Inter-communal Relations Research Articles

Authoritarianism, Democracy, Islamic Movements and Contestations of Islamic Religious Ideas in Indonesia

Since independence, Islamic civil society groups and intellectuals have played a vital role in Indonesian politics. This paper seeks to chart the contestation of Islamic religious ideas in Indonesian politics and society throughout the 20th Century, from the declaration of independence in 1945 up until 2001. This paper discusses the social and political influence of, and relationships between, three major Indonesian Islamic intellectual streams: Modernists, Traditionalists, and neo-Modernists. It describes the intellectual roots of each of these Islamic movements, their relationships with the civil Islamic groups Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), their influence upon Indonesian politics, and their interactions with the state. The paper examines the ways in which mainstream Islamic politics in Indonesia, the world’s largest majority Muslim nation, has been shaped by disagreements between modernists and traditionalists, beginning in the early 1950s. Disagreements resulted in a schism within Masyumi, the dominant Islamic party, that saw the traditionalists affiliated with NU leave to establish a separate NU party. Not only did this prevent Masyumi from coming close to garnering a majority of the votes in the 1955 election, but it also contributed to Masyumi veering into Islamism. This conservative turn coincided with elite contestation to define Indonesia as an Islamic state and was a factor in the party antagonizing President Sukarno to the point that he moved to ban it. The banning of Masyumi came as Sukarno imposed ‘guided democracy’ as a soft-authoritarian alternative to democracy and set in train dynamics that facilitated the emergence of military-backed authoritarianism under Suharto. During the four decades in which democracy was suppressed in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, and associated NGOs, activists, and intellectuals were the backbones of civil society. They provided critical support for the non-sectarian principles at the heart of the Indonesian constitution, known as Pancasila. This found the strongest and clearest articulation in the neo-Modernist movement that emerged in the 1980s and synthesized key elements of traditionalist Islamic scholarship and Modernist reformism. Neo-Modernism, which was articulated by leading Islamic intellectual Nurcholish Madjid and Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman Abdurrahman Wahid, presents an open, inclusive, progressive understanding of Islam that is affirming of social pluralism, comfortable with modernity, and stresses the need for tolerance and harmony in inter-communal relations. Its articulation by Wahid, who later became president of Indonesia, contributed to Indonesia’s transition from authoritarianism to democracy. The vital contribution of neo-Modernist Islam to democracy and reform in Indonesia serves to refute the notion that Islam is incompatible with democracy and pluralism.

Symbols, Community and Contest: Jhatka and Tobacco in the Politics of Sikh Identity

AbstractTowards the end of the nineteenth century, the process of community-centric awakening was producing the politics of religious identity, mobilisations, and mutual cultural contests between different communities. Punjab being a province that was inhabited mostly by Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs witnessed an identity based triangular contest between these religious communities where the political leadership of each community picked up cultural symbols to mobilise, organise, and consolidate their respective constituencies. While presenting an account of the symbolic manoeuvrings around jhatka and tobacco in the politics of Sikh identity during the colonial and post-colonial contexts respectively, this article examines the role of symbols in community-centric discourses wherein cultural differences are transformed into cultural discord or antagonism. Here, it is argued that the meanings communicated and deciphered through such symbols need to be comprehended by locating their articulations in the field of inter-community power relations.

Self-Oryantalizm ve Türkiye'de 2000 Öncesi Medyanın Rolü

Self-orientalism stands out as a political strategy implemented voluntarily by modernizing leaders during the formation of modern-nation-states, and by intellectuals who are in contact with modern colonialists during the post-colonial period. In other words, orientalism has been internalized in post-colonial media and post-colonial state practices. In the age we live in, there is no orientalism apart from the phenomenon of self-orientalism. The internalization of orientalism during the dynamics of modernization has led to the transformation of orientalism into a hegemony-power relationship in today's sense. Self-orientalism is the individuals’ and societies’ understanding and interpretation of themselves through ideas that do not belong to them. In addition to the literature and inter-communal relations, the media plays an undeniably important role in the formation of the individuals’ and societies’ own false consciousness. This is a process of self-alienation and becoming the other of itself. In this study, the role of media in self-orientalism will be addressed.

