Please note: I have decided to put aside the travelogue for a while (I was getting bored with it) and decided to write about something that has been gnawing away at me for some weeks now concerning current events here in Indonesia. A word of warning to the faint of heart. This will devolve into a rant, and strain the point that I am trying to make. As a matter of fact, if you discover what that point is, please let me know, because I think I may have lost it somewhere along the way. Oh, and sorry, no pictures. If you want you can find them on YouTube.
I don’t know whether the US papers or newsfeeds have picked up on these stories, but a story that is getting a lot of press in Indonesia and creating a large public debate is the story of the deathly attacks of members of the Ahmadiyah religion.
Earlier this past month an angry mob of about 1500 men attacked and destroyed a local man's home, which served as the mosque and local headquarters of the Ahmadiyah in West Java, not too far from Jakarta. During the course of the attack, three men, who were devotees of the Ahmadiyah religion, were dragged from the house, beaten with sticks and killed. Five others were severely beaten and hospitalized in critical condition, and the remaining people, including women and children, narrowly escaped, after fleeing the onslaught. The house was pulled down and destroyed and a car was burned. The whole incident was captured on video by both participants and onlookers and much of the video was subsequently posted on you tube, including some rather horrifying footage of two men being dragged naked along the street and beaten with wooden bats. At the time of the beating (and the filming), the victims may already have been dead it is hard to tell. Nevertheless the video is horrifying and disgusting. Indeed, one cannot even see it on youtube unless you register and certify that you are over 18.
Two days later, two Christian Churches were burned in Central Java by militant Muslims in reaction to what they believed was a lenient sentence handed down to a Christian Indonesian after he defamed and may have defaced a Mosque during the course of a long standing dispute with the Mosque over the blaring of morning prayers through an amplification system. The mob was upset because the man (who had no prior record and was a local merchant) was sentenced to only five years in prison.
Two days later, two Christian Churches were burned in Central Java by militant Muslims in reaction to what they believed was a lenient sentence handed down to a Christian Indonesian after he defamed and may have defaced a Mosque during the course of a long standing dispute with the Mosque over the blaring of morning prayers through an amplification system. The mob was upset because the man (who had no prior record and was a local merchant) was sentenced to only five years in prison.
Indonesia is primarily a Muslim country. Islam is the dominant religion, and Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world. However, Indonesia is also a Republic founded upon a Constitution in 1945, as conceived by Sukarno. Embodied within that Constitution is the concept of Pancasila or the five principles: believe in one God; a just and civilized humanity; the unity of Indonesia; a democratic government; guided by social principal of social justice for all people. Sukarno has written that while drafting the new Indonesian constitution, he and the other drafters had been particularly influenced by the American Constitution. The official slogan of the nation is Bhinneka Tunggal Ika Unity in Diversity. There is no state religion, but there are five officially recognized religions.
One would think that based on these bedrock principals that there would be a strong and unified condemnation of the acts of violence perpetrated against the Ahmadiya. There has not. Indonesia is divided into 33 governing provinces. Recently three of those provinces: two on the Island of Java and one on the Island of Sulawesi, have implemented rules prohibiting Ahmadiya from professing their faith. In central Java, Ahmadiya may not attend their mosques; they must remove all signs from their mosques; and they may not openly preach their religious tenets. The current President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, aka SBY condemned the violence shortly after it occurred, but recently had some of his ministers meet with demonstrators who had marched down the streets of Jakarta seeking a ban and expulsion of all Ahmadiya from Indonesia. The Indonesian parliament is examining why the police in West Java were not more pro-active in trying to stop the riots and murder, but they are not coming out to condemn the actions of the militants.
