From Palestine to Indonesia and beyond: A religious and secular endeavour

What does becoming an Indonesian Muslim mean during the ongoing genocide in Palestine? This paper draws on the author's autoethnography to deliberate on the radical shift in the Palestinian narrative in Indonesia from a religious to a more secular tone during the current worsening genocide in Palestine. While the historical evidence has shown that the genocide did not start on 7 October 2023 and has lasted for decades, we must admit that the global awareness of the Palestinian cause has achieved its core momentum from 7 October 2023.Footnote1 In Indonesia, as the context of this paper, Palestinian discourse has become the commodity of various factions of political Islam for years, and it has become the core reason for my significant distance from the Palestinian cause. As a secular Indonesian Muslim, I fully accept the fact that Indonesia is a multi-faith and multicultural nation. The secularisation of Palestinian discourse in Indonesia in the past months has been eye-opening, and I instantly joined the national rallies and global solidarity for Palestine for these reasons. This article argues that Indonesian engagements with Palestine reveal how secular and religious modes of solidarity are entangled with broader structures of sovereignty and survival.