Religion and culture in Europe

Is religion simply a part of culture? Can religious diversity be managed as a subset of intercultural diversity? This article explores intercultural dialogue and its relationship to “religion’ in the policies, documents and debates of the European Community. The argument is advanced that religious realities and concerns are misconstrued when religion is subsumed into culture. Religion needs to be historically and conceptually rethought and that for cultural and religious diversities to be skillfully managed in the interests of social solidarity and positive intercommunal relations both need to be addressed discretely and in tandem.1
 1An earlier version of this paper appeared in Mansouri (2017), 145-170

Muslims and the West. by Dr RIFAI SULAIMAN LEBBE

The primary objective of this paper is to examine the western relationship with the Muslim world. More importantly to trace western encounters with the Muslim world briefly. This paper highlights the importance of developing a strong mutual trust, understanding and cooperation between the west and Muslim world to promote peace. Multiculturalism and pluralism are part and parcel of modern-day life. Modern digital technologies, information explosions and globalization have made this planet as a virtual world. Humanity lives in a borderless world. Therefore, promoting peace and inter-community harmony is imperative in this volatile world. This paper presents a historical survey on Muslim encounters with west briefly with some solid suggestions to enhance this inter-community relations further.

Partition of Punjab: How a Secularist Province Developed Communal Consciousness

Why did the Punjabi community, well-known for its unique intercommunal harmony among Sikhs; Muslims; and Hindus, suddenly erupt into religious persecution at a more severe level than other Indian provinces which did not boast such a peaceful history? Although this question has largely been ignored in favor of a macro-analysis of the Partition of the entire Indian subcontinent, understanding how communal tensions arose in a relatively cordial community provides useful insight into the factors that increase one’s awareness of religious identity and destruction of their national identity. This paper identifies why intercommunal relations thrived in pre-partition Punjab. Furthermore, it investigates the elements which facilitated Punjab’s chaotic violence: 1) The fall of the Punjabi Unionist Party symbolized the destruction of national identity, 2) Involvement of the INC and the Muslim League in Punjabi government affairs through the utilization of propaganda introduced religious sectarianism, and 3) The British negligence while constructing the Punjab Boundary Award eliminated any means of reconciliation among the Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs.

Mapping Urban “Mixing” and Intercommunal Relations in Late Ottoman Jerusalem: A Neighborhood Study

AbstractAlthough Ottoman cities long have been recognized as sites of significant ethnic and religious heterogeneity, very little scholarship exists that documents or analyzes patterns of residential sorting, be it segregation, the physical separation of groups from each other in the urban landscape, or its opposite, integration. GIS mapping of the Ottoman censuses of Jerusalem illuminates these urban patterns and reveals the importance of scale when considering this question. Even the most “integrated” neighborhood on the aggregate level reveals “segregated” zones of clustering and concentration at the smaller scales of quadrant, street, and building. At the same time, the proximity and exposure of residents to each other reveals how very porous boundaries were in the neighborhood. In order to understand how and why the city developed such a complex spatial pattern, qualitative sources like newspapers, memoirs, and court records are a necessary supplement to demographic records. This approach allows for a comprehensive outlining of the economic, legal, religious, and cultural factors and forces contributing to both segregation and integration in an Ottoman city. It also points to a multidisciplinary reconstruction of the social space of an historic neighborhood.

POLA KOMUNIKASI PENYULUH AGAMA ISLAM FUNGSIONAL DALAM PEMBINAAN KEAGAMAAN

Religious guidance will run well, of course, it cannot be separated from the communication pattern built by Islamic religious instructors which combines several communication patterns so that religious development activities become more interesting and effective. The purpose of this study was to describe the communication pattern of functional Islamic religious instructors in the community development of the taklim assembly. This study uses a descriptive research approach. Qualitative research using this descriptive approach provides assistance in understanding the discussions concerning people's lives and the process of inter-community relations. The data used in this study were obtained through data collection techniques, namely observation, interviews and documentation. The steps that researchers use to check the validity of the data in this study are triangulation and member check. The communication process in the religious development of the taklim assembly in conveying a material or message can be said to be good. This is because the material to be delivered has been planned in such a way that it can attract the attention of the communicant.