The attack on the Ahmadiyah was led by extreme militant Muslims and is indicative of a long standing animosity against the Ahmadiya. The Ahmadiya is a small religious faith that began in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is a fractional group of Muslims who believe that their founder was either a prophet or messiah. They believe in the tenants of Islam and consider themselves Muslims, and observe all Muslim customs. But many Muslims find the Ahmadiya to be heretics and blasphemers of Mohammed because Islam teaches that Mohammed was the last prophet of God and there can be no other prophets after Mohammed. Thus they find the Ahmadiya to be an affront to Mohammed and Islam and they are particularly galled by the fact that the Ahmadiya profess to be Muslims. Essentially it would be no different than if there was a Christian religion whose adherents claim that they are Christians, but who also profess and believe that their founder was the second re-incarnation of Jesus Christ, and further argued that if there is any discrepancy between the teachings of Jesus Christ and their founder, then people should accept the teachings of their founder over the teachings of Jesus Christ because he came later and came to correct the misconceptions that people held after the death of Jesus Christ.
This is not an easy subject for many Indonesians to deal with. Most of the Indonesians I have spoken to about these incidents condemn the acts of violence, but half as many are also troubled by the religious tenants of the Ahmadiya. When I challenge them about this, and ask what harm does the Ahmadiya do to you and/or Islam? They can provide no good answer and it is clear they do not wish to talk about it. However, when I read the online chat sites that discuss Ahmadiya, I can also see the schism between the moderate and the fanatic Muslim and the discourse is never productive.
At the same time Indonesians are struggling over the religious issues, political issues, and violence associated with Ahmadiya in Indonesia, the Indonesian government has put on trial Abu Bakar Bashir (also Abubakar Ba'asyir, Abdus Somad, and Ustad Abu ("Teacher Abu"). Bashir is an Indonesian Muslim cleric and leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council (MMI). He ostensibly runs the Al-Mukmin boarding school in Ngruki, Central Java which he co-founded with Abdullah Sungkar in 1972, wherein the students essentially learn to memorize the Qu’ran and demonize modern western civilization. Bashir was in exile in Malaysia for 17 years during the secular New Order administration of the President of Indonesia Suharto, after he had crossed swords with Suharto by urging the implementation of Sharia law. He has a strong following amongst the fanatical religious right, who wish to drag Indonesia into the Arab world of the 9th Century. And he is ready to take up sword and defend Islam from all crusaders from that time forward. I have a hard time understanding how he can believe or rationalize much of what he preaches, particularly in light of the fact that the 9th Century Arab world was a relative oasis of philosophy, reason and science compared to the dark ages of Europe. Nevertheless Bashir also claimes that the U.S. and Israel were behind the Bali bombings of 2002 (not the fanatical extremists who admitted particpating in the bombing), which killed hundreds of tourists, through the detonation of a micro nuclear weapon created by the CIA.
On March 3, 2005, Bashir was found guilty of conspiracy over the 2002 Bali attacks, but was found not guilty of the charges surrounding the 2003 bombing of a Marriott Hotel here in Jakarta. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. On 17 August 2005, as part of the tradition of remissions for Indonesia's Independence Day, Bashir's jail term was cut by 4 months and 15 days. On 14 June 2006, to cheers from his supporters waiting outside, Abu Bakar Bashir was released, having served 25+ months in Jakarta's Cipinang prison, where he held court and coordinated the publication of a commemorative book with his release. About forty bodyguards in uniform black jackets linked arms to escort Bashir through chanting crowds and admirers. On December 21, 2006, Bashir's conviction was overturned by Indonesia's Supreme Court.
However, on 13 December, 2010, Indonesian police again charged Bashir with involvement in planning acts of terror and military training in Aceh. The new charges against him of inciting others to commit terrorism, carries the death penalty. Bashir has denied the charges as well as denied the legitimacy of the Court. He has claimed that the only law is God’s law and only God can sit in judgment. The 2nd Trial of Abu Bakar Bashir is presently under way at the General District Court of South Jakarta about two miles from Miles’ school. The trial only occurs two days a week, but because of multiple demonstrations for and against Bashir, with its concommitant threats of huge traffic jams and of course terrorist acts, the school posts daily emails messaages as to whether the school will have to let out early. They are concerned for the safety of the kids.
