This paper aims to examine the position of ummah while Muslims are living as minority in Australia. This paper argues that Australia as a secular and multicultural state has supported the development of ummah. There are some reasons to deal with this argument: first, the state consistently protects, respects and fulfils the right to the freedom of religion of all citizens because it ratified some international human rights documents; second, the state administrators have shown their professionalism in their daily life activity in terms of implementing the state law enforcement; third, although there are minor cases of religious discrimination that have been imposed by a minority group of fundamentalist Christian, they can be mitigated through the larger involvements of Muslims in the process of social development such as organising interreligious dialogues, discussions on religious tolerance, which significantly has been conditioned by the societal context of multiculturalism in Australia; fourth, a Muslim intellectual in Australia is totally pro-human rights.

This paper evaluates Muhammadiyah’s effort to revitalise the doctrine of Siyar since the publication of Negara Pancasila sebagai Dār al-‘Ahd wa al-Shahādah (the state of Pancasila as the abode of covenant and the space of testimony). It finds that the ideas in the publication aim to provide guidance for Muhammadiyah members on the relationship between the state and Muhammadiyah. It ensures that its members will understand that Indonesia is dār al-‘ahd wa al-shahādah. It seeks to defend itself against Islamist criticism, while also affirming its responsibility for state development. This paper argues that the idea is a product of Muhammadiyah’s contemporary ijtihad, an effort in theologising democracy based on the idea of Islam Berkemajuan (Islam with progress), in order to strengthen the social bonds of its members who are facing the challenging reality of the massive spread of Islamism and the associated social, political and economic problems.

This paper elaborates the discourse of the development of Ummah from various contemporary literatures that had been produced by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars and intellectuals, ranging from Muslim and Western countries. With the progressive perspective of multiple modernities and intercivilisational approach, this paper argues that the concept of Ummah should be interpreted as a modern concept of inclusive cosmopolitan-humanitarian solidarity that emphasise values of liberalism, pluralism, democracy, human rights and sustainable development. This concept has been also strengthened by a sociological representation of the tradition of Islam Nusantara. Its relative historical continuity in the process of the development of the micro sociological dimension of tradition, it explains that this concept of Ummah is not rootless. Consequently, it can be understood that its applicability is relatively possible .Paper ini ingin mengelaborasi wacana pembangunan konsep Ummah yang digali dari pelbagai literatur kontemporer, baik yang berasal dari para sarjana dan intelektual Muslim maupun non-Muslim, baik itu yang berasal dari negara-negara Muslim maupun Barat. Melalui perspektif multiple modernities 1 I would like to thanks to Professor James Piscatori, for his supervision and his invaluable inspirations during the process of research. The previous version of this paper was prepared and submitted in the examination of the course of "Islam and Democracy" in the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS), the Australian National University (ANU), Australia. 88dan pendekatan lintas-peradaban, paper ini berargumentasi bahwa konsep Ummah sangat perlu kiranya ditafsirkan dan dipahami sebagai konsep modern mengenai solidaritas kemanusiaan yang inklusif dan kosmopolitan. Konsep ini menekankan pentingnya nilai-nilai seperti liberalisme, pluralisme, demokrasi, hak asasi manusia dan pembangunan yang berkelanjutan. Adanya tawaran mengenai konsep ini, didukung oleh representasi sosiologis dari praktik Islam Nusantara. Praktik Islam Nusantara tersebut, menunjukkan adanya kontinuitas historis dalam proses pembangunan tradisi, yang berlaku di dalam dimensi sosiologis yang bersifat mikro. Hal ini tentu saja juga menunjukkan bahwa konsep Ummah ini bukanlah hal yang tak berakar dalam realitas kehidupan Muslim. Dengan demikian dapat dimengerti bahwa, penerapan konsep Ummah ini sangatlah memungkinkan.

This article focuses to examine the process of Muhammadiyah’s ijtihād has evolved, specifically in constructing the notion of Negara Pancasila sebagai Dār al-‘Ahd wa al-Shahādah (the state of consensus and witness) and the arguments on which it is built. The scholarly issues that have been highlighted in this article are study on this specific discourse has not been done yet, the ijtihad in the field of Siyar (law of war and international relations in Islamic traditions) which has been elaborated with ideas of contemporary social sciences is very rare, and the discourse of Siyar has dominantly covered only the area of Middle East. Accordingly, this article confidently fulfils these gaps applying qualitative research method and analysis of social contextualisation. This article argues that the way of Muhammadiyah’s ijtihād in producing the idea of Indonesia as the state of consensus and witness is applying theologising democracy. It consists of trajectory in which Muhammadiyah has objectified Islam and substantialised it to enhance the meaning of democracy.