CONCLUSION

Although the lawfulness of music is not particularly polemical in contemporary Indonesian Islam, its permissibility remains ambiguous. While music in many cultures is to be used for enjoyment, in Islamic rules this is not allowed.

In the context of Sundanese music in West Java, the contestation of musik Islami goes further beyond symbolic representations of Islam in the public sphere in Indonesia. It is also contested to drive new understanding of local identity of Sundanese, which emphasises on the parallel between Islam and Sundanese values. Everything in Sundanese values that is compatible with Islam is considered as Islamic. However, it does not imply opposition against other musical genres, but is differenti­ated from Arabic (Islamic) music idioms. Finally, in the wider context, the term Islami in music becomes an important symbol for making the

music acceptable, acknowledgeable and distinguishable from Arabic and local Islamic arts in the repertoire of music in West Java.

These distinctions become significant when we observe how they intersect with political and social discourses of Indonesia. The distinc­tions have renewed importance in the social and political changes taking place in West Java in the new era of regional autonomy, as exemplified in the case of the West Java governor. These have brought music into a complex interplay with social and political contestations of Indonesia.

16.