However, on 13 December, 2010, Indonesian police again charged Bashir with involvement in planning acts of terror and military training in Aceh. The new charges against him of inciting others to commit terrorism, carries the death penalty. Bashir has denied the charges as well as denied the legitimacy of the Court. He has claimed that the only law is God’s law and only God can sit in judgment. The 2nd Trial of Abu Bakar Bashir is presently under way at the General District Court of South Jakarta about two miles from Miles’ school. The trial only occurs two days a week, but because of multiple demonstrations for and against Bashir, with its concommitant threats of huge traffic jams and of course terrorist acts, the school posts daily emails messaages as to whether the school will have to let out early. They are concerned for the safety of the kids.
The other day Bashir released a statement from his jail cell that Ahmadiya posed a greater threat to the lives and safety of Muslims than the communist party and that the Government must disband Ahmadiya, or else the government must step down to allow a new order. He has encouraged all of his followers to take up arms against the Ahmadiya.
Because such intolerance and violence is now often ascribed as a uniquely Muslim quality, I thought I would take a look at the American historical record on this type of issue. I am sure there are plenty of examples of similar religious intolerance in America; however, I am not a historian or particularly knowledgable of either Religious or American history. Thus, I simply looked at the first example that sprang to my mind: America and the Church of the Latter Day Saints aka the Mormons. Most of what I have written below was culled from my understanding of the LDS from the late 70s when I permitted some Mormons to proselytize to me in exchange for a copy of the Book of Mormon and a chance to have a private tour of the Mormon Temple outside Washington, D.C. Most of the facts, dates, and history recited below was the result of my use of that wonderful, though rather suspect fountain of knowledge, Wikipedia. If you wish to check my facts, a word of caution on Wikipedia: most of the articles appear to be heavily edited by LDS members. As a result, I tried to fact check Wikipedia with other sources, or against other Wikipedia articles that did not directly discuss the LDS.
As you know the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) was founded by Joseph Smith in about 1830 in upstate New York, after Mr. Smith discovered the golden plates containing the Book of Mormon half buried in the woods. (note: back in 1970, I was told that Joseph Smith discovered the tablet after talking to a white salamander. The white salamander theory has since been attributed to a LDS historian/forger/blackmailer who died from a (self constructed) pipe bomb, and this person has been thoroughly discredited. The white salamander is now officially off the books). According to the Book of Mormon, the scripture of the Latter Day Saint movement was originally written in reformed Egyptian characters on plates of gold by prophets living in the Western Hemisphere between 600 BC and AD 421. Joseph Smith, Jr., whom I believe was functionally illiterate at the time but evidently divinely guided to read “reformed Egyptian” first found the plates in the early 1820’s and then dictated a series of translations of the plates. The first translation evidently got “ lost in the mail” when a devotee tried to take the translation to be authenticated, and initially Joseph Smith claimed to have lost the ability to “read” the plates, but after several years more, he regained his abilities and completed a second translation which he published as the Book of Mormon in 1830.
Prior to this discovery of the golden plates, Joseph Smith had supported himself as an itinerant treasure hunter who travelled throughout New York and Pennsylvania claiming that he could find buried treasurer through the use of a “seer stone” he would place in a stove pipe hat. Apparently in 1826, he was tried in Chenango County, New York, for the crime of pretending to find lost treasure (which I think may have occurred between the time of the first and second translations). However, sometime after the angel Moroni appeared to him again to spur him on, Smith gave up treasure hunting and devoted full time and energy to the plates and the founding of his new religion. Between 1830 and 1840 the LDS gained many converts as Joseph Smith led them from one territory to another in search of a promised land.
This was also a time known in American history as the “Second Great Awakening” when a wave of religious revivalism swept our nation. It was based on the Arminian[1] notion that every person could be saved through revivals. It enrolled millions of new members, and led to the formation of new denominations. Many converts believed that the Awakening heralded a new millennial age. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform movements designed to remedy the evils of society before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It gave rise to the Baptists, Methodists and the Seventh Day Adventists, among many other religions. Upstate New York was called the "Burned-over district" because of the numerous revivals that crisscrossed the region. There would often be a large bonfire at the revival which would serve as a sort of early flood light, and staging area for the extinguishment of sins and the usual assortment of wickedness. Evidently Joseph Smith got "fired" up enough to start a whole new religion.