Post-conflict interfaith activities, combatting religious extremism and mass atrocity in Sri Lanka

This study is based on the case of Sri Lanka’s conflict history, situated with regard to the 2019 Easter bombings. Religious identity has become more salient in Sri Lankan society and this is seen in more religious extremist activity and interfaith activities, including among actors and groups who traditionally avoided such initiatives. Based on narrative analysis of interviews with representatives from the country’s four major religions discussing interfaith activities, communal relations and religious extremism, this paper highlights how legacies from the war have exacerbated long-lasting divisions and mistrust between the country’s ethno-religious groups, even if they were not the original conflict actors. Following civil conflict based on ethno-religious divisions, local-level interfaith peacebuilding activities have limited impact as they do not reach extremists and mostly engage people already committed to non-violent social change. Since the end of the civil war in 2009, faith groups and other civil society actors have expressed reservations about inter-communal relations and the potential for further violence. These fears were realised with the devastating bombings in 2019.

RAF Ein Shemer: A Forgotten Case of Jewish and Arab Work in a British Army Camp in Palestine during the Second World War

This article explores lingering recollections of a marginalised sphere of participation by Jewish and Arab citizens of Mandatory Palestine in the Allied war effort. During the war, Palestine became a major staging ground for Allied troops in the Middle East. Some 15,000 Jewish and 35,000 Arab workers worked in administrative, construction, catering, and maintenances roles within the newly built army bases. The story of civilian labour in RAF Ein Shemer reveals previously neglected normative and non-normative patterns of inter-communal relations between British soldiers and Jewish and Arab workers on the social, economic, ideological, and romantic levels within the context of a colonial-era military installation.

Migration and intercommunal relationships: an interdisciplinary and inter-regional dialogue

AbstractThe growing significance of migration on a global scale is generating increased scholarly interest in the subject, offering a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the nature and implications of different types of migration. However, research to date has presented divergent findings on the factors influencing the presence or absence of migration-induced conflicts, as most contributions are single-case studies focusing on different regions, levels of analysis, and measurements, whether applied to ‘objective’ or ‘subjective’ situations. We develop a framework to assess a wide spectrum of interactions between ‘local’ residents and ‘migrant populations’ by integrating the literature on ethnic conflict and considering the findings of studies that have investigated developed countries separately from developing countries; utilized a methodology specific to a particular discipline; or have focused on a single historical time frame or level of analysis. We propose a distinctive way of organizing and integrating the literature, incorporating three levels of analysis (independent variables) and a wide range of responses (dependent variables). We demonstrate that this framework enables researchers who employ one level of analysis at the expense of the others, or consider only one aspect or level of conflict, to assess the limitations and representativeness of their case studies; to identify gaps in operationalization and measurements of concepts and definitions; and to become aware of the trade-offs involved in their selection and scope of analysis.

The Price of Blood

Abstract The discourse of loyalty produces tense predicaments for those living under counterinsurgency regimes. The essay explores this theme by analyzing the case of a Kashmiri woman who found herself in a political drama when she accepted “blood money” from the person accused of causing her husband's death. The woman's decision accompanied moral turmoil in her village, and rumors of her “betrayal” circulated. However, the turmoil threatened to go beyond this localized setting. It brought to fore the fraught implications of “loyalty” shaped by India's occupation in Kashmir, its nationalist staging of Kashmiris as the subversive other, and schisms within Kashmir's historical independence movement. By tracing how rumors of individual betrayal were laced onto narratives of political treason in the case, the essay reveals the counterinsurgency as the operative context of broken intimate and intercommunity relations in which the personal is always at the threshold of becoming intensely public.

