A New Islamic Populism in Indonesia and the Middle East

This paper focuses on a specific variant of populism, a ‘new Islamic populism’ that has by now emerged in many parts of the Muslim world. It suggests that this variant of populism merges the aspirations and grievances of large cross-sections of society developing out of half century of social transformations in many Muslim-majority societies. These prominently include members of the new educated urban middle class whose upward social mobility remains impeded by the existing structures of power, growing masses of urban poor betrayed by the promises of modernity and in some cases, relatively marginalised sections of the bourgeoisie. It is also suggested that the concept of an aggrieved but virtuous ‘ummah’, or community of believers, becomes the substitute for the more conventional concept of the oppressed ‘people’ that more typically lies at the forefront of populist movements. The study pays special attention to the cases of Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey.