Kemajuan yang dicapai oleh negara Barat dalam bidang ilmu pengetahuan, teknologi, dan ekonomi, berakar pada trilogi liberalisme, pluralisme, dan sekularisme. Atas dasar itulah, beberapa tokoh Islam Indonesia ingin memajukan umatnya dengan trilogi tersebut. Dalam perjalanannya, tokoh Islam seperti Nurcholish Madjid dan Ulil Abshar menuai kritik dari Rasjidi dan Atiyan Ali. Puncaknya adalah ketika MUI mengeluarkan fatwa mengharamkan Islam liberal. Bagaimana gambaran sejarah masuk Islam liberal di Indonesia? Mengapa terjadi polemik Islam liberal di Indonesia? Untuk menjawab pertanyaan tersebut, metode yang digunakan adalah metode sejarah, meliputi heuristik, kritik, interpretasi, dan historiografi. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, sejarah Islam liberal di Indonesia terbagi ke dalam empat tahap, yaitu: Tahap awal ketika masih menyatu dengan pemikiran neo-modernisme. Kedua, pembentukan enam paradigma Islam liberal. Ketiga adanya kritik dan evaluasi pemikiran Islam liberal. Kemudian sebab terjadinya polemk pemikiran Islam liberal disebabkan oleh perbedaan paradigma berfikir dan metodologi memahami ajaran Islam dalam melihat realitas yang terjadi di masyarakat pada masa kontemporer. The progress achieved by Western countries in the fields of science, technology and economics is rooted in liberalism, pluralism and secularism. For this reason, some Indonesian Muslim intellectuals want to reform their people accordingly. However, in working with these modern ideas, the polemics arose as those Muslim scholars such as Nurcholish Madjid and Ulil Abshar were criticized by Rasyidi and Atiyan Ali. This caused the MUI to issued a fatwa forbidding Liberal Islam. This study addressed two questions: How did liberal Islam come to Indonesia? Why did liberal Islam polemic occur in Indonesia? The method employed in this study is historical method which is comprised of heuristics, criticism or analysis, interpretation, and historiography. The result of the study shows that the history of liberal Islam in Indonesia was developed into four stages. First, when the thought of liberal Islam was still integrated with neo-modernism. Second, the establishment of six liberal Islam paradigms. Third, the emergence of criticism and evaluation toward it. Fourth, the polemic of liberal Islamic thought was caused by different paradigms and methodology in understanding the teaching of Islam that is compatible with the needs of contemporary society.