Religion, Law, and Identity: Contending Authorities on Interfaith Marriage in Lombok, Indonesia

ABSTRACT This study examines interreligious marriage from a legal perspective and analyses the historical and empirical evidence for it from the eastern Indonesian island of Lombok. It situates interfaith marriage at the centre of a discursive battle between religion, law, and custom (adat) and as a locus of contestation and negotiation between state, community, and religious leaders, as well as the couples involved and their extended families and communities. Building on Charles Collier's theory of ‘institutional authority’ and Saba Mahmood's ‘personal autonomy’, the article argues that issues related to interfaith marriage can be resolved through institutional authority and personal autonomy. Institutional authority constitutes an established structure of power and representation created by the state to manage its people and to serve their interests. Such authority works for, and is contested in, resolving tensions over interreligious interactions, including traditional interfaith marital elopement practised by Muslim and Hindu communities. Although Muslim–Christian relations have occasionally been unstable, interfaith unions rarely become an issue since those marriages reflect more interpersonal than intercommunal relationships, whose settlement is contingent upon personal autonomy.

Sharing the Sacra: The Politics and Pragmatics of Intercommunal Relations around Holy Places ed. by Glenn Bowman

Sharing the Sacra: The Politics and Pragmatics of Intercommunal Relations around Holy Places ed. by Glenn Bowman

Jewish Nationalism and Indifference between Posen and Poznań: The Jewish People’s Council, 1918–1920*

Abstract This article analyses the role of the Jüdischer Volksrat—the Jewish People’s Council—in Posen/Poznań between 1918 and 1920. In establishing this institution, Zionist activists gained a significant amount of influence in a traditionally German-acculturated Jewish space during the period of transition from German to Polish rule in the city. Claiming to represent the city’s ‘third nation’ and making demands for Jewish national autonomy, the Jüdischer Volksrat was instrumental in reshaping intercommunity relations and the Jews’ place in society, winning the support of sizeable sections of the Jewish population. This article argues that these successes can be attributed not to the reception of grand ideological concepts of Jewish nationalism, but rather to the fact that Jüdischer Volksrat activists played a central role in people’s everyday lives. They provided economic support, food deliveries, legal aid, and collective security, thereby placing themselves at the centre of the community. The article shows, however, that contrary to activists’ hopes, support for the Volksrat did not necessarily mean an immediate acceptance of Jewish-national concepts. As the debates around the establishment of a Jewish school illustrate, support for national claims and institutions was primarily situational and related to immediate local pressures.

‘Produce or Perish’. The crisis of the late 1940s and the place of labour in post-colonial India

AbstractThis article argues that the late 1940s in India should no longer be reduced to the twin events of partition and independence. A generalized political crisis unsettled, for a brief period, the structures of social and economic power, and not just intercommunity relations and the constitution of the state. These years were thus, among other things, a catalytic moment for the definition of ‘labour’ as both a political category and a parameter of post-colonial politics: processes dating back to the First World War, at least, were consolidated, under pressure from this crisis, into a new labour regime that has withstood political pressure for almost seven decades. The article offers an analysis of the almost-forgotten post-war strike movement, which was nevertheless unprecedented in its social and geographical spread. The movement elicited both repressive and reformist responses: the extraordinary level of emergency powers applied to suppress it are, therefore, as much examined as the series of momentous legislative and institutional changes of the late 1940s. In conclusion, the long-term consequences of this cycle of strike–reform–repression for India's post-colonial labour regime are adumbrated. A strongly etatist, potentially authoritarian, regime of industrial relations, it is argued, was checked by an enduring political trade union pluralism. At the same time, divisions within India's working classes were deepened and consolidated as labour law and social legislation sealed off the comparatively small ‘core workforces’ of public sector and large-scale industrial enterprises from the majority of workers in what would soon be called the ‘informal economy’.