Now starting a whole new religion with a pantheon of new angels, profits and such is never easy. And most people do not take to easily to the establishment of a whole new religion. And so, much like the Jews of the Old Testament, Joseph Smith found it necessary to take his people on an epic journey in search of a holy land where his people could live free of persecution. For right from the start, he and his religious beliefs were mocked and scorned by many Americans. First, the Mormons headed west from New York to Ohio. There, he built his first church. However, he did quite win over the hearts and minds of the local people to his religion for in 1832 he was tarred and feathered. However, perhaps due to divine intervention, he was able to survive this horrific ordeal. But unfortunately Joseph Smith also subsequently started to mix religion with capitalism, forming an unofficial bank for his followers which eventually went bankrupt. He was not tarred and feathered, but he was sued (believe me that can sometimes be even more painful). And so, he decided Ohio was no longer the New Jerusalem. So he sent some of his other followers further west to establish Zion this time in Jackson County Missouri. Tensions between Missourians and Mormons however mounted, though it is not clear to me whether this was as a result of the capitalist component of the Mormons or the religious tenants of LDS but things escalated to the point where Joseph Smith formed his own militia and the Governor of Missouri issued the "Extermination Order" aimed to expel all Mormons from Missouri. Note: the extermination order was not quite the same as the Nazi extermination order. Its purpose was to drive all Mormons out of the territory, not necessarily exterminate the Mormons. Neverteless, the extermination order was never formally rescinded (thus outlawing LDS) until 1976.
Although Smith professed to hate violence, his experiences led him to believe that his faith's survival required greater militancy against anti-Mormons and Mormon traitors (funny what a little tar and feathers and State fiat can do to a guy). With his knowledge and at least partial approval, Smith's followers formed a covert organization called the Danites which was designed to intimidate Mormon dissenters and oppose anti-Mormon militia units. This eventually gave rise to the Mormon war of 1838. During the “war” hundreds of people were killed on both sides of the ideological fence. Frequently such deaths resulted from mismatched acts of violence or vengeance. Eventually on November 1, 1838, the Mormons surrendered to 2,500 state troops, and agreed to forfeit their property and leave the state. Joseph Smith was thrown into prison but he was eventually able to bribe his way out of prison after four months incarceration. Smith then took his people to Illinois where he established the territory of Nauvoo. There he built a large temple and established some of the more radical religious practices such as baptizing the dead and polygamy. At the same time he continued to dabble in capitalism and politics. He even ran for President of the United States in 1844. But when that appeared to be a lost cause, he sought to separate Nauvoo from the United States and make it into a separate country. As a result of his political actions probably more than his religious actions, Smith was arrested once again, along with his brother for treason. But before he could be brought to trial, the good citizens of Illinois stormed the jail cell and murdered Joseph Smith and his brother. Five people were eventually arrested and tried for the murder of Smith and his brother. All the defendants were acquitted.
Brigham Young then took over the LDS and led his people to the promised land in Utah. Even after Mormons established a community hundreds of miles away in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, Mormon persecution continued. But the Mormons became more and more strident in their philosophy and militant in their actions. The American government was alarmed by the semi-theocratic dominance of the Utah Territory under Brigham Young. While the Mormons believed in some of the principles of the American Constitution, Mormon political thought was strongly influenced by a concept dubbed "Theodemocracy." They associated it with their belief in the imminence of Christ's Second Coming. Although Mormons supported republican processes to elect ecclesiastical leaders into positions of secular power, their beliefs required subservience of civil government to church decree. The America government and the Mormons became engaged in a struggle of power, politics and religion. At that time, Utah was a federal territory and subject to federal laws,federal courts and federal officers. However, many Mormons declared that they would recognize no law other than God’s law as determined by their priests. As a result U.S. President James Buchanan sent one-third of the American standing army in 1857 to Utah to engage the Mormons in what what was to become known as the Utah War.
