Terror and Religious diversity in Indonesia

by Nina Mariani Noor
September 11th 2001 tragedy has called many different responses from the world. While George Bush utilized it to start attacking Afghanistan and calling for war against terrorism, some fundamentalism Muslims see it as “the great conspiracy of Israel and US” to destruct Muslims. These different views show the clash between “the west” and “Muslims” world that has already existed for ages and still exist today.
Turning to terrorism, those two parties also have different definition on terrorism. Bush sees September 11 was committed by terrorists, particularly Muslims terrorists so that he called for global crusade against terrorists, whereas Muslims see Bush’s action in attacking Afghanistanand starting war is kind of terrorism toward Muslims world. So, who is the terrorist depends on who see and define it.
Accordingly, in Indonesia the spirit of “Jihad” grew up among Muslims in response to US’ action. Some fundamentalist Muslims eagerly sent their people to do Jihad in Afghanistan or in other way, they committed “suicide bombing” that they did in Indonesia by targeting Americans and other “white foreigners”. Unfortunately, people who were affected by those bombing actions are not only what so called ‘Americans” but also Indonesian and Muslims. Furthermore, those bombing actions bring about negative sentiment toward Muslims from others and also make the harmony among different religious communities is in critical point.
In my opinion, the actors of September 11 are terrorists, and both Bush and Muslims committing bombing in Indonesia are also terrorists since all of them have made other people suffer and also place world peace in danger. Moreover, it seems to me that those kinds of terrorism tend to continue in the future if we do not attempt to deal with it.
Therefore, in Indonesian context, our duty now is how to maintain the harmony among different religious communities in order to continue our idea in building Indonesian nation state. Doing more dialogue among different religions to be more understanding not only on the surface but in deep conversation, I think will have effective impacts on building a democratic nation state that respect all religions.
Readings: Hasan, Noorhaidi, “September 11 and Islamic Militancy in Post-New Order Indonesia”
Adeney-Risakotta, Bernard, The Impact of September 11 on Islam in Southeast Asia’.