The politics of regulating religious freedom

Supriyanto Abdi
The University of Melbourne

The politics of regulating religious freedom: The political and religious origins of (anti)-blasphemy discourse in the post new order Indonesia

This paper examines the construction of state’s discourse on ‘blasphemy’ and its ongoing reconfiguration in the post-New Order Indonesia. It will be divided into three main parts: The first part briefly traces the historical and political origins of state’s discourse of ‘blasphemy’ and related discourse of ‘recognized religion’ in Indonesia and how it has been perpetuated, used and abused by various political regimes. The second part analyses the extent to which these two state discourses have remained intact and retained their political and ‘disciplinary’ power in the post-New Order Indonesia. The third part examines the extent to which religious colour has been added to the debate over blasphemy and religious freedom in the post-New Order era with the rise of two competing religious trends: ‘Islamism’ and ‘Islamic liberalism’. Particular attention will be payed to the way each group frames and negotiates their competing discourses on Islam-state relations and religious freedom in this discursive contest. The paper will be concluded by a theoretical reflection on the possibility and limits of negotiating a liberal mode of governing religions within the context of competing trends of Islamization and political liberalization.

Retrieved from: http://international-conference.unp.ac.id/presenter-abstract/supriyanto-abdi.html

Islam, Religious Freedom and the Appropriation of Liberalism in the Post-New Order Indonesia

The configuration of Islam-state relations and religious freedom in the post-New Order Indonesia has been subject to ongoing contestation and negotiation among various religious and ideological groups. Focused on a recent public debate over the adequacy of the Presidential Decree No.1/1965 on the prevention of misuse of and/or blasphemous action towards religion, this paper will examine this ongoing dircursive contest over religious freedom in Indonesia and the extent to which competing conceptions of state-religion relations and religious freedom are appropriated and negotiated by competing actors (state agents and various civil society forces, including Muslim groups). In particular, this paper will discuss the extent to which liberal discourses on religious freedom such as state neutrality and public-private divide have been negotiated and appropriated by certain ‘liberal' Muslim intellectuals and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) activists. The discussion will be framed within two particular challenges that confront these ‘liberal' Muslim intellectuals and activists: the rise of Islamists' discourse of Islamizing political and public sphere and the existing state's ideological and political discourse. The paper will argue that while the democratization discourse has broadened the discursive zone for liberal discourse on religious freedom, the accompanying discourse of Islamization and the existing state's ideological discourse has set some discursive limits for it.

Supriyanto Abdi is a PhD student at the Asia Institute, the University of Melbourne. He obtained his Bachelor degree (Sarjana) in Islamic Studies from the Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta (2000) and Master of Contemporary Asian Analysis from the University of Melbourne (2005).

Retrieved from: http://sekadarpendapat.blogspot.com/2010/11/cils-conference.html

Time to Forgive and Live in Harmony With Ahmadiyah

A. Najib Burhani | The Jakarta Globe,  September 07, 2012

"Without the Ahmadiyah translation, some Indonesian intellectuals would have slipped away from religion and become atheists or hedonists."

Now that Idul Fitri has passed, can mainstream Muslims in Indonesia forgive Ahmadiyah? Can they accept Ahmadis as fellow citizens? Can’t we all start living in harmony with those who have different beliefs?

Perhaps these questions are unrealistic, and expect too much from the annual religious ritual that has lost many of its divine objectives. For some people, the meaning of Idul Fitri is nothing more than festivity, traveling back to their hometowns on the mudik , reuniting with family and friends, buying new clothes and gorging on ketupat , rice cooked in coconut leaves.

We have to be realistic and stop expecting the “magic” of Idul Fitri to reconcile those who involved in conflicts over the issue of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, particularly between mainstream Muslims and Ahmadiyah followers.

It has never worked before and seems unlikely to work in the future if we look at this from the perspective of theology. Ahmadis will never give up their distinctive belief in the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, while mainstream Muslims will never accept Ahmadis because of such doctrines.

The only way to make reconciliation between mainstream Muslims and Ahmadis possible is on the basis of nationality, i.e. by accepting Ahmadis as fellow citizens and acknowledging their right to practice a different belief.

While hard-line groups see the Ahmadis only as a source of trouble, they have made some positive contributions to this country since 1925. I am personally not convinced about the claim by Jemaat Ahmadiyah Indonesia that W.R. Soepratman, the composer of Indonesia’s national anthem, was an Ahmadi, but Ahmadis have made at least three big contributions to the country.

First, Ahmadis introduced a rational understanding of religion. This particularly comes from the Lahore Ahmadiyah or the Gerakan Ahmadiyah Indonesia. In his book “Dibawah Bendera Revolusi” (“Under the Flag of Revolution”), Indonesia’s founding president, Sukarno, made a list of Ahmadiyah books that had influenced his thinking.