This time the Mormons took the offensive. They maintained their own militia in the Utah territories which would attack people whom they perceived to be a threat to their safety or welfare. The attacks culminated on September 11, 1857 in the mass slaughter of a wagon train of emigrants. The wagon train, which was composed almost entirely of families from Arkansas, was bound for California on a route that passed through the Utah territory. The militia began an unprovoked attack on these families under the guise of an Indian raiding party. The families pulled into a defensive circle and withstood the siege for several days. Eventually running low on water and provisions, the emigrants allowed a party of militiamen to enter their camp who assured them of their safety and escorted them out of their hasty fortification. After walking a distance from the camp, the militiamen, with the help of auxiliary forces hiding nearby, attacked the emigrants. Intending to leave no witnesses of Mormon complicity in the attacks, and to prevent reprisals the perpetrators killed all the adults and older children (totaling about 120 men, women, and children). Only seventeen children, all younger than seven, were spared.
Mormons who participated in what was to become known as the "Mountain Meadows Massacre" felt justified in their actions as a result of the strident Mormon teachings during the 1850s. By 1857, Mormon leaders taught that the Second Coming of Jesus was imminent, and that God would soon exact punishment against the United States for persecuting Mormons and martyring Joseph Smith, Jr., his brother Hyrum Smith, and all the others who were considered by Mormons to be prophets. In their Endowment ceremony, faithful early Latter-day Saints took an Oath of vengeance against the murderers of the prophets. As a result of this oath, several Mormon apostles and other leaders considered it their religious duty to kill the prophets' murderers if they ever came across them. The sermons, blessings, and private counsel by Mormon leaders just before the Mountain Meadows massacre provided encouragement to private individuals to execute God's judgment against the wicked.
The “Utah war” may have started with a horrible atrocity, but it ended with a wimper. After what became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, few other deaths occurred and the political tide started to turn to the favor of the Mormons who were then seen as an embattled people fighting an oppressive government. (The Massacre did not hit the newspapers big time until twenty years later.) Sam Houston, as well as other then famous Americans (? Texas not being a part of America at the time) opposed the federal action. And in the end, like many an “American” war, this ended with no real resolution or change other than both sides agreeing to call it quits. Buchannan agreed not to press charges against any Mormon for treason or insurrection in exchange for the Mormons agreeing not to try to secede from the Country. In the end, the Utah War started a slow decline for Mormon isolation and power in Utah. The Latter-day Saints lost control of the executive branch and the federal district courts, but maintained political authority in the Territorial Legislature and the powerful probate courts. In 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, and soon large numbers of "Gentiles" arrived in Utah to stay. Despite this, complete federal dominance was slow in coming. Brigham Young maintained a "shadow government" for years, although "theodemocracy" in Utah gradually died out. Conflict between the Mormons and the federal government, particularly over the issue of polygamy, would continue for nearly 40 more years before Utah was finally made a state in 1896. Subsequently, albeit slowly, the LDS has been fully accepted into American society. Mitt Romney is more American than apple pie and Marriott a symbol of American corporate global strength.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s when I did some research into the Mormons I thought of them as the New World Israelites. A people, united in the belief that they were chosen by God, persecuted by the people in power and driven across mountain and desert in search of the holy land. What made them particularly American in my book was the fact that the myth of the Mormons was basically self created in order to fit a pre-conceived archetype. In other words they always thought of themselves as the New World Israelites and they played that role across the American stage. Now, as I said before I am not a religious historian, and I am definitely not a Biblical scholar, so I cannot say whether the parallelisms that the Mormons drew with the Israelites were in any fashion justified, but now I find more parallelisms between the Mormons in American and the militant Muslims in Indonesia. Perhaps, Joseph Smith was prescient and I should give him more credit than I have, for he himself saw the Mormons as being akin to the Muslims. In October 1838 before a cheering crowd of Saints, Smith declared that in the event there were more attacks against Mormons, Mormons would establish their "religion by the sword" and that he, Joseph Smith, would be "a second Mohammed.” Brigham Young, who wished to establish the State of Utah governed not by federal law but by the law of the priests of LDS foreshadowed the likes of Abu Bakar Bashir who seeks to establish Sharia Law as the law of the land here in Indonesia, and who urges his followers to begin by imposing Sharia Law in the distant provinces.
