Unto You Your Religion and Unto Me My Religion: Muslim-Christian Relations in a Javanese Village

Abstract

This article examines Muslim-Christian relations in a Javanese village at the point at which the centrality of Islam in the everyday lives of Muslims has come to the fore and the religion becomes a factor in framing their perceptions of things around them. It shows that unlike the former situation in which religious difference was not a basis of social conflict, religious identity has been felt strongly in everyday interactions. A clear line demarcating the Muslim community from its Christian counterpart has been constructed and religious difference has been utilized to guide individual and collective actions. With these, the daily lives of Muslims, which were previously perceived to be outside the boundary of religion, have become a concern of Muslims as a group. Studies about relations between Muslims and Christians in Java showed that the official view of the government, namely, that harmony dominated relations between followers of different religions, was not incorrect. Akkeren, who did his research in the early 1960s in an East Java community where Christians were the majority, pointed out that discrimination based on religious difference was not felt in social interactions (Akkeren 1970, p. 136). The same situation applied to a Yogyakarta village in the 1950s. There was little conflict between Muslims and Christians in this village and both religious communities appeared to respect each other's religion (Soemarjo 1959, p. 99). Research done in the 1970s in Central Java also noted that mutual respect between Muslims and Christians was evident and their relations were free of incidents (Zihid 1979/80, p. 177). Although the shortage of comparative data makes it difficult to make a generalization, these studies show that religious difference did not lead to social conflict, and religious