Tim Lindsey - Religion, Law and Intolerance in Indonesia

Despite its overwhelmingly Muslim majority, Indonesia has always been seen as exceptional for its diversity and pluralism. In recent years, however, there has been a rise in majoritarianism, with resurgent Islamist groups pushing hard to impose conservative values on public life in many cases with considerable success. This has sparked growing fears for the future of basic human rights, and, in particular, the rights of women and sexual and ethnic minority groups. There have, in fact, been more prosecutions of unorthodox religious groups since the fall of Soeharto in 1998 than there were under the three decades of his authoritarian rule. Some Indonesians even feel that the pluralism they thought was constitutionally guaranteed by the national ideology, the Pancasila, is now under threat. This book contains essays exploring these issues by prominent scholars, lawyers and activists from within Indonesia and beyond, offering detailed accounts of the political and legal implications of rising resurgent Islamism in Indonesia. Examining particular cases of intolerance and violence against minorities, it also provides an account of the responses offered by a weak state that now seems too often unwilling to intervene to protect vulnerable minorities against rising religious intolerance.

Tim Lindsey is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, Malcolm Smith Professor of Asian Law and Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society in the Law School at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Helen Pausacker is Deputy Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society and a Principal Research Assistant in the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Religion, Law and Intolerance
in Indonesia

Edited by Tim Lindsey and Helen Pausacker

First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2016 Tim Lindsey and Helen Pausacker

The right of Tim Lindsey and Helen Pausacker to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Lindsey, Timothy, 1962 editor.
Title: Religion, law, and intolerance in Indonesia / Tim Lindsey and Helen Pausacker (editors).
Description: 1 [edition]. | New York : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge law in Asia 15 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015047042| ISBN 9781138100879 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315657356 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Freedom of religion Indonesia. | Religion and Politics Indonesia. | Religious tolerance Indonesia. | Islam Relations. | Indonesia Religion.
Classification: LCC BL640 .R335 2016 | DDC 322.44/209598dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047042

ISBN: 978-1-138-10087-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-65735-6 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK

Cover artwork: Geoff Todd, Wounded at Night, 1998,
Hand-coloured silkscreen on paper.

PART I
State Regulation of Religious Freedom

PART II
The Politics of Religious Intolerance

PART III
Civil Society, Pluralism and Intolerance

PART IV
Violence and State Responses

PART V
Discrimination and Vulnerable Groups

PART VI
Conclusion

Because individual chapters in this book will be read separately from others, a translation of non-English terms used is provided in parentheses or a note the first time each term appears in a chapter. The term is also italicised on first use in that chapter. Most non-English terms also appear in the glossary.

For simplicity, Law has been preferred to Act or Basic Law, in translating the terms undang-undang and undang-undang pokok. Likewise, elucidation has been preferred to explanatory memorandum for Penjelasan. For convenience, the term Article (pasal) is taken to cover sub-articles and paragraphs.

Different authors in this book have sometimes used slightly different but accurate translations of some Indonesian terms, including passages in legislation and names of institutions. Because these usages reflect their stylistic preferences and their interpretation of the original Indonesian, we have not sought to achieve complete standardisation.

The modern Indonesian standard orthography determined by the Indonesian Ministry of Education since 17 August 1972 is used for all Indonesian words except where ejaan lama (old spelling) is used in quotation. In the case of names, the spelling used by the person named has been preferred where it is known, thus Soeharto rather than Suharto.

There is no standard spelling of Arabic terms in Indonesian. Different spellings are often used interchangeably and variations can commonly be found, even within individual documents. Different authors in this book therefore sometimes use a range of spelling styles for words derived from Arabic, such as syariah, syariat, sharia, sharia, and so on for the Arabic shara. Again, we have not sought to achieve complete standardisation.

This volume arises out of two conferences on religion, pluralism and the law in Indonesia. The first, Religion, Equality and Law in Indonesia, was held on 7 September 2012 and was convened by Tim Lindsey of the Centre for Islamic Law and Society at the University of Melbourne. The administration of this conference was expertly handled by Tessa Shaw, Kathryn Taylor and Vicky Aikman. The chapters by Simon Butt, Melissa Crouch (Chapter 4), Dina Afrianty, Nadirsyah Hosen and Helen Pausacker originate from this conference.