The fallacy of Indonesia’s often-touted reputation for tolerance has taken yet another hit. In the final installment of a six-year study on religious relations around the world, respected US pollster the Pew Research Center on January 14 listed Indonesia among the top five countries with highest levels of religious hostilities and intolerance. Indonesia was grouped with Egypt, Russia, Pakistan and Myanmar, beating out 193 other countries for the dubious honor. Following hundreds of incidents of religious persecution and violence in Indonesia over the past few years, it is safe to say that religious harmony has taken a nosedive during two terms under President Yudhoyono. Most high-ranking officials have offered nothing but generalizations when tasked with the declining state of pluralism, shying away from specifics, including singling out Muslim hard-liners and conservatives who have stirred much of the tensions and perpetuated most of the violence. It will be difficult for the government to brush aside the Pew report as a short-term trend as its conclusions were based on events over the course of several years. It is feared if the country maintains its current trajectory the situation will transcend the realm of religion and affect other factors, such as the overall state of security and the business and investment climate. At worst, it could bring increased terrorist activity and possibly a re-occurrence of the sort of sectarian violence that was a hallmark of the early post-Suharto period. -Q
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 01:39:39 +0000
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