Aligning Religious Law and State Law

Book excerpt: In Aligning Religious Law and State Law: Negotiating Legal Muslim Marriage in Pasuruan, East Java, Muhammad Latif Fauzi investigates the extent to which the Indonesian state has regulated Muslim marriage, how a local community in Pasuruan, East Java practices and negotiates the regulation and how local officials deal with their practices. Instead of reforming the Marriage Law which would only stir up controversies, the Indonesian government has used a citizens’ rights approach to control marriage and to guide people towards compliance with the state legal framework. In everyday practice of marriage bureaucracy, the state agency in charge of Muslim marriage registration needs to maintain its image as a body capable of maintaining the proper balance between religious tradition and modern administration of a marriage. The practice of Muslim marriage registration has still left some leeway in which informality can function. This informality is important as it offers the capacity to make a compromise between people’s deep interest in religious law and state law. The state officials in charge of marriage administration on the frontier levels are amenable to adopting lenient approach towards marriage registrations, which is the key to securing the functioning of state law.