At the time of the Utah War in 1857, the United States of America was only 80 years old. Today in this country, the Republic of Indonesia is only 66 years old. Prior to its independence in 1945 Indonesia had been under the subjugation of the Japanese for four years, and prior to that it had been under the subjugation of the Dutch for over 300 years. Prior to 1945, Indonesia did not have a single unifying language; instead, there were over 300 different native languages spoken in and amongst this archipelago of 17000 islands. The official language of Indonesia, bahasa Indonesian is primarily based on a Malay language which was used primarily in Northeast Sumatra only. It was chosen to be the unifying national language in 1929 and formally adopted when independence was declared in 1945. Thus Indonesia does not have a long unifying National heritage. It is a very new nation and struggling with trying to achieve a unified national philosophy. For the first fifty years of this country’s existence, it had been under the dominion and control of two strong (some would state dictatorial) rulers: Sukarno for essentially the first 20 years and then Suharto for the next thirty years. Since 1998 Indonesia has had a democratically elected President (in pretty fair elections), but the country is being tugged every which way by the different interest groups and corrupt officials and judges.
For the past twenty years or more, the Muslim world has been engulfed in its own religious revivalism (not completely dissimilar to the revivalism that grip America in 1830) with the conservative hardliners moving to the forefront. And this trend has not escaped Indonesia. The conservative Muslims want Indonesia to become an Islamic state and wish to do away with the pluralism of Pancasila. A lot of what is going on with the conservative Muslim parties and advocates is a political power struggle draped in the verbiage of religion. Islam, as a religion is essentially 700 years younger than Christianity as a religion. 700 years ago Christianity was digging itself out of the middle ages and trying to cast off the cloak of the Inquisition.
I say all of this not as an apologist for the atrocities perpetrated in the name of Islam, nor to equate one religion with another. I am not trying to demonize the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Certainly, if members of the LDS did wrongful acts in the past as did men of other faiths, such acts should not be used to judge the acts, faith or deeds of people today. I am not trying to provide an explanation or a rationale for the violence here in Indonesia. I am not saying that we should not judge the actions of people who perpetrate violence against other people. We are going to judge them, as we should. We should and must make judgments about good and evil, right and wrong. I guess the only thing I am saying here is that, while we should judge and condemn, we should not use such judgment as a basis for declaring our own superiority. We are not superior. We are not that different.
Indonesia is going through a fascinating period right now. It must struggle with some huge decisions as to what it wants to be and how it wants to achieve those goals. Indonesia must struggle on a daily basis with corrupt government officials a corrupt police force and a corrupt judiciary. It has vast oil, mineral and natural resources which have been raped for hundreds of years and are still being raped today, resulting in tremendous environment damage and a huge dichotomy of wealth. Its founding principal of unity in diversity is being sorely tested by fanatical or extreme religious groups. It is a fascinating and horrifying time. I am thankful my wife has provided me the opportunity to live through a small portion of it. That’s the end of my rant.
[1] Arminianism is a school of thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic followers, the Remonstrants. Arminianism holds to the following tenets:
* Humans are naturally unable to make any effort towards salvation . They possess free will to accept or reject salvation.
* Salvation is possible only by God's grace, which cannot be merited.
* No works of human effort can cause or contribute to salvation
* God's election is conditional on faith in the sacrifice and Lordship of Jesus Christ.
* Christ's atonement was made on behalf of all people.
* God allows his grace to be resisted by those who freely reject Christ.
* Believers are able to resist sin but are not beyond the possibility of falling from grace through persistent, unrepented sin.
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