Christians and Muslims face tension in Indonesia

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 24 June 2000

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- "'A time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.' Those words from John 16 (NIV) sound very different when read to an Indonesian congregation," said Duane Ruth-Heffelbower, director of peace programs, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Indonesia. "Jesus' words are coming true on a regular basis here." During the past two years, violence between Christians and Muslims has spread rapidly among the islands of the world's largest archipelago.

Violent conflict between religious groups is relatively new to Indonesia. Although 90 percent of Indonesians describe themselves as Muslim, the country maintained tolerance and intra-religious harmony for decades.

Tensions began in 1999 over a fare dispute between a Muslim migrant and a Christian driver in Ambon, the provincial capital of the Moluccas, a group of about 1,000 eastern Indonesian islands. The Moluccan Islands have since become a hotbed of religious conflict, and 3,000 people have been killed in related fighting over the past 18 months.

Hostility spread to a number of provinces, mainly in eastern Indonesia, home to a majority of the country's Christians. Thousands of Muslim guerrilla fighters from other islands are attacking Christian villages in the Moluccas and Sulawesi in what they have declared to be a jihad (holy war).

Further contributing to the violence are separatist movements in the provinces of Aceh and West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) and counter-independence militias generally recognized as being sponsored by elements of the Indonesian military. It was militias like these that launched a scorched-earth approach to East Timor's vote for independence last year. The new Indonesian government has been working hard, and so far successfully, to head off international support for any new independence movements.

This nation of 250 tribal languages and very little naturally holding it together is facing a critical period. The basic question is whether Indonesia will be a large, pluralistic nation, or a confederation of small states, each permitting only a narrow cultural expression. The need to increase local autonomy to accommodate varying cultural and religious expressions can be easily exploited by those more interested in power. "With a history of strong central colonial and national control, the new freedom to express aspirations for local control is a heady mix of dangerous excitement," said Ruth-Heffelbower.

As one of the endangered minorities, Christians in Indonesia are in favor of pluralism. They are involved with Muslims who seek nonviolent alternatives in a variety of initiatives aimed at allowing people of different backgrounds to live together. MCC supports some of these initiatives. Among the Christian groups in Indonesia are 80,000 people who are members of Mennonite World Conference (MWC), including MWC's current president.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org