Nov. 27, 2006 issue - A strong civic culture is crucial for a healthy democracy. It's been said that Muslim society doesn't allow much room for civil society to flourish"”because it's too exclusively focused on Islam. That isn't really true. Recent studies on the subject have convincingly shown that Muslim societies have a long and rich history of civil organizations dating back to the early 20th century.

They have taken various forms ranging from learning circles to artisan associations, trade guilds and other groups focusing on broad social, business and cultural issues, not only on religion. Sarekat Islam, founded by a devout Muslim in Indonesia in 1911, was a heterogeneous organization of batik traders that developed into a more generalized political movement. It was founded on Muslim principles but tried to combine Islamic traditionalism (opposed to Western-style modernity) with European liberalism.

It's true that premodern Islamic civil organizations were by and large not involved with political issues, let alone democracy. That's because classical Islamic entities"”the Abbasid dynasty (758 to 1258) and the Ottomans, for example"” were authoritarian. As Max Weber argues, classical and medieval Islamic politics was characterized by absolutism, patrimonialism and despotism that left almost no space for political activism. This is particularly true in Sunni Muslim societies, which were politically submissive. But Shiite societies have been different. They've enabled clerics and their followers to express their political views.

European political thought has very much influenced the Muslim world. Beginning in the late-19th century, Muslims began in earnest to adopt modern European institutions, such as schools and hospitals, which created an impetus for reform and led to the founding of modernist Muslim organizations. They urged Muslims to cope with the European geographic encroachment. At the same time they proposed the reform of Islamic thought by putting a greater emphasis on independent reasoning (ijthad) rather than being taqlid, blindly following the thought of medieval ulama (clerics).

Islam in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, has been marked since the early decades of the 20th century by the rise of modernist Muslim groups that play a crucial role not only in the religious life, but also in the public, social and political lives of Muslims. Two obvious examples are Muhammadiyah, which was established in 1912 and now has some 35 million Indonesian Muslim members, and traditionalist Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), founded in 1926 and now with some 40 million members. They are arguably the biggest social groups in the Muslim world.

Muhammadiyah and NU, together with many smaller local organizations across Indonesia, represent mainstream Muslims who are committed to the secular Indonesian state and the ideology of Pancasila (Five Pillars), which recognizes the importance of pluralism and multiculturalism. Both Muhammadiyah and NU are nonpolitical, self-financing and self-regulating. They function as an important bridge between the state and the society. Neither supports the idea of turning Indonesia into an Islamic state, and neither supports the adoption and implementation of sharia (Islamic law).

They maintain that the state should not get involved in the theological, doctrinal and legal affairs of Muslims; it is the responsibility of each Muslim to live more devoutly through his or her own endeavors rather than by appropriating state power. About 80 percent of Muslim children go to secular public schools. (The other 20 percent are educated in madrassas.)

As civil organizations, Muhammadiyah and NU have permanent and regular educational programs that examine issues like education (religious and secular), public health, economics and the environment. Their research institutions often work with American institutions like the Asia Foundation or the Ford Foundation to stop corruption and to promote good governance. The current head of Muhammadiyah, Dien Syamsuddin, earned a Ph.D. from UCLA.

Robert Hefner, a prominent American expert on Indonesian Islam, has warned that religious-based civil organizations must be inclusive, rather than exclusive. Contrary to conventional wisdom, history suggests that many have been. While there has been a surge in Islamic religiosity, most nonpolitical Muslim groups remain committed to working across the boundaries of religion. So long as the leaders of these organizations remain faithful to the principles of pluralism and the laws of a civil society, Islam will play a role in fashioning a better world.

Azra is president of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta and an Advisory Board member of the U.N. Democracy Fund.