Title	:	Mission And Dakwah Movement Behind The Inter-Religious Social Riot In Indonesia: An Analytical Study of Some Reports of Riot Cases at Situbondo and Rengasdengklok 1996-1997
Author	:	Ruzi Haryadi (CRCS, 2007)
Keywords	:	mission, dakwah, riot, conflict, Rengasdengklok, Situbondo
Abstract
There were many riots and conflicts that occurred during the late 90’s in Indonesia. Some of them entangle religious people, peculiarly amongst Indonesian Christians and Moslems. The riots and conflicts have left over many victims, ruins, debris and also questions. “Why did the riot happen?” and “What is the root of the problem behind the riots?” A number of experts have given analysis to answer the questions, from the political, economical, social, and cultural aspect. However, the author in this research tried to look for another side to give answer to the same question. This research explores reports concerning riot cases that occured in Indonesia which entangle religious elements. The research focuses on two riot cases from 1996 and 1997 that took place in Situbondo East Java and Rengasdengklok West Java. The early assumption of the author in seeing the riot cases is that riot and conflict entangling religious elements surely cannot be discharged from the religious elements its self, such as religious concept, doctrine or teaching. In this case, the author discerns that theological aspects such as the concept of mission in Christianity and dakwah in Islam need to be explored farther to see the relationship as well as its role in riot cases. The necessity to review the concept of mission and dakwah are based upon the consideration that mission and dakwah are two unfinished “home work” dealing with inter-religious relationships (in the meaning of having potential conflict in the implementation), especially between Indonesian Christians and Moslems. There are two problems raised in this research. First, what did the mission and the dakwah movement looks like in the riot case in Situbondo and of Rengasdengklok from 1996-1997? Second, what is the role of the mission and the dakwah movement in creating the riot of Situbondo and Rengasdengklok? Through the use of a theological normative approach, phenomenology approach, and theory of “the emergent of norm” from Smelser, the author finds that the mission and the dakwah movement in Christianity and Islam have a role as a determinant in creating riot cases in Situbondo and Rengasdengklok. This is due to these factors being relevant with 4 out of 6 of the determinant factors that create “collective behaviour” such as the riot. Factors related to the mission and the dakwah movement are the structural congruity, structural tension, perspective spread out, and the accelerator. Meanwhile the form of the mission and the dakwah movement in the map of riot are efforts to spread religion and building churches by Christians which received opposition and resistance from Moslem community.

Title	:	The Traditional Islamic Boarding School’s Response to “The Other” (The Study of Sidogiri Islamic Boarding School in Pasuruan, East Java)
Author	:	Akhmad Munir (CRCS, 2005)
Keywords	:	Traditional Pesantren, Religious Exclusivity, Truth and Salvation Claim, Religious Ideologization.
Abstract
Sidogiri Islamic Boarding School, Pasuruan, East Java has been the oldest tradisional Islamic Boarding School existing in Indonesia. It’s a huge Islamic Boarding School having its own educational system with caring of traditional type which doesn’t affiliate with government education system. Traditional education system referring to the former Ulama’s works has created special character of Islamic Boarding School in seeing “the others” (Christian and Jewish community). The internalization of traditional values, like big honor to the former Ulama’s works, total obedience to the Kyai, and strong fanatics to Islam as well has given a unique view in seeing another religious community. This research is a field research using qualitative approach with the technique of collecting data through interview and participant observation as well as visual method. Even the research is a field research, the writer has also mixed with library research as secondary data. Its approach is theological-sociological-anthropological approach trying to provide an understanding of Islamic doctrines which cause the relation among religious communities through a set of infrastructure of Islamic Boarding School education. Sidogiri Islamic Boarding School has a rigid attitude in seeing “the others”. In the level of I’tiqady (belief), among religious communities are limited by a clear line that: “your religion is your religion and my religion is my own religion”. But, in social relationship, all could make a close cooperation without seeing each religious differentiation. In this context, Sidogiri Islamic Boarding School has an exclusive understanding that the only Islam has claims both salvation and truth. But, the exclusivity of Sidogiri Islamic Boarding School doesn’t create an effort to apply ideologization of religion that causes the establishment of Islamic syariah. In its view, democratic system doesn’t contradictive with Islamic values, like syura (sharing), musawah (equality), and ‘adalah (justice). In this context, “the other” in Sidogiri’s perspective is another community which sociologically is a power to build peaceful pro-existence even though it theologically has a different belief. But, at the same time, Sidogiri has a consciousness to the implementation of Islamic universality which could be together accepted without any forces to Islamic ideology. So, religious exclusivity is on the level of I’tiqady (belief) but not in social area and ideologization of Islam as well.

