Religious violence in Indonesia

The role of state and civil society

Abstract

Religious violence in Indonesia remains a serious problem today. The main players are the state, which performs politicization of religion, and religious groups that insist on hegemony. In particular, Islamic politics demand special treatments under the pretext of being a majority religion. Such pressures include discriminatively defining religion, which fits only with Indonesian official religions, and producing regulations that are discriminative towards animistic religions and other minority religions. This article will focus on religious violence in Indonesia, which is carried out by the state and various religious groups, and will propose solutions from a Christian perspective.