Laporan 2009 ini terdiri dari tiga bagian. Pertama, menyangkut peraturan dan hukum yang terkait agama, di antaranya Perda dan Raperda terkait Islam, UU Kesehatan, serta RUU Jaminan Produk Halal. Kedua, membahas kasus-kasus pertentangan dalam masyarakat terkait agama seperti 18 kasus Rumah Ibadah, serta wacana penyesatan dan penodaan agama terutama kasus Ahmadiyah. Ketiga, menelaah peran agama dalam kampanye Pemilu 2009 dan fenomena film yang merepresentasikan agama.

In this paper, Prof. Sitharamam Kakarala presented an interesting review of the conceptual approaches and strategic actions of human rights – and secular action groups in complex plural societies. His analysis particularly referred to the context of communal violence and conflict issues in contemporary India. He explores salient concerns around religious pluralism and relates them to issues of caste, gender and ethnicity. The paper shows that the inadequacy problem is not confined to civil society practice. Similar struggles can be identified in the realm of social theory development. Concisely the paper explores recent theoretical challenges to the “too simplistic dichotomy between the universal and the particular in understanding the ideals of democracy, human rights” and other core concepts which are closely related to pluralism. The paper goes on to identify a number of key lessons and emerging scenarios which creatively challenge our thinking about social theory and social action for pluralism.

In this paper Justice Aftab Alama proposes to present a perspective on the role of the Supreme Court of India in upholding the ideal of secularism while balancing the interests of a deeply plural society like India. He will try to cover, very broadly, three areas; one concerning community based rights or minority rights and how in recent years the Court has tended to give priority to individual rights and freedom over community based rights; two how the Court has perceived secularism and how in some of its later decisions it has tended to take a mono-culturist rather than a pluralist view of secularism and third, how the Court has tried to regulate the State’s intervention in religious affairs.

Kehidupan relasi keagamaan di Indonesia tahun 2008 masih banyak diwarnai praktik kekerasan (fisik). Sejauh catatan riset ini, kelompok Ahmadiyah adalah korban kekerasan keagamaan terbesar. Tidak kurang dari 20 peristiwa kekerasan menimpa kelompok ini. Kasus konflik keagamaan di seputar keberadaan rumah ibadah masih banyak. Dalam catatan riset ini setidaknya terdapat 12 kasus yang menyangkut masalah keberadaan rumah ibadah. Kekerasan juga masih terjadi pada kelompok agama lokal seperti di Yogyakarta dan di Sulawesi Tengah. Pemahaman tentang keberadaan kelompok agama-agama lokal dengan berbagai hak sivik yang melekat pada mereka merupakan pemahaman yang urgen untuk disosialisasikan di masyarakat. Tahun 2008 masih banyak diwarnai oleh praktik kekerasan terhadap perempuan yang antara lain disebabkan tafsir agama yang patriarkhis dan pandangan materialis yang menempatkan tubuh perempuan sebagai objek.

This working paper presents two interesting examples of ‘practices of pluralism’ in Indonesia. The Authors, Farid Wajidi and Darmiyanti Muchtar work in the NGO sector and participate in the Regional Team of the Promoting Pluralism Knowledge program in Indonesia. Both describe their engagement with the challenges they meet when trying to effectively promote pluralism in local communities.

On the 10th of September 2009, violent unrest broke out in Kampala, the capital of Uganda in East Africa. Groups of youngsters attacked people and destroyed property. Police and army responded with force. Within two or three days, 27 people were killed and many more injured. Journalists were arrested and hundreds of people taken into custody. In this paper, Emily Drani and John De Coninck of CCFU reflect on the September riots. The conversation took place in October 2009, when Ute Seela, co-chair of the Promoting Pluralism Knowledge Programme visited them to discuss ongoing work. The conversation sheds new light on the background of the unrest and its implications for the work of the knowledge programme in Uganda.