Interfaith dialog: Time to come down from the hill

Interfaith dialog: Time to come down from the hill

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua Beach, Bali

A prelude to this week's interfaith dialog of the Asia-Europe
Meeting (ASEM) was aptly called "Talks on the Hills", which
brought together leaders of different faiths from different
countries in the two regions. The dialog, which was held at
Bali's renowned Ubud hill resort between July 17 and July 19 was
part of the "Talks on the Hills" series organized by the
Singapore-based Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).

Whether it was the intention of the organizers or not, the
title of the Ubud meeting captured the essence of the problem of
past interfaith dialogs, and this is certainly true for the ones
held in Indonesia. Such dialogs have been limited largely to the
leaders of the major faiths, but they have hardly resonated among
their respective flocks or communities.

Such talks in the past amounted to nothing more than feel-good
gatherings that tended to avoid asking and answering the tough
questions that divide communities, nations and the world along
religious lines. They put on a semblance of cordiality and come
out with joint statements about the need to forge