The Text of Conservatism: The Role of Abbas' Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah in Underpinning Acehnese Current Religious Violence

Considerable studies have been undertaken on Islamic sects and traditionalist Muslims. There is, however, little work on textual analysis of the traditionalist book, which is regarded as traditionalist collective identity. This article is a critical analysis of the term [italic]Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jam aʼah[/italic], with special reference to Sirajuddin Abbasʼ book; [italic]Iʼtiq a d Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamaʼah[/italic]. His articulation of the concept [italic]Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamaʼah[/italic] played a significant role in essentialising traditionalist ideology and providing traditionalist Islamic activists the justification to go against Wahhabism. His interpretation of the concept is, however, strongly rejected by Wahhabis, because of imposing hatred and intolerance against Wahhabism. By using Fairloughʼs critical analysis, I studied critically the content of Abbasʼs book. Some concepts related to the articulation of [italic]Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamaʼah[/italic] are chosen and analysed to find the role of the book in supporting traditionalist ideology. Then, Abbasʼ interpretations of the selected concepts were verified through the interview method to reveal the ideological articulation of Abbasʼ.[web URL: http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/studia-islamika/article/view/ 3171]