Title	:	Interreligious Dialogue: Case Study on BKSAUA in Manado, North Sulawesi
Author	:	Samsi Pomalingo (CRCS, 2004)
Keywords	:	BKSAUA, dialogue, liberation and global responsibility.
Abstract
This thesis tries to describe and analyze the role of BKSAUA on interreligious life in Manado, North Sulawesi. Formation of interreligious activities developed by BKSAUA is to keep the image of collaboration and interreligious harmony on that island. BKSAUA is an organization that has delegation members from the five religions that are allowed by the government, for example; Islam, Protestant Christian, Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Also, this organization is formed in every region, such as in the province, regencies and the level of village. Its mission and orientation is to create interreligious harmony in North Sulawesi. Therefore, this research is to describe what is the form of interreligious activities and dialogue developed by BKSAUA in Manado. This thesis is written based on sociology of religious study that uses a functional approach like done by Robert Merton (1957), Talcott Parson (1937), and Kingsley Davis (1937). This approach is to analyze the function of BKSAUA in interreligious life in Manado, North Sulawesi. The result of research indicates the role of BKSAUA is to unify the heterogeneous communities and religions in Manado based on “the principle of unity”. In the spirit of unity, BKSAUA have executed the form of interreligious activities. One of the activities by this organization is interreligious dialogue. There are three forms of interreligious dialogue, consisting of: (1) Dialogue at the level of heads of religions (2) life dialogue, and (3) collaboration dialogue. But, from the result of research, the dialogue movement is still co-existence and has not yet moved to pro-existence in religious people. Transformation from co-existence into pro-existence is not only in ideas as a result of dialogue, but also in attitude, formula and format of social education. So, pro-existence means that dialogue is not only limited to the confession that we are different, but more important is how dialogue discusses global responsibility toward human suffering and ecological crisis. Then, collectively, they have to begin something to change the reality of destitution, starvation, exploitation and ecological crisis. Here, a freeing model dialogue that has global responsibility is needed to be formulated. This dialogue namely is “liberation dialogue”.

Title : Liberation Theology in Qur’anic Interpretation (Farid Esack’s Perspective on Inter-Religious Cooperation against Injustice) Author : Erik Sabti Rahmawati (CRCS, 2006) Keywords : Liberation theology, qur’anic interpretation, interreligious cooperation. Abstract This research aim to answer the problems that is related to Farid Esack’s perspective: (1) How did Esack apply principles of Liberation Theology in his Qur’anic interpretation? (2) How is Farid Esack’s perspective on inter-religious cooperation against injustice? (3) Why did Farid Esack propose his perspective on inter-religious cooperation in Al-Qur’an? This research uses histories and the hermeneutic approach. The historical approach is used to map chronologically the side of history that has to do with Esack’s perspective, as Causal explanation of the idea and the hermeneutical approach used to sharpen the understanding of Esack’s perspective, as historical data. The result of this research: First, Esack’s Hermeneutics does not only rotate at discourse and comprehend a text, but praxis. In this case, Esack seems to follow path hermeneutics circle raised by liberation theologians: praxis (experience) to text (reflection) to praxis (experience). In consequence, he proposed keys of hermeneutics as follow: taqwa, tauhid, nas, mustadl`afin, adl and qist, and jihad, which is typically pursuant to context of South Africa in the struggle for justice. Second, pluralism of religion and inter-religious cooperation, according to Esack, is not only based on reason and intention of sociologies or praxis, but theologies. According to Esack, acknowledgement al-Qur’an to religious pluralism is not only from other clan acceptance side as valid socio-religious community but also from their spirituality life acceptance aspect and salvation through different way, it means that al-Qur’an, explicitly and also implicitly esteems and accepts truth of other religions, so that cooperation between Muslin and non-Muslim obtain and must be done on the basis of theologies awareness.

Third, Esack’s perspective about pluralism and inter-religious cooperation, emerge because of the first, the spirit of age, that is the age of convergence or ecumenism of religions (conference of religions), and the second empiric condition in South Africa. In the oppressed condition and the weakness, Islam people still do not want to struggle with “others” for the shake of upholding the truth that exactly represent important vision of Islam, because most classic interpretations which is exclusive do not allow them to do cooperation with other religions.

