Cornell Modern Indonesia Project

Threats and Opportunities for Democracy

Chiara Formichi, Chiara Formichi

• Publisher: Southeast Asia Program Publications
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781501760457
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

In 1945, Sukarno declared that the new Indonesian republic would be grounded on monotheism, while also insisting that the new nation would protect diverse religious practice. The essays in Religious Pluralism in Indonesia explore how the state, civil society groups, and individual Indonesians have experienced the attempted integration of minority and majority religious practices and faiths across the archipelagic state over the more than half century since Pancasila.

The chapters in Religious Pluralism in Indonesia offer analyses of contemporary phenomena and events; the changing legal and social status of certain minority groups; inter-faith relations; and the role of Islam in Indonesia's foreign policy. Amidst infringements of human rights, officially recognized minorities—Protestants, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists and Confucians—have had occasional success advocating for their rights through the Pancasila framework. Others, from Ahmadi and Shi'i groups to atheists and followers of new religious groups, have been left without safeguards, demonstrating the weakness of Indonesia's institutionalized "pluralism."

Contributors: Lorraine Aragon, Christopher Duncan, Kikue Hamayotsu, Robert Hefner, James Hoesterey, Sidney Jones, Mona Lohanda, Michele Picard, Evi Sutrisno, Silvia Vignato

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Map of Indonesia
• 1. The Limits of Pancasila as a Framework for Pluralism
• 2. Islamism and the Struggle for Inclusive Citizenship in Democratic Indonesia
• 3. The Rise of Islamist Majoritarianism in Indonesia
• 4. Making the Majority in the Name of Islam: Democratization, Moderate-Radical Coalition, and Religious Intolerance in Indonesia
• 5. Deity Statue Disputed: The Politicization of Religion, Intolerance, and Local Resistance in Tuban, East Java
• 6. The Tragedy of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama
• 7. Regulating Religion and Recognizing “Animist Beliefs” in Indonesian Law and Life
• 8. From Imposed Order to Conflicting Superdiversity: The Tamil Hindu and Their Neighbors in Medan
• 9. Saints, Scholars, and Diplomats: Religious Statecraft and the Problem of “Moderate Islam” in Indonesia
• 10. Agama Hindu under Pressure from Muslim and Christian Proselytizing
• 11. Dispelling Myths of Religious Pluralism: A Critical Look at Maluku and North Maluku
• Glossary
• Contributors
• Index