Abstract
Proselytization is both enabled by, and simultaneously tests the limits of, religious pluralism. Proselytization assumes a situation of diversity in which individuals have the potential to change their religious identities and affiliations, while at the same time harboring ultimate goals of overcoming that diversity through the eventual conversion of the rest of society to one’s own religion. It is here that we begin to discern the fault lines that emerge between claims to the right to proselytize and the simultaneous appeals for protection from proselytization by others that have defined points of friction and rupture within a number of plural societies in modern Asia. Both sides stake their claims on conceptions of what is variously (and problematically) referred to in terms of the related but not identical concepts of “religious liberty,” “freedom of religion,” and “freedom of conscience.” Within these entangled discourses, some parties invoke these concepts to preserve their own rights to remain different and distinct, while others do so to claim their right to be able to share their truths with others. What for one side is about protecting individual rights is seen by the other as a threat to the very foundations of the community. This chapter opens discussions of the legal and political structures in which pluralism and proselytization is contested, with reference to the particular contexts of India and Indonesia.
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Notes
- 1.
For a brief introduction to Lia Aminuddin and her movement, see: Önnerfors (2008).
- 2.
- 3.
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) was established with the passing of Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 24 Tahun 2003. Its establishment reflected not only the new social and political ideals of Indonesia’s post-Suharto period of “Reformasi,” but also a global trend toward the proliferation of such courts worldwide at the turn of the twenty-first century. These legal developments have had a significant impact upon the state management of religious difference in diverse societies and deserve further exploration in future studies. For more on these broader international developments in the global proliferation of constitutional courts, see: Harding et al. (2008).
- 4.
This is the English translation of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, as amended by the First Amendment of 1999, the Second Amendment of 2000, the Third Amendment of 2001, and the Fourth Amendment of 2002, available online at: http://www.indonesia-ottawa.org/indonesia/constitution/fourth_amendment_const.pdf. Accessed June 23, 2011. The original Indonesian reads: (1) Setiap orang bebas memeluk agama dan beribadat menurut agamanya, memilih pendidikan dan pengajaran, memilih pekerjaan, memilih kewarganegaraan, memilih tempat tinggal di wilayah negara dan meninggalkannya, serta berhak kembal. (2) Setiap orang berhak atas kebebasan meyakini kepercayaan, menyatakan pikiran dan sikap, sesuai dengan hati nuraninya. (3) Setiap orang berhak atas kebebasan berserikat, berkumpul, dan mengeluarkan pendapat.
- 5.
The 322-page decision of the Constitutional Court includes digests of the remarks presented at the case from a wide range of some of Indonesia’s most influential public figures and Muslim intellectuals. See: Putusan Mahkhamah Konstitusi Nomor 140/PUU-VII/2009. I would like to thank Mark Cammack for making this and other documents related to the case available to me.
- 6.
- 7.
A preliminary discussion of the case can be found in: Crouch (2011, 269–273).
- 8.
- 9.
This is evidenced, for example, in the development of regulations to manage religious diversity through such measures as the state’s monitoring and control of the construction of houses of worship in local communities. For a critical review of these regulations, see: Crouch (2007). In Indonesian public discourse, debates over formal permission to build a house of worship are often conflated with broader issues of the freedom of religious practice. See, for example: Suwarni (2010).
- 10.
Temperman (2010, 216–220). I would like to thank Melissa Crouch for calling this source to my attention.
- 11.
A brief overview of the transition in this literature can be found in: Bagir and Cholil (2008).
- 12.
In a number of contemporary Asian societies, including Singapore, official statements endorsing religious pluralism have been deployed specifically to counter the potential for destabilization characteristic of aggressive proselytizing. For an overview of such developments under the regulatory mechanisms of the Singapore state, see: Hill (2004).
- 13.
Bagir and Cholil (2008, 12).
- 14.
Fatwa Majelis Ulama Indonesia Nomor: 7/MUNAS VII/MUI/11/2005—in which the terms are defined thusly:
1. Pluralisme agama adalah suatu paham yang mengajarkan bahwa semua agama adalah sama dan karenanya kebenaran setiap agama adalah relatif; oleh sebab itu, setiap pemeluk agama tidak boleh mengklaim bahwa hanya agamanya saja yang benar sedangkan agama yang lain salah. Pluralisme agama juga mengajarkan bahwa semua pemeluk agama akan masuk dan hidup berdampingan di surga.
