Professor Robert Hefner has a tremendous new book, “Islam and Citizenship in Indonesia: Democracy and the Quest for an Inclusive Public Ethics”. It’s one of my favourite books of the year, drawing on thirty years of ethnographic research. Today, he joins “Rocking Our Priors”. We discuss:

Indonesia’s religious history

Why have Hinduism and Buddhism have largely faded in Indonesia?

Why were madrasas were rare until the 19th century?

What explains the rise in normative Islam?

- Economic development and technological advances?

- Backlash against secular schooling?

- Criminality and demand for moral order?

- Saudi funding

- The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt