Salah satu alumni CRCS, Amanah Nurish, tampil pada Wednesday Forum CRCS-ICRS 27 April 2011, membawakan presentasi berjudul ‘Baha’ism in European Countries’. Amanah telah melakukan perjalanan ke beberapa Negara Eropa dalam rangka riset tentang kehidupan keagamaan komunitas Baha’i sebagai pengembangan lebih lanjut tesisnya, Baha’isme di Indonesia, ketika menyelesaikan M.A di CRCS UGM.

Dari pengalaman selama di Eropa itulah,  Nurish menemukan bahwa Baha’isme sebagai agama Abrahamik baru lebih mendapat jaminan di Eropa ketimbang di Indonesia. Beberapa pemeluk Baha’i yang diwawancarai Nurish di Jerman dan Belanda mengatakan mereka dapat secara bebas mengamalkan agama. Berbeda dengan fakta yang ia temukan di Indonesia, tidak hanya sulit melaksanakan ibadah, bahkan tidak mendapatkan pengakuan dari Negara.

The Importance of Religion in the US Labor Movement in the Early Nineteenth Century

During the 1840s, workers who struggled for a shorter work day often invoked their religious beliefs to defend their position. Although many scholars have assumed that religion undermined labor militancy, this research proves the opposite. Religion was a particularly important vector for channeling the participation of women in this labor struggle.

BY: Prof. Dr. Teresa Murphy

Teresa Murphy is a Senior Fulbright Scholar as UIN Sunan Kalijaga and an Associate Professor of American Studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She is the author of Ten Hours’ Labor: Religion, Reform, and Gender in Early New England; and the co-author (with Mari Jo Buhle and Jane Gerhard) of Women and the Making of America. She is currently completing a book on the origins of women’s history, as a genre, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

BUDDHIST TEMPLES AROUND YOGYAKARTA
“Buddhist temples and sites in the vicinity of Yogyakarta were mostly become marginal heritage under the hegemonic shadow of Borobudur and Prambanan. Yet, the traces of Buddhism in Java / Nusantara in VII-IX centuries can be recognized in another way through those marginal temples and sites.”

Speaker:

KRIS BUDIMAN
a lecturer in Culture and Media Studies, Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada.

MAY 11, 2011 @ 12.00 – 14.00
Room 306, UGM Graduate School, Teknika Utara Pogung YKT

Civic pluralism is defined as the recognition and valuation of diversity, in the name of continuing peaceful relations between diverse members of a community. If the Forum for Religious Harmony (Forum Kerukunan Beragama, FKUB), operates at the level of the central government, by what mechanism does pluralism operate in people’s everyday lives? This was one important point that was introduced during the conference on “New Directions of the Politics of Pluralism in Indonesia: Challenges and Strategies” presented by the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies in Jakarta on April 27th, 2011. CRCS Director Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir responded to this question by explaining that the implementation of the pluralism doesn’t imply that people have to change their perspectives, but seeks to improve their ability to negotiate, participate and channel their aspirations as national citizens. The goal is to demonstrate that any issues involving diversity can be handled through engaging in dialogue, instead of by violence.
The conference served as a forum to disseminate the results of the Pluralism Knowledge Program (PKP), a joint effort between academic organizations – in Indonesia headed by the CRCS program – and civil society groups. The day before the conference, CRCS launched a monograph containing the results of a research project assessing “the Problematics of the Erection of Churches in Jakarta”. Kapal Perempuan, a non-profit organization, organized the event in cooperation with CRCS.
The conference was attended by the members of a number of civil society organizations, academia, the media, and the general public. Guest speakers included Dr. Thamrin Tamagola from Universitas Indonesia, Yanti Mochtar from Kapal Perempuan, Ram Kakarala from India, Ihsan Ali Fauzi from Yayasan Paramadina and Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir from CRCS UGM.
Addressing the resistance of some Muslim groups to the idea of pluralism, Tamagola proposed that Muslims everywhere suffer from a ‘minority syndrome’, even in Indonesia where they constitute the majority. This stems from factors related to economic and living conditions, as well as the influence of history, according to Tamagola. Dr. Bagir noted that global issues have effected Muslim attitudes, as there is a sense of defeat amongst the Muslims on a global scale. This can be traced historically, where in the past Islam was practiced in advanced civilizations that were defeated by the European civilizations during the colonial area. In addition, right-wing politics in European countries have exacerbated issues surrounding immigrants and fundamentalism, leading to a crisis of identity amongst Muslims around the world.
In the second session, Ram Kakarala discussed the state of pluralism in India. If in Indonesia religious diversity is central to the problems of pluralism, in India conflicts arise regarding linguistic diversity. Indonesia’s linguistic diversity is neutralized by the use of the national language, Bahasa Indonesia. Currently India does not have a national language, but instead nineteen languages that are officially recognized by the government. This has created a situation where language difference often becomes the background for conflict.
Ihsan Ali Fauzi charted and evaluated the current situation with pluralism advocates in Indonesia. He explained that the three major actors in religious pluralism advocacy were the typical types of organizations, the Wahid Institute, Setara and CRCS. The basic characteristics of these organizations is that they represented a response the anti-pluralism discourse that grew during the Reformation era. As the Annual Report on Religious Life in Indonesia has demonstrated, there has been a rapid advancement of this phenomena, which according to Fauzi requires perseverance and militancy to integrate empirical studies with the discourse on pluralism.
In accordance with their theme, conference presenters didn’t seek a new solution to issues of diversity in Indonesia, but instead offered new directions for considering the problems of difference through the paradigm of pluralism. (njm)

