A. Luthfi Assyaukanie

The Limits of Indonesian Democracy

Dr. Luthfi Assyaukanie is a leading Indonesian scholar and activist currently serving as a lecturer in international relations at Paramadina University in Jakarta. From 2008 to 2012, he served as director of the Freedom Institute, a Jakarta-based nongovernmental organization focusing on politics, democracy, human rights, and the economy. He is the author of several books, of which his most acclaimed is Islam and the Secular State in Indonesia (2009). His articles have appeared in a number of international journals, including the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, the Journal of Religion and Society, and the Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies. In addition to his scholarly credentials, Dr. Assyaukanie is a prominent member of Indonesian civil society and an active proponent of democracy and human rights in the country. In 2001, he founded the Liberal Islam Network, a movement that advocates for freedom and minority rights. During his fellowship, Dr. Assyaukanie plans to work on a book manuscript on the legal and constitutional impediments to the consolidation of democracy in Indonesia. As part of his research and writing, he will trace the legal origins of religious intolerance and political discrimination in Indonesia and seek to address two key questions: why there are so many legal obstacles to the consolidation of Indonesian democracy and what Indonesians have done to respond to such impediments.