A letter from Farsijana and Bernie Adeney-Risakotta
July 2012
Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,
Sometimes we are asked about persecution of Christians in Indonesia. Recently there was a leading article in the New York Times about religious intolerance in Indonesia. Is it true? There is no simple answer. Imagine how you might respond if asked about persecution of Muslims or of African Americans in the U.S.A. What about the safety of movie theaters? It would be foolish to deny that there is discrimination and violence in the U.S.A. But if you answered that Muslims and African Americans are oppressed in the U.S.A., or that theaters and schools are not safe, you might give a distorted view of reality. It is a large country.
Bernie with some of the ICRS staff
Indonesians enjoy legally guaranteed freedom of religion and equality before the law. However, legal rights are not the same as protection against discrimination and violence. Yes, some Christians face oppression in Indonesia. There are sporadic reports of churches being attacked or denied their right to worship. Over the past few years there have been a few bombings and physical attacks on Christians attempting to worship.
In a notorious case, a Presbyterian-affiliated church had their building closed by the mayor, under pressure from hard-line Muslim groups and business interests. The church building stands on prime property in the middle of the city. The church appealed to the courts and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the church. However, the mayor still refused to comply, arguing that he has a right to deny a use permit to avoid potential violent actions by community groups. His argument is that public order is more important than rights to use a building. One might ask if the main issue is public safety or rather economic interests. This case may have very little to do with religion.
Threats of violence from hard-line Muslims are real in Indonesia and must be taken seriously. Many Christians are distressed that the central government does not take more vigorous action to protect minority religious groups from the bigoted actions of a few. Not only Christians experience difficulties. Muslim hard-liners are even harsher in their attempted repression of other Muslim groups that they consider heretical. The great majority of Indonesian Muslims are disgusted by the violence of hard-line groups. In fact, there have been mass demonstrations against these groups and even physical attacks against their members.
Indonesia includes the largest Muslim population in the world (210 million), and approximately 25 million Christians. There are over 100,000 churches in Indonesia and only a tiny fraction of 1 percent experience violence or threats of violence. A somewhat larger minority face legal difficulties, such as refusal of permits to build, from unsympathetic local governments. Muslims are worried about the spread of Christianity, which has grown from around 3 percent to about 10 percent of the population over the past 50 years. Meanwhile Christians are worried about increasing attempts to Islamicize Indonesian society. Mutual fear sometimes results in violence.
From 1998 to 2002, during the transition from militaristic, authoritarian rule to democratic institutions, violent conflicts broke out in many places in Indonesia, usually connected with competition for political or economic power. There were violent conflicts between Muslims and Muslims, between Christians and Christians, and between different ethnic groups. But the worst mass violence occurred between Muslims and Christians. During this period East Timor gained its independence and some people feared that this vast archipelago of 17,000 islands might break up into many small countries. Fortunately, since the election of a stronger central government in 2004, Indonesia has returned to political stability and growing economic prosperity.
The one major exception is West Papua. Many Papuans, including Papuan Christians, continue to press for independence from Indonesia. Unprincipled exploitation of Papua’s rich natural resources, as well as discrimination, violence and injustice against indigenous Papuans, fuels the unrest. Farsijana has organized a petition drive to pressure the government to stop violence in West Papua, which is stimulated by military repression.
Some Indonesians now worry about the future of Indonesia. The current president is more than half through his second term and cannot be re-elected a third time. Who will be next? None of the current front-runners inspire much confidence. Will lack of a credible and clean candidate lead people to turn to a more Islamicist candidate? Will disappointment over this president’s weaknesses lead to the choice of a more militaristic, authoritarian leader? Only God knows.
Recently I came to my office at the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) to find the unusual sight of white-robed hard-liners in a fierce debate with my Muslim colleagues. They were protesting my colleagues’ invitation to hold a discussion with a prominent Muslim lesbian feminist. My colleagues did not necessarily agree with her views but felt she raised important issues that should be discussed in a university setting. The university stepped in and cancelled the discussion on the grounds that it could provoke violence. The following day my colleagues joined a large protest, demonstrating against the loss of academic freedom at one of the nation's leading universities.
Farsijana and I spend most of our time working in partnership with Indonesian Muslims and Christians who, like us, are committed to building a just, tolerant and open society in Indonesia, where all believers can worship, think and express themselves in safety. We are grateful that we are not alone in facing an uncertain future. They are with us, you are with us, and most of all, we are confident that God is with us.
Salam,
Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 189
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