“The problems surrounding the establishment of churches are more closely related to economic issues than ideological ones. Similarly, in the resolution of these issues, this knowledge can be used as a path towards peace” stated Nathanael, one of the members of the research team partnered with CRCS, in Jakarta at the PGI building on Tuesday, April 26th 2011.
Nathanael went on to explain that the research focused closely on the erection of churches, using a sample of thirteen different churches in the Jakarta region. Although reports about this issue have already been produced by organizations like the Wahid Institute, Setara and CRCS as well, they have only provided minimal details about why destructions of churches occur. For the purposes of the analysis, the churches were divided across four categories: churches that haven’t experienced any problems, churches that have experienced problems in the past but have currently resolved those problems, churches that have only recently experienced problems, and churches that have consistently experienced problems.
The results of the research demonstrate that first factor initiating and extending the polemic surrounding the erection of new churches is the issue of “Christianization”. Some still identify the existence of churches with proselytization efforts. In addition, misunderstandings about the difference between Christians and Catholics still persist, as well as confusion about how denominational differences play into the erection of new churches in areas where established congregations already exist. Another factor is the that some groups or individuals feel that they don’t receive any economic benefits from the institution of new churches. In some cases the resistance to the erection of new churches is ideologically based, or involves radical religious groups. Other factors include changes in the relationship between the church and surrounding residents, as well as bureaucratic obstructions, government inconsistency and the ambiguity of the law.
The researchers discovered that each church possessed unique qualities, like the case of the Church of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, whose congregation has never experienced any problems due to their good relationship with local residents in their neighborhood. During Lebaran, Christian residents visit Muslim residents, and this is reciprocated by Muslim residents at Christmastime. On the other hand, in one church that was experiencing problems, it was discovered that internal divisions amongst the building committee effected their relationships with both the developer and other nieghborhood residents. The story of the Church of St. Michael, which overcame initial problems, is different yet. The congregation at St. Michael created a better relationship with the residents around them, encouraging neighborhood representatives to actively protect the relationship between church members and the surrounding community by employing selective lectures at the local mosque.
Jeirry Sumampow from the Association of Indonesian Churches (PGI), Sidney Jones from the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Ahmad Syafii Mufid, the head of the Forum for Religious Harmony (FKUB) DKI Jakarta, were all in attendance as commentators on the proceedings. Sumpampow disputed the book’s title, “The Church Controversy in Jakarta” because according to him, the churches that are experiencing problems are outside of the Jakarta region. In his opinion, churches in Jakarta are not an issue. This refutation was supported by Ahmad Syafii Mufid. Sumampow did confirm the veracity of some of the discoveries made during the field research regarding the erection of new churches, such as the length of the process (on average reaching up to ten years), the minimal role of the government as a factor in the resolution of these problems, and the role of regional heads in complicating the hampering the erection of churches.
Alternatively, Sidney Jones viewed the issue of religious conflicts, and more specifically the issues surrounding the erection of new churches, as the result of weak leadership from the central government. According to him, if the central government was able to be more assertive, then this would trickle down to the lower levels, especially in terms of the police forces who deal directly with the public. In his opinion the police, as well as local neighborhood leaders, are more often partial to those who are attacking the churches than sympathetic to those being attacked. Therefore strong leadership and policies are needed from the central government, which can be translated to the local level.
Syaffi Mufid considered the role of the Forum for Religious Harmony (FKUB) as lacking, especially in mediating the process of obtaining permission to erect new churches. He noted that in many regions outside of Jakarta there is a lack of understanding about substance and function of FKUB. He felt that many religious leaders don’t understand the framework of peace, conflict resolution and similar approaches, and therefore aren’t able to proceed constructively.

Indonesia has been practicing interfaith dialogue longer than any other country in Asia, or even in the world. This kind of dialogue has been institutionalized since the 1960s and strongly promoted by the government, practiced in society and developed by academics, but the experiences and ideas that have evolved from these practices have not been documented or analyzed academically. Therefore, Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) which considers interfaith relations as one of its main academic concerns, published a book entitled “Dialog antar Umat Beragama: Gagasan dan Praktek di Indonesia (Interfaith Dialogue: Ideas and Practices in Indonesia)”. This publication was of great interest to the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, who invited CRCS to discuss the topic further. Below is the interview with Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir who represented CRCS at the discussion as one of the book’s authors.