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| Police and military personal are openly supporting extremists. |
Source/Credit: Express Buzz
By V Suryanarayan | March 21, 2011
Indonesia is the largest Muslim county in the world and until very recently it projected the image of a moderate Islamic country, wedded to secular ideals. When Indonesia proclaimed its independence in August 1945 and debated the nature of the state in the constituent assembly, the Indonesian nationalist triumvirate — Sukarno, Hatta and Sjahrir — rejected the demand that Islam should be the basis of the new nation. Like the Indian nationalist leaders, they opted to make Indonesia a secular state. What is more, when the Muslim fanatics under Darul Islam unleashed a violent revolt soon after independence it was put down with a heavy hand.
Unfortunately the secular image of Indonesia as a tolerant country, wedded to religious pluralism, has suffered serious damage due to violent attacks on minority religious groups. In early February this year, there were attacks on Christian churches. It was followed by attacks on followers of Ahmadiyah, a minority Islamic sect, perceived by sections of majority Sunni population to be a heretical sect. If these disturbing tendencies are not contained, Indonesia is likely to be engulfed in fratricidal religious conflicts.
Indonesia has a total population of 243 million, of which Muslims constitute 86.1 per cent, Protestants 5.7 per cent, Roman Catholics 3.0 per cent, Hindus 1.8 per cent and other unspecified religious groups 3.4 per cent.
Though 86 per cent of the population follows the Islamic faith, Islam is not a unifying factor in Indonesia. It is a divisive force. Islam came into Indonesia in the 16th century and in the course of the next 300 years spread throughout the archipelago. It was brought by the merchants from Gujarat, Kerala and the Coromandel coast and had already undergone changes in the direction of mysticism, which facilitated its adoption and adaptation in the Indonesian setting.
As Clifford Geertz, the distinguished sociologist, has remarked, “Indonesian Islam, cut off from its centres of orthodoxy in Mecca and Cairo, vegetated, another meandering tropical growth on an already overcrowded religious landscape. Buddhist mystic practices got Arabic names, Hindu rajas suffered a change of title and became Muslim sultans and the common people called some of their spirits jinns, but little else changed”. In another pithy statement Clifford Geertz summed up the Indonesian experience: “In Indonesia Islam did not create a civilisation, it appropriated one”.
As the isolation of Islam broke down and contacts were established with the centres of Islamic orthodoxy in West Asia new groups began to emerge and occasional tensions began to develop between the “more faithful” and the “less faithful”. Broadly these groups could be divided into three: The Santri, the devout Muslims, who in their daily lives laid great stress in the Islamic aspects of Indonesian syncretic religion, belonging mainly to the trading community; The Abangan, the nominal Muslims, who in their daily lives laid great stress on the animist practices belonging mainly to the rural peasantry, and; the Prijaji, who laid stress on the Hindu aspects mainly belonging to the aristocracy in the urban areas. The roots of religious tensions in post-independent Indonesia were due to the intolerance shown by the Santri towards the Abangan. During the Sukarno era, the president depended on the Abangans for support. As a result, attempts made by fanatical Muslims to whip up Islamic sentiments were put down with a heavy hand. The Indonesian national philosophy, Pantjasila, consists of five principles: belief in one supreme god, humanitarianism, nationalism, consultative democracy and social justice.
Islam began to play an increasing political role after the downfall of Sukarno and the ascendancy of Suharto. In the turbulent days after the overthrow of Sukarno the fanatical Muslims were in the forefront in the annihilation of communist cadres. New Islamic groups began to emerge, which established contacts with fraternal Islamic groups outside, began to address crucial issues like the challenges facing the Islamic world, the nature of political leadership, lack of democratic participation, the role of the United States, the issue of Palestinian struggle and the degeneration of the Islamic society as a result of westernisation. The Afghan War provided an opportunity for the Muslim activists to go to Afghanistan and experience at first hand the glory of jihad. The flow of Saudi money and the mushrooming of madrasas led to indoctrination of young minds. The Bali bombings in October 2002, which claimed 200 lives, making it the bloodiest terrorist attack after September 11 and the attack on the Marriot Hotel were illustrations that Indonesia was slowly being dragged into the vortex of Islamic terrorism. What made the situation deplorable was the fact that the political leaders did not want to take strong measures against these fanatic groups, lest they lose popular support.
The two groups which were victims of attack during recent years had been Christians and the followers of Ahmadiyah. Unfortunately the evangelist activities of some Christian groups led to the exacerbation of the situation. Churches in the Moluccas and Ambona, followed by churches in the other parts, were burnt down. The second group to be attacked was the followers of the Ahmadiyah movement. The movement, founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahamd in Punjab in the 19th century, is gaining followers in different parts of the world, including Indonesia. Like mainstream Islam, the Ahmadiyah teaching is based on the Quran and the Hadith. But it is a different faith which considers its founder to be a Prophet. Orthodox Muslims demand that the Ahmadiyah should be forbidden from calling themselves Muslims. It may be noted that the followers of Ahamadiyah are not permitted to undertake the Haj pilgrimage. In 2008 the Yudhoyono government issued a decree that left the legal status of Ahmadiyah ambiguous. The government banned Ahmadiyah from undertaking missionary activities, but not from other religious activities. The decree infuriated many orthodox Muslims. The net result is the demand to ban Ahmadiyah is getting strident and has expressed itself in violent attacks on its followers.
One should not overestimate the popular support of the fanatical elements, but what should be highlighted is the necessity to eradicate these intolerant tendencies at the earliest, lest they gather further support. In a recent survey undertaken by the Indonesian Setan Institute, an overwhelming majority of the respondents wanted the state to be neutral in religious matters. 88 per cent were of the view that religion is strictly a personal matter. What is required is the political will on the part of the government to put down the intolerant, fanatical elements within the country
V Suryanarayan is senior research fellow in the Center for Asia Studies, Chennai
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