Christian mission in post-independence Indonesia

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Uludağ Üniversitesi, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2018

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: MOHAMMAD MUAFI HIMAM

Danışman: BÜLENT ŞENAY

Özet:

The arrival of Portuguese and Dutch to Southeast Asia in the fifteenth century as part of a new world quest also became the beginning of the Christian mission in the Indonesian archipelago. The Christian mission carried out by missionaries who came with the Portuguese and Dutch ships faced resistance from the rulers who had embraced Islam a century earlier. Christianity gradually identified with colonialism, and it forms a new image of Christianity as a colonial religion. Moreover, the colonial government continued to support Christian activities, while ignoring aid to Islamic activities. The Dutch government has led to conflicts between these two religions. This contestation that lasted for hundreds of years made an impact on the relationship between these two religions after Indonesia gained its independence. Accompanied by various decisions of the new order government in the social and political sphere, the potential of conflict among adherents of both religions is increasingly ignited. In the end, the government began to take various approaches to mitigate the conflict that has long been abandoned. Various accusations are raised, which pursue the conclusion that the primary source of inter-religious conflict is the lack of mutual respect in spreading their respective religions. By some Muslim groups, Christian mission is considered as the axis of conflict; whereas by some Christian groups, political jealousy of Muslim groups is considered to harm the principles of freedom and tolerance in Indonesia. In this study, the author presents data based on the historical development of Christian mission in Indonesia and how Christian missionary related to the interreligious conflicts which continue to be unresolved problems, even until the post-reform era. The authors found that the conflicts between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia occurred not only because of the mission itself. But, there are other factors such as politics, economics, and internal-external policies.