Among them were Mohammad Ali’s “Mohammad the Prophet” and “Inleiding tot de Studie van den Heiligen Qoer’an,” as well as Khwaja Kama-ud-Din’s “De bronnen van het Christendom.”

The second contribution of Ahmadiyah was in introducing the comparative study of religions to the country, although in an apologetic and polemical way. This is particularly true during two unstable periods: colonial times and the first two decades after the declaration of independence in 1945.

This can be seen from books on comparative religion during those two periods, such as Hasbullah Bakry’s books on Christianity and Judaism, and Djarnawi Hadikusumo’s books on comparative religion.

With the collapse of Sukarno’s Old Order in 1965, the study of comparative religion in Islamic higher education took on a new direction, i.e. it was no longer apologetic and polemical, and therefore no longer used Ahmadiyah books as sources of reference.

The third contribution of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia was in introducing the Koran in vernacular languages. The first Dutch translation of the Koran, for instance, was from the Ahmadiyah. Since Dutch was the language of Indonesian intelligentsia at that time, the translation was warmly welcomed and became a prized possession for many people during this period.

Agus Salim, one of the nation’s founding fathers, praised the Ahmadiyah translation for its success in reconciling religion and science without slipping into materialism, rationalism or mysticism. Without the translation, according to former Foreign Minister Roeslan Abdulgani, some Indonesian intellectuals would have slipped away from religion and become atheists or hedonists.

It is true that all of these contributions are from the past. People may be curious about the contribution of the community to present-day Indonesia, although many people seem reluctant to acknowledge any positive contributions by Ahmadis to Indonesia’s progress.

One contribution can be found in Manis Lor village, in Kuningan, West Java. This is a very unique village; 80 percent of the residents are followers of Ahmadiyah. Before Ahmadiyah emerged there in the 1950s, it was a poor village inhabited by pagans and nominal Muslims. Ahmadiyah transformed it into a prosperous and religious village.

It is a religious village not only in the sense of rituals, but in the sense of its cleanness, neatness and the daily attitude of its residents.

In the Ahmadiyah part of the village, visitors will not find anyone smoking or drinking alcohol. Rather, they will find smiles, friendly attitudes, hard-working people, a safe place to stay and a strong bond and cohesion among residents.

Anyone who visited the compound of the popular Muslim preacher Aa Gym in Gegerkalong, Bandung, between 1996 and 2006 and then visited Manis Lor would have been able to make a comparison between the two. And what they would have seen was a beautiful combination between this-worldly and an other-worldly orientation of religiosity.

Compared to Gegerkalong, Manis Lor was a living success story of community development, but on a larger scale. It was not one block or one neighborhood as in Gegerkalong, but an entire village. Visitors would not find people tossing trash anywhere but in garbage cans. Of more than a thousand houses in Manis Lor, only 12 could have been called run-down.

Given all of these contributions by Ahmadis to the modernization of Indonesia, can’t we stop treating Ahmadiyah as the enemy? Can we stop hating these fellow citizens? As compatriots, can we forgive their “deviant” or distinctive beliefs and allow them to live in harmony with us as part of Muslim society? The recent Idul Fitri should have given us a renewed awareness of the need to treat them more humanely.

A. Najib Burhani, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Available at: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/time-to-forgive-and-live-in-harmony-with-ahmadiyah/542819

Identity Negotiation and Resistence of Indonesia Ahmadiyah

Thesis Defense on Ahmadiyah, Open for Public

Monday, 3-September-2012 | Viewed (48)

IDENTITY  NEGOTIATION AND RESISTENCE OF INDONESIA AHMADIYAH

This week two students of CRCS batch 2010, Ngatini and Syaiful Arief will defense their thesis on Indonesia Ahmadiyah. Syaiful Arief writes "Strategic, Identity Negotiation of Jemaat Ahmadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia" and Ngatini, "Texturising Resistence under Routine Repression a Study of Indonesian Ahmadiyya". The defense will be on:

Wedesday, September 5fth, 2012, @ 09 AM,

Room: Ruang Sidang B, 5th floor of Graduate School Building, UGM.

Thesis Examiners:

Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir

Samsu Rizal Panggabean, MS

Dr. M. Iqbal Ahnaf

Abstract

Strategic, Identity Negotiation of Jemaat Ahmadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Syaiful Arief

The study examines the relation between subjects and discourses practices with specific strategies in the form of rule and programs implemented in Jemaat Ahmadiyah Yogyakarta. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I found that the obligation of bai’at, the obedience into Jemaah and the belief of Mirza Ghulam have become the significant elements for someone to be Ahmadi. However, the construction of identity within this community is dynamics, there are members try to get full attachment into Ahmadiyah and other adjust with certain conditions.