2. Pluralitas agama adalah sebuah kenyataan bahwa di negara atau daerah tertentu terdapat berbagai pemeluk agama yang hidup secara berdampingan.
3. Liberalisme agama adalah memahami nash-nash agama (Al-Qur’an & Sunnah) dengan menggunakan akal pikiran yangg bebas; dan hanya menerima doktrin-doktrin agama yang sesuai dengan akal pikiran semata.
4. Sekularisme agama adalah memisahkan urusan dunia dari agama; agama hanya digunakan untuk mengatur hubungan pribadi dengan Tuhan, sedangkan hubungan sesama manusia diatur hanya dengan berdasarkan kesepakatan sosial.
- 15.
This official clarification can be obtained online at: http://www.mui.or.id/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=32&Itemid=84. Accessed June 23, 2011.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
For more on this, see Feener (2007, 26–28).
- 20.
- 21.
Riesebrodt (2010, 175–177) argues for conceiving of secularization in a more limited way: “solely to the process of institutional differentiation through which secular spheres—that is social spheres free of religious premises and norms—emerge.” It refers, in other words, to “a transformation of social orders, namely to the process of freeing social institutions from religious control.”
- 22.
The following discussion of the views of Indonesian Islamists on the establishment of Islam as the official state religion in relation to populist rhetoric on the imminent danger of conversion to Christianity draws upon some of my earlier work, published in chapter five of Feener (2007).
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
Although the Ministry of Religious Affairs was established primarily in consideration of Muslim interests, in later years its official structure also came to include separate sections addressing the needs of Indonesia’s various religious communities: Muslims, Catholics, Protestant Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists. Nonetheless, perhaps even more than its demographic qualifications would dictate, to this day the Muslim section dominates all others and generally controls the Ministry itself.
- 26.
Despite these concessions, the Islamists never succeeded in their ultimate aim of establishing Islam as the official religion of Indonesia. For more on the development of Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs, see: Moch (2006).
- 27.
For detailed discussion of these developments, see: Mujiburrahman (2006).
- 28.
Many of Natsir’s occasional pieces containing his views of the strained relations between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia were collected into a volume first published in 1969. Natsir (1969).
- 29.
- 30.
Natsir (1980, 9–10). Elsewhere in this same text (16), Natsir glosses identitas with the Arabic term sibgha—the indelible “dye of God” that is described as a mark of believers in the Qur’an 2 (al-Baqara): 138.
- 31.
Natsir (1969, 2).
- 32.
For a broader discussion of such tensions, elaborated in terms of “conflictive processes of resistance and alternative projects of social organization,” see: Castells (2004).
- 33.
Burns (1981, 28)–quoting Natsir, Capita Selecta I: 486.
- 34.
Some of the ways in which these debates have taken shape in Buddhist Sri Lanka are examined in the contribution to this volume by Neena Mahadev.
- 35.
For a discussion of the ways in which “paramilitarized Islamists did seize the initiative from moderate and prodemocracy Muslims in the months following Soeharto’s overthrow,” see Hefner (2005).
- 36.
- 37.
Gill (2008, 8). While Gill’s move to set discussions of religious liberty in political rather than intellectual contexts is promising, his work unfortunately places too great a reliance on a problematic application of rational choice theory to religious behavior.
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Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Zainal Abidin Bagir, Daniel Goh, Juliana Finucane, Merle Ricklefs, Chaider Bamualim, and Prasenjit & Juliette Duara for their comments on earlier drafts of this chapter. I, of course, am solely responsible for any and all faults that remain in this published version. This work was undertaken partially with the support of the Singapore Ministry of Education’s Academic Research Fund (MOE AcRF no. R-110-000-029-750).
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Feener, R.M. (2014). Official Religions, State Secularisms, and the Structures of Religious Pluralism. In: Finucane, J., Feener, R. (eds) Proselytizing and the Limits of Religious Pluralism in Contemporary Asia. ARI - Springer Asia Series, vol 4. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-18-5_1
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