Islam and inter-religious relations in Indonesia
Interreligious relations in Indonesia seem to have experienced trials and tribulations in the last two years. If followed closely it appears that this will still go on for quite a while.
Restoring a relationship that initially seemed harmonious and then experienced a fracture is not an easy thing. However, our future as a nation depends a lot on the ability to restore relations. Failure to do this can lead to a terrible traumatic ending: the division of us as a nation.
Therefore, like it or not, we have to exert our utmost ability to bring about the restoration of inter-religious relations. For this purpose, we must first understand the most basic causes of broken relationships and the multidimensional sides of the crisis we are facing. Without knowing the disease, of course there will be no cure, and healing will not be possible.
In essence, a growing heterogeneous society, like ours, is certainly difficult to develop a deep mutual understanding between the various ethnic elements, regional cultures, mother tongues, and cultures. Even if there is no basic misunderstanding between the elements, at least the mutual understanding achieved will only be nominal. In other words, the optimal atmosphere that can be achieved is not mutual understanding, but simply a complete lack of misunderstanding.
Such a pattern of "harmonious" relationships, by itself, does not have strong resistance to various pressures that come from political, economic, and cultural developments. The existing harmony is only a fragile condition, which may be termed by the phrase from the Cold War era between the former superpowers: peaceful co-existence.
Of course, the peace that is held is just a good neighbor attitude, without a sense of fate and sharing among people who feel they are brothers and sisters. Good relations are characterized only by manners and mutual respect outwardly. There would be very little connection of taste in such circumstances.
Differences in attitudes and views, especially conflicting interests, can make the calm atmosphere turn into chaos at any time. Those who used to respect each other can suddenly blame each other. Those who used to be polite to each other, suddenly can blame each other. The mental atmosphere filled with shock because things were fine at first, added to the intense feeling of "losing" the original calm. This then adds to the feeling that the situation is getting worse than it actually is.
From what has been described above, it becomes clear to us that our main problem in terms of inter-religious relations is the development of a sincere and sustainable mutual understanding. We will only be able to become a strong nation, if people of different religions can understand each other, not just respect each other. What is needed is a sense of belonging, not just tolerance of one another.
Because Islam is the religion of the majority population of our nation, it is very sad that to this day their negative attitude towards other parties is still very widespread. The material for sermons and lectures by Islamic leaders, from scholars to intellectuals, is still changing from time to time to become very worrying.
Indeed, the majority of our nation, which incidentally, is Muslim, is still gripped by poverty and ignorance, so it is easy to be "wooed" to convert cheaply. The logical condition of that reality is actually a must for Islamic movements to advance their ummah. This means the necessity to carry out a multidimensional transformation of the lives of the people they lead, instead of looking for scapegoats for their own backwardness and backwardness.
This does not mean that Islamic leaders at all levels should turn a blind eye to all the excesses that occur in religious life in our country. Steps must be taken to deal with and prevent the recurrence of these excesses, including the way of spreading religion too aggressively, which is carried out by some religious groups from minority groups. However, how to handle and prevent it must be done wisely, without having to generalize to all members of the community of that religion.
Of course the Muslims in our country do not want to be blamed for the negative activities carried out by Muslim minorities in other countries. We can only sit this problem proportionally. This simple fact and the wisdom as demanded above, is indeed not easy to realize, let alone to be developed in a broad scope. However, we have no other choice, if it is still desired that our nation, which is so heterogeneous, can develop itself into a nation that is strong in its foundations of life in entering the new century.
All parties among the Muslims bear the responsibility to foster a sense of belonging to all members of our nation's society, because only then can Islam grow into a protective force for the entire population of this country as a whole.