This thesis shows that through motivational or strategic positions, members of Jemaat Ahmadiyah Yogyakarta negotiate their identity with other through several aspects; social-religious, scholarship and government institutions. Although this study leads to the significant role of Ahmadis, it also acknowledges the contribution of the government and other social organizations that encourage mutual understanding and respective attitudes toward diversities in Yogyakarta.

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Abstract

Texturising Resistence under Routine Repression: a Study of Indonesian Ahmadiyya

Ngatini

“There is no action possible without little acting”, said George Elliot as quoted by Scott in his work Domination and the Arts of Resistance (Scott, 1990: 1). I think Elliot’s statement is best fit to summarize what has been going with Indonesian Ahmadiyya in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. Indonesian Ahmadiyya in Lombok is part of Indonesian Ahmadiyya  congregation  (JAI), an Islamic group that has been condemned by the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI)  in 1980 and repeated in 2005 as defiance of Islam due to its belief in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the promised Messiah. Following the religious decree of MUI  issued in 1980 and reissued in 2005 banning  Ahmadiyya religious activities, there are numbers of efforts  inhibiting  Ahmadiyya teaching to grow and  to bring the members of Ahmadiyya back to the “right track”. These efforts find it way in so-called coercive persuasion (Lofland & Skonovd, 1981).

In Lombok, the coercive persuasion has many forms ranging from legal laws of local governments banning Ahmadiyya activities, bribes, intimidations, exclusions from social activities, stoning, expellee, house burnings, robbery, to killing. The coercive persuasion  that have been taking place since 1972  leads  Indonesia Ahmadiyya congregation in Lombok experiencing objective-subjective deprivations (Beith-Hallahmi & Argyle, 1997). Those objective-subjective deprivations are like losing dwelling places, losing jobs, losing family members, losing possessions, undergoing psychological disorder, being expelled from their hometown, doing refugee from one place to another place and finally living in refugee camp for more than 6 years.  Still, despite of being in the face of miasma, JAI In Lombok, persisting to be Ahmadis, doing their daily activities as usual and resistance at the same time.

Employing sociological approach, this research intends to investigate why certain numbers of JAI in Lombok remained to be Ahmadi under such miasma. More, this research also wants to explore how some people who remained to be Ahmadis adjust their selves to such coercive and persuasive condition and deal with their objective-subjective deprivation.  The data for this research were collected through series of individual in-depth and group interviews with Ahmadis and non-Ahmadis, participative observation over the life of JAI in Lombok, and studying the literatures on Ahmadiyya issue from January to February 2012.

The research shows that there are three kinds of reasons of why certain numbers of people remained to be Ahmadis despite of such miasma they have; theological reason, sociological reason, and ethical reason.  Meanwhile, to make the impact of coercive persuasion and the objective-subjective deprivation less severe they are doing, following Scott, everyday forms of resistance or the infra-politic of subordinate group. Relying on Scott’s theory of resistance, I categorize the resistance of JAI in Lombok into two groups that are the public resistance and the domestic resistance.

Retrieved from: http://crcs.ugm.ac.id/news/800/Thesis-Defense-on-Ahmadiyah-Open-for-Public.html#.UER65PaUopA.facebook

Ahmadiyah di Kota Medan

Judul :	Ahmadiyah di Kota Medan
Pengarang :	Benny Ariyandi
Sumber :	Jurnal ilmu-ilmu sosial Univ Muhammadiyah Sumut
Penerbit :	Pusat Penelitian dan Karya Ilmiah Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara
Kode Panggil :	300.5, Jur i
Tahun Terbit Artikel:	2008
Volume :	9
No :	3
Halaman :	325-338
Kata Kunci :	Religion; Social values; Ahmadiyya; Medan
Sari :	NULLPenelitian in;' bertujuan memaparkan sosialisasi nilai-niloi Jamaah.Ahmodiyah di ,Medan baik seeara internal maupun eksternal. Penelitian menggunokan pendekotan kuolitati/ stud; kasus (case study) yang bersifat deskriptif. Penelitian dilolcukan di Medan. Ditemukan baliwa Jama 'ah Ahmadiyah cabang Medon memperkuot jaringon mereka dar; dolam dengan meningkatkan solidaritas sesama anggota. Mereka meneropkan strategi adaptasi terhadap lingkungan selcitar dengan cara berbaur dan herinteraksi dengan masyarakat ,di antaranya dengan terlibat do/am berbagai kegiatan di lingkungan 80$;01 mereka.   Available at: http://isjd.pdii.lipi.go.id/index.php/Search.html?act=tampil&id=27402&idc=1