4 - Reading Ahmadiyah and Discourses on Freedom of Religion in Indonesia

Summary

Islam in Indonesia is highly contested. Contesting Islam involves grappling with meanings of religious texts and of relating such texts to contemporary social and political conditions. Discourses on the meanings of the Qur'an intersect with readings of Indonesia's history and current trajectory. The fall of the Soeharto-led government in 1998 facilitated much openness in freedom of expression. The press, for years stifled under strict censorship and practices of self-censorship, became more vocal and critical: there was room for all sorts of voices to compete in debates of national, regional, and religious importance. Islam and expressions of being Muslim became increasingly debated. The manner in which Islam is invoked in the discourses on Ahmadiyah and freedom of religion is the subject of this chapter.

The process of democratization that emerged in 1998 was seen as a highly positive break from an authoritarian and highly centralized recent past. Decentralization, democratization, and a liberal press, however, also opened up space for intense conflicts to emerge. Some of the voices that have gained prominence in the post-New Order era have been highly anti-democratic and illiberal. This casts a question mark over Indonesia's reputation for fostering a supposedly “tolerant Islam”. Muhammad Ali, for example, writes, “this era of political openness became a political opportunity for Muslim radicalism. Islamic hard-liners […] came to the surface and became active” (Ali 2005, p. 3). Elsewhere, recent yearly reports on religious life in Indonesia have concluded rather negatively that acts of intolerance are increasing and that there are rising problems of religious harmony between members of different religious groups (Bagir et al. 2012; The Wahid Institute 2011).

A reading of the ongoing cases and controversies surrounding Ahmadi communities and Ahmadi faith is necessary in order to gain a deeper understanding of how public debates on Islam and religious freedom are changing and developing. This chapter draws on material from the mainstream liberal media as well as from texts that seek to condemn liberal thought.