Title	:	Interfaith Dialogue at the Grassroots Level
Author	:	Siti Sarah Muwahidah (CRCS, 2007)
Keywords	:	Interfaith dialogue, grassroots empowerment, religious identity
Abstract
Interfaith dialogue is commonly used in building peace and understanding among religious groups. Swidler (2000) claims the interreligious project cannot becarried out only by scholars and leaders of the world religions; the ideas and concerns of the grassroots communities must also be voiced and heard. Such a project must work on all three levels-scholars, leaders, and grassroots-or it will not work at all. I present findings of my fieldwork in a small village in East Java, Indonesia, where land authority problems became a common ground for conducting interfaith cooperation. I observed interfaith empowerment efforts led by a group of Catholic activists and students who arrived in 1997, which successfully supported the villagers in claiming their land. According to Paul Knitter (1995), grassroots interfaith cooperation will necessarily be followed by interfaith dialogue. In this thesis, my first question concerns whether the subsequent dialogue that follows interfaith cooperation in Banyu Urip can be claimed as interfaith dialogue; my second question concerns the significance of the interfaith program in Banyu Urip. The feasibility of starting and maintaining interfaith programs in Banyu Urip was made more difficult for the following reasons. In the first place, the villagers had suffered economically and politically under a variety of regimes, from the Dutch Colonials to interference from the PKI, and eventually local governments. They had no control or authority over the very land they had lived on, and derived their living from. Thus, they were like displaced persons in their own country. Further, religion was imposed on them from outside: their native Javanese practices were proscribed by the Indonesian government and they were forced to convert to one of the five acceptable religions. This combination of forces – both political and religious, and both imposed from outside – meant that the villagers were doubly oppressed. This has led to cynicism concerning religion and government. However, the villagers generally feel that both Christians and Muslims worship the same God, a pragmatic approach that probably was developed due to the villagers’ long suspicion of the intentions and agendas of the outsiders; i.e., the villagers had more in common with each other than they did with the missionaries, NGOs, and other groups that tried to interfere in their lives. But it also meant that they would not take the strictures of their faiths very seriously. My general finding is that in communities that have a lack of knowledge of their own particular religions subsequent dialogue may take other forms which are different from that of Knitter’s description. A kind of liberative dialogue became necessary to overcome this cynicism and suspicion and to create a forum where the villagers could exert some control over their village and their lives, as well as strengthen the interreligious relationship among them. Success in the economic and political sector encouraged success in the interfaith sector, and vice versa.

Title	:	The History of Abraham in the Christian and Islam Tradition (An Exegetical Approach on Texts Genesis 12:1-9 and Ali Imran 64-69, and Relevance for Islam Christian Relation in Indonesia)
Author	:	Flavius Floris Andries (CRCS, 2009)
Keywords	:	Texts, hermeneutic, interpretation, attitude, behave and view of Islam-Christian.
Abstract
This Thesis explores the theme of Islam Christian relation viewed with exegetical approach of the Holy Scriptures: Genesis 12:1-9 and Ali Imran 64-69. The present study aims to making interpretation on the texts and try to understand the -theological values of the texts. Regarding this problem, thus, the investigation is done by social-historical method, where the historical context of the texts which are closely related to social phenomenon, politics economics, culture and ideology of society are connected straight with the texts. Thus, how to understand the reality contexts of the reader all at once interpreter’s now day, which have different ideology, social case, economics, politics, culture, even education level that is influential in shaping the frame work into making an interpretation of the texts of the holy scriptures, so that, we can not be trapped in literary understanding and idolatry of the texts, instead making the texts more sensible and riches with ethic-theological values, as theological assets of both religions tradition. The exegetical investigation on Genesis 12:1-9 and Ali Imran 64-69, according to the writers, contains theological values that are pluralist, and has the strength to smash the relationships of religion which are repressed as a result of literal understanding to the texts of the Holy Scripture. The result of interpretation of both texts is the strength for the writer to understand the reality of the fundamentalist movement in Indonesia which is according to the writer is a challenge for Islam-Christian relationships. Thus, hermeneutical principal is very important and influential as an effort to interpret and understand the accurate meaning of the texts of the Holy Scripture.