Religious Intolerance: Radicalism is Surely Going Mainstream in Indonesia

According to Hunsberger (1995), intolerance is a negative attitude based on false adaptation or over-generalized beliefs. This kind of prejudice has three components; first, a cognitive component involving a set of beliefs or stereotypes about a discredited out-group; second, a perceptual component encompasses disgust or visceral dislike of the out-group, and third, a disposition to behave in a socially indifferent way toward members of the out-group, both interpersonally and politically in terms of social policies. 

Followers of every religion tend to affirm that their religion is the absolute repository of the furthest truth, that the teachings and paths shown by it is exclusive and precise; and that the methods adopted by it to accomplish salvation are unique and superior to those of others. This claim to preeminence and certitude leads to a rivalry situation among followers of different religions and results in violence and hatred between them. Hatred towards certain religion will inflict what people called as a religious intolerance. 

    Religious intolerance becomes an increasingly severe problem and has a compelling effect on inter-religious relations in Indonesia. Surveys confirm that the level of compulsion of intolerance in Indonesia for the last 3 years are at a distressing level. Of the total 1,520 respondents, 59,9 percent claimed to have hatred group (Executive Summary of the Annual Report, 2016). Those surveys notified the public of the religious blasphemy case against Islam in late 2016. which has provoked a weild of mass protests by the Aksi Bela Islam or “Islamic Defend Action”. However, by some authorities and media analyst claim that blasphemy has been politicized by certain groups. This political inference then turned to assailing the Aksi Bela Islam movement as a promotion of religious radicalism. 

    According to Syed Farid Alatas’s article published in December 2013 where he questioned whether religious intolerance is going mainstream in Indonesia or not, I strongly agree that religious intolerance in this country is surely going mainstream. There have been so many cases in terms of religious radicalization happened in Indonesia since 2010s up until a recent case happened last year in Central Sulawesi; an allegedly Indonesian Mujahid slaughter one family. Just like what Alatas wrote in his article I can draw a culmination that radicalism, especially in Indonesia, even poses a wider threat, not only an inter-religious range, but also to the national security and territory. 

    A crucial aspect of radicalist thought is its utopian nature. This utopian thinking owned by radicalists, according to Shaharuddin Maaruf, is when they tend to have the urge to apply millenarian, populist, eschatological and orthodox character to the religious life. In other word, regulating the demands for the endowment of the Islamic state and the implementation of Islamic law (Alatas, 2013). One of the examples of utopian thought include the idea of the resurgence of the Caliphate. This social controversy is furiously debated between Islamists and secular modernists. Islamists, whether moderate or radicals, claim to regenerate the Muslim society from scratch as the believe present-day Muslim majority countries as ‘corrupt’, ‘unethical’, and being ruled by man-made laws. 

    This one example of utopian thought is the one that threating our national security and territory. According to Egyptian scholar of Al-Azhar Ali Abdul Razziq, there is nothing in Islamic scripture, both in Quran and Hadith, about any form or government for Muslim as commanded by God. He also argued that Prophetic mission (caliphate) was based on the religious mission, which was achieved through the prophetic mission, not through other ways. Once the Prophet died, it meant the end of the caliphate and no individual existed that could compensate his role as the religious leader, as there would not be anyone who could reinstate his prophecy (Adam, Fadzli et al, 2015).

However, the modernist extremist discourse on society so far away with any existing notions of society that are part of Western and state-supported ideologies such as civil society and democracy (Alatas, 2013). This utopian thought and behavior will be lost to Indonesia’s national principle, Pancasila, and our motto, Bhineka Tunggal Ika, or “Unity in Diversity”. Pancasila had ingrained in all Indonesian society and made Indonesia based on the similarity of history and nation, not based on religion. 

For this reason, it is undoubted that political and religious leader should enlighten the Indonesian public that utopian interpretations/thought are only a human creation and based on a transgression. Because to stipulate Indonesia is not by changing its ideological concept but by building the mental and mindset of its people.  

References:

Alatas, Syed Farid. (2013). Is Religious Intolerance Going Mainstream in Indonesia?

    Retrieved from https://www.globalasia.org (accessed on Thursday, January 14, 2021) 

Adam, Fadzli & Abdul H. et al. (2015). Polemics of the Islamic Caliphate: A View From Ali           Abd. Al-Raziq.

Hunsberger, B. (1995). Religion and Prejudice: The Role of Religious Fundamentalism, Quest, and Right‐Wing Authoritarianism.