Through Weberian sociology, he addressed the role and evolution of the mentality of middle-class Muslims. He concluded that similar traits of Calvinism, which happened in the Weber era, also occurred in contemporary Indonesian Muslim society. It explains that Islamic doctrine and the spirit of capitalism fit together to some extent and are suitable for urban livelihood.
The striking point is that today’s Indonesian Muslim middle-class was entirely in contrast to the early independents period. The term of middle-class itself, on the Indonesian scholarship, refers to a group with a particular type of wealth ownership as a rival of feudal elites. The very notion of this belonged to the early post-feudal society. In contrast, agriculture and regional trade emerged as competitive power against the political elite.
Nevertheless, it is easy to witness those forces intertwined one to another in the historical monograph. However, before the note, this post-feudal or post-colonial society poses its distinctive layer based on identity and wealth accumulation. The book pointed at the case is Sarekat Islam. The concern against Chinese domination on the trade market has sublimed in the Muslim community. Sarekat Islam seeks market protection. However, since the ideological dissent among its members on their inclination to communism and Islamism, Sarekat Islam failed to attain and consolidate its political agenda.
In contrast to that, Indonesian Muslims tend to be fragmented due to the germinal phase of various Muslim organizations in the immediate aftermath of the Reformation. No cohesion, high ideological and mass contestations. Furthermore, the 2000s as the phase of late capitalism has brought a new face of Islam, culturally and socially.
A critical remark on the juncture between organizational and capital factors is that this created a new form of religiosity where the materialization of the sacred had become the backbone for most urban Muslims. Amid modern lifestyle and highly materialized routine, they articulate their existence through commodities of symbols, reciprocating piety. Thus, hijabs, pop culture, and many sorts of cultural products increased by demand.