I demonstrate that social movement approach can shed important light on the dynamics of PKS. PKS attracted public and scholarly attention since its success in increasing vote in by six hundred percent, from 1.4 percent in 1999 to 7.3% in 2004. PKS emerged from quiet conversations among students in secular universities who subsequently transformed their activism into a political movement. By applying the fundamentals of social movement theory i.e., political opportunity structure (POS), resource mobilisation theory and collective action frames, I will examine the emergence and the rise of the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in Indonesian politics. Such emerging research has mostly been undertaken in the Middle East and North Africa, but not in Southeast Asia. Over the last five years, there is evidence of an emerging interest in the application of theories and approaches from social movement perspectives to Islamic movements in a broad sense.
