| Summary: | Practicing Indonesian Muslims who aspire to follow or even wish to apply Islamic law in their everyday social life are free to use it in private law, but never in criminal law. They introduced Islamic law into national law for private affairs. Active in Indonesian politics, these Indonesian Muslims opposed various government proposals, such as the 1973 Marriage Bill, which reduced the tenets of Islamic law. This religious protest reflected, above all, the exasperation of Muslims in the face of the government's immobility with regard to implementing Islamic law in the country. Muslims wanted the Islamic marriage law to be codified in accordance with Sharia law. This codification would allow the norms and ethics of Islamic law to be effectively applied to all citizens. The conciliatory openness toward Islamic law has been progressive. Any proposal, modification, addition or application in its favor seems to have been measured. It turns out that Indonesia today is not an Islamic state, but nor can it claim to be a secular one. The place of Islamic law has been built in stages, based on a succession of compromises, with its share of failure and success. Governments have sought to balance the aspirations of Sharia supporters with the structural plurality of a country that remains multi-confessional, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual in nature. Considered the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, facing its Muslims, can hardly do otherwise.
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