The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, December 12, 2001
EDITORIAL
Indonesia's jihad
In the international environment, it is tempting to link Islamic extremism in
Afghanistan and the Middle East with the army of "jihad fighters" surrounding tens of
thousands of Christians in a grim stand-off on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
United Nations and church officials say about 7000 heavily armed Muslim fighters are
preparing to attack the Christians, who have fled their rural villages, in a new phase of
the religious conflict which was sparked by a drunken brawl more than two years ago.
On Sulawesi, at least 1000 people have died in terrible acts of violence - including
beheadings and rapes - between neighbours as Muslim and Christian communities
fight for ascendancy. The conflict mirrors the bloody communal violence which has
racked the Maluku Islands, to the east, where 300,000 have been displaced and
thousands have died. In both conflicts, local Muslims have been reinforced by armed
jihad warriors from Java.
While the jihad warriors may be proponents of an Islamic state in Indonesia, the root
of these conflicts is local, not ideological nor international. Indonesia is the world's
largest Muslim majority nation. Most of Indonesia's 170 million or so Muslims are,
however, moderate adherents of the faith who consider Islamic extremism a threat to
the stability of their ethnically diverse nation. In the 1999 elections, the first free polls
for more than four decades, Muslim political parties attracted a minority of the vote.
In a number of provinces - such as Central Sulawesi - there are pockets of indigenous
Christian majority populations, reflecting enthusiastic missionary work during Dutch
colonial rule. However, under former president Soeharto, millions of impoverished
Muslims from the overcrowded islands of Java, Sumatra and Madura were resettled in
the relatively sparsely populated eastern islands. The build-up of Muslim immigrants
in traditionally Christian areas led to competition for control of both the local economy
and local political power. In Sulawesi much of the recent conflict can be traced to a
power struggle between a Muslim and a Christian candidate for mayor. Rivalries
intensified with the collapse of the Indonesian economy in late 1997, and grinding
poverty continues to feed resentments. The rise of the jihad warriors in Java may also
be linked to poverty: unemployed Muslim youths make easy recruits.
In this environment, religion is an emotive and dangerous label around which more
complex social and economic tensions are being played out. Unfortunately, there is
little evidence of any serious effort to restore peace by dealing with the core causes.
Rather, some political opportunists in Jakarta have been willing to fan the communal
violence to discredit their political opponents in the central government, and so
advance their cause.
SMH. Copyright © 2001. All rights reserved.
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