they have a different understanding of practising religious commands. It means that followers of the hijrah movement are independent in determining the direction of their religion. It depends on the needs of the hijrah followers in immersing in religious messages, especially in living the challenges of life which differ from person to person. Rismila, a 25-year-old graduate student at a Jakarta private university expressed this experience when she regularly attended pengajian on Niqab Squad, a hijrah community for women who wear niqab:
“I do not feel the necessity to wear the niqab. I only need to attend the pengajian. My heart is constantly pushed to attend the pengajian organized by the hijrah communities. However, after the sermon ended, I returned to my initial life as a student which was not leisurely.” (Interview with Rismila 15 October 2019)
41Oki Setiana Dewi’s draws similar conclusions in her doctoral study about the pengajian of Muslim middle-class hijrah celebrities. In an autoethnographic study, she noted that Indonesian celebrities who hijrah tend to have a “hybrid” religious understanding, insofar as they have autonomy in interpreting what ustaz says according to what they feel is right for themselves (Dewi, 2020).
42On the one hand, the Kajian Musawarah lays a da’wah strategy that combines online and offline activities creatively to invite and persuade potential followers to hijrah. On the other hand, they skilfully intertwine ustaz from various disagreeing currents of thought both in political orientation and da’wah. For instance, Felix Siauw, a founder of the YukNgaji community and has millions of followers on social media, is usually invited to Islamic talk show forums held by the Kajian Musawarah. As a mualaf (convert to Islam), he was also a propagandist of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), who is skillful at approaching people with visual and textual approaches in various media. His approach has succeeded in normalizing religious radicalism (Hew, 2018). Likewise, Khalid Basalamah was involved in several pengajian of the Kajian Musawarah. This ustaz is often blamed for spreading Salafi Wahhabism because of several controversial statements such as the ban on singing the Indonesian national anthem and the ban of wayang kulit (the shadow theatre). Both Felix Siauw and Khalid Basalamah are among the new preachers who are well-known on social media. It has an echoing effect not only on the Kajian Musawarah community but also on the hijrah movement as a whole.
43Interestingly, urban Muslims prove to be prone to accept any hijrah content offering the possibility for success simultaneously in worldly life and in the hereafter (Hoesterey, 2020). Urban Muslims, with their preferences, may be affiliated with various hijrah communities because apart from following the community activists as role models, they will mainly follow ustaz who they think fit their needs, such as sermons that are not rigid, easy to understand, and also easy to practice. The involvement of urban Muslims with such practices has important implications for the construction of identity, their sense of privacy, their ideas about place and space, civic and political participation, and cultural production and consumption in everyday life. Likewise, with intersecting mobilities experienced consistently and continuously, they find themselves more anchored and actively involved in the interrelated network. In turn, this network fundamentally changes the way they perceive the internet and the physical space around them.
44The hijrah movement shows intersecting mobilities and important resources of identity construction for contemporary urban Muslim groups. The diversification of Jakarta’s urban space, intersecting both physical and digital dimensions, opens access for hijrah communities and urban Muslims to offer a novel model of Islamic identity. This process involves a renewal in expressions of piety that adjust to modernity values, the integration of consuming mass culture, and the mobilization of Islam as a solution for all types of everyday life problems, especially for the younger generation. In order to attract urban Muslims to hijrah, the Kajian Musawarah community cleverly applies cultural and communication strategies that pave the way to what some scholars call the commodification of Islam and the shallowing of religious practices.
45This article has indicated how intersecting mobilities shape social relationships between an array of social agents with whom the hijrah followers interact. The people we meet and then socialize with, either friends, family, colleagues, or acquaintances, in one way or another, are reached by at least one other form of mobility. This can be, and often is, very local, but we are increasingly getting used to having close relationships with people who live far away. Sometimes we move physically to meet them, but we also maintain relationships and create online communities. Today we can witness a close relationship in online communities (Wellman & Gulia, 1999). This mobility turn approach simultaneously offers a more comprehensive perspective than partially seeing social phenomena, for instance, only on social media or just on direct interactions. Thus, between physical displacements, imaginary journeys, and virtual mobility are forms of mobility that occur in the daily life of contemporary society, especially in urban areas because of the infrastructure that supports it. Regarding the study of the hijrah movement and its community, this article has shown that the contestation of Islamic identity is achieved through attractive, fashionable and popular symbols. On the one hand, expressions of piety blooming in the folds of urban mobility have echoed the call for hijrah across other cities in Indonesia and this has been going on since the last decade. On the other hand, it opens up space for urban Muslims from various social strata to engage in a movement that re-understands the verses of hijrah in the Quran and also Islamic tradition, especially in dealing with social disruptions as well as economic and political uncertainties. An analysis of the hijrah movement from the urban mobilities perspective depicts that there is a dynamic component of identity negotiation and contestation in urban life and spaces that circulates between Islam and religious practices, whether mediated or not.