Ahmadiyah, conflicts, and violence in contemporary Indonesia

IJIMS, Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies, Volume 3, Number 1, June 2013: 1-30

Nina Mariani
Inter Religious Studies, ICRS Universitas Gadjah MadaE-mail: nina.mariani@yahoo.co.id

Abstract
This article examines conflicts and violence experienced by Ahmadiyah community in Indonesia after reformasi era. In spite of diversities among Muslims in Indonesia, Ahmadiyah (Jemaat Ahmadiyah Indonesia) has been experiencing some forms of violence both from other Muslims and government. The number of violence has risen dramatically after the issuing second fatwa from Majelis Ulama Indonesia in 2005 and the Joint Ministerial Decree (SKB) on Ahmadiyah. Those forms of violence are issuing decree on banning Ahmadiyah, sealing the mosques and banning of doing religious activities, and mobbing the mosques and houses, including killing. Furthermore, this paper argues that Indonesia’s goverment does not take its responsibility to protect its people particularly from minorities groups, even some local governments also do violence towards Ahmadiyah community.

Artikel ini membahas konflik dan kekerasan yang dialami oleh komunitas Ahmadiyah di Indonesia setelah masa reformasi. Walaupun Muslim di Indonesia sangat beragam, Jemaat Ahmadiyah Indonesia mengalami beberapa bentuk kekerasn baik dari Muslim yang lain maupun dari pemerintah. Jumlah kekerasna yang menimpa mereka meningkat tajam setelah dikeluarkannya fatwa sesat kedua dari MUI pada tahun 2005 dan Surat Keputusan Bersama (SKB) tiga menteri mengenai Ahmadiyah. Berbagai bentuk kekerasan yang menimpa mereka yaitu pengeluaran peraturan pelarangan keberadaan Jemaat Ahmadiyah di berbagai provinsi, penyegelan masjid dan pelarangan melakukan aktifitas keagamaan, penyerangan masjid- masjid dan rumah-rumah warga Ahmadiyah, bahkan pembunuhan. Selain itu, pemerintah pusat sepertinya tidak melaksanakan kewajibannya untuk melindungi warganya, terutama dari kalangan minoritas bahkan beberapa pemerintah lokal justru melakukan kekerasan terhadap warga Ahmadiyah di daerahnya.

Keywords: Ahmadiyah; Conflict; Violence; Persecution; Government

The Ahmadiyya and the Study of Comparative Religion in Indonesia: Controversies and Influences

Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Volume 25, Issue 2, 2014, pages 141-158,  DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2013.864191

Ahmad Najib Burhani*

Abstract

As an organization of foreign origin, the existence and contribution of the Ahmadiyya in Indonesia has been a subject of debate. Some scholars ignore it completely as unimportant, while others consider that it has had significant influence. The contribution of the Ahmadiyya to Indonesian Islam most asserted by the movement itself is its efforts to check and respond to Christian missionary activity. In what way has the movement actually made a contribution to that effort? How widespread is the influence of the Ahmadiyya in the discourse on Christianity, in particular, and the study of comparative religion, in general, in Indonesia? Why has the Ahmadiyya paid more attention to the issue of Christianity than other Muslim groups? This article aims to answer these questions by analysing literature on Christianity written and distributed by the Ahmadiyya in Indonesia and the effect this has had on relations between Islam and Christianity in two fields – religious mission and academia. The article presents three propositions. First, Ahmadiyya literature, with its apologetic, polemical and controversial character, had a significant influence on the academic study of comparative religion during two periods of instability: the late colonial era and the first two decades after the declaration of independence in 1945. Second, Ahmadiyya literature on Christianity has been most influential through the way it sets out to create a sense of the superiority of Islam and its compatibility with modernity. Third, for the Ahmadiyya, the issue of Christianity, particularly the death of Jesus, has been used as evidence that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is the second Messiah.


Keywords: religious mission, comparative religion, tabshīr (missionary activity), inter-religious dialogue, conversion.

Author affiliations:  a Research Center for Society and Culture (PMB), Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta, Indonesia

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09596410.2013.864191#.Utc_vPuKl-V