EDUCATION POLICIES AND TEACHER DEPLOYMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND: ETHNIC SEPARATION, CULTURAL ENCAPSULATION AND COMMUNITY CROSS-OVER

ABSTRACTEducation is a key mechanism for the restoration of inter-community relations in post-conflict societies. The Northern Ireland school system remains divided along sectarian lines. Much research has been conducted into the efficacy of initiatives developed to bring children together across this divide but there has been an absence of studies into the impact of educational division on teachers. A number of policies, separately and in combination, restrict teachers’ options to move across and between the divided school sectors. The recruitment of teachers is excepted from fair employment legislation; details of teachers’ community identity are consequently not collected, and little is known about the impact that ethnic identity, educational policies and sectoral practices have had on teacher deployment. This quantitative project investigates the extent to which the deployment of teachers in mainstream schools in Northern Ireland reflects the enduring community divide. It is observed that, whilst primary schools are staffed mainly by community-consistent teachers, there has been an increase in cross-over teachers in post-primary schools – particularly in the grammar sector. Around one-in-five teachers have had no educational experience outside of their community of origin; this cultural encapsulation may contribute to a reluctance to engage with contentious issues in reconciliation programmes.

Transformation and decline of Sawng: The socio-cultural effects of migration and the changes in intercommunity relations in Calcutta c.1870–1930

Sawng, one of the famous street performances of nineteenth-century Calcutta, was later used as one of the ‘weapons’ of the nationalist movement in the early twentieth century. The leaders of the nationalist movement appointed songwriters or playwrights from elite and educated communities, but the people who performed sawng on the streets of Calcutta came from slum areas. Though these people were from different labouring communities, sawng was known as Kansariparar Sawng (the sawng of the bell metal workers) or Jeleparar Sawng (the sawng of the fishermen). This article focusses on the effects of demographic changes on the socio-cultural world of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Calcutta. It also focusses on the impact of migration from 1876 to 1931 to understand the reasons behind the decline in the performance of sawng. The article also tries to unpack the complexity of different caste groups which took part in these popular street performances.

Effects of Conservation-induced Displacement on the Bacha of Southwest Ethiopia

This paper examines the impact of conservation-induced displacement on the Bacha community resulting from the establishment of Chebera-Chuchura National Park in Konta Special Woreda, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR). It attempts to reconstruct the customary functions that the forestland had played for the livelihoods of the Bacha community and its role in cementing reciprocal relations among different social groups in pre-eviction contexts. The study employed a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research tools including in-depth interviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, field observations and household survey. Michael Cernea’s analytical framework to assess the risks associated with displacement – Impoverishment Risk and Reconstruction (IRR) – is employed to see the multifaceted aspects of conservation-induced displacement. The findings revealed that in spite of the fact that displaced Bacha people have enjoyed greater level of access to land they suffered loss of entitlements to forest-based assets such as honey and plants of enormous medicinal value. The community also faced loss of job opportunities due to restrictions imposed on access to forestland that supported beneficial biodiversity for the livelihood of the Bacha people. Also adversely affected are inter-community relations built on reciprocal exchange of goods and services between the Bacha and neighboring farming communities. Now, the Bacha have faced the difficult task of adapting to the land-based crop farming as a new source of livelihood since they lack the necessary farming skills to make a living out of crop farming.

PERANAN KOMUNIKASI ANTARPRIBADI TERHADAP HUBUNGAN MASYARAKAT IKECAMATAN TAMALATE KELURAHAN MANGASA KOTA MAKASSAR

ABSTRAKThis study discusses interpersonal communication on community relations in the mangasa village, the role of interpersonal communication on inter-community relations in the District of Tamalate, Kelurahan, Mangasa, Makassar City. This study uses a survey approach using quantitative descriptive analysis with reference to data collection in field research, interview questionnaires and also supported by secondary data. The results obtained from this study, namely interpersonal communication on community relations in the village, overall are considered good. This is indicated by the results of observations that show the majority of respondents, namely as many as 75% still respect each other and uphold the martyrs and their respective cultures. Of the many residents of the village of Mangasa there are some people who lack the awareness to communicate interpersonal among neighbors / around the house so that it can create a sense of uncertainty or mutual suspicion if there is no openness.
 Keyword : interpersonal communication, community relations