Study:2011 Sees 63 Cases of Religious Uproar

The Faith and Cross-Cultural Study Program (CRCS) of the University of Gadjah Mada (UGM) has published an annual report on religion-related cases of violence. UGM stated around 63 of such cases occurred in 2011.

A CRCS researcher, Dr. Suhadi Cholil, said CRCS set down 20 acts of violence, seven accusations of blasphemy and 36 house of worship-related cases. The most afflicted areas were West Java, DKI and Banten, followed by Central Java, North Sumatra and Riau.

According to Suhadi, faith organizations play crucial role in persuading their followers to avoid committing violent acts. “Children must be taught to say no to violent acts. Religious organizations plays a major role in educating them,” he said in a release, today.

The research was launched on Wednesday, having UGM’s political analyst, Ari Dwipayana, and a cleric from Pondok Pesantren Al-Muayyad, Solo, Dian Nafi, as speakers.

Ari Dwipayana said the frequent religious acts of violence have been an impact of discriminative acts committed by the state towards the minority.

“I believe the central government tends to not doing anything on the issues as more cases are localized,” he said. “We should consider the cases of GKI Yasmin and Ahmadiyah. The President didn’t seem willing to take any risks and turned the cases into local issues,” he said.

Ari feared the various incidents would lead the nation to become more permissive towards acts of violence. Meanwhile, some religious groups committed violence by applying dogmatic principles.

“It’s a great danger if religious violence is only viewed as a normal issue,” he said.

The government and the House of Representatives (DPR) must issue out a regulation that can protect and value religious freedom, he said, despite promoting discriminative and impartial regulations.

“Many religion-related laws are made for the purposes of electoral politics, political configuration, religious co-modification, and the economy,” he said.

Likewise, Dian Nafi, suggested the need for strengthening education on religious issues and increasing the sense of nationhood among younger generation.

“It is important for them to improve their sprituality in that a sense of dignity and a sense of belonging among other people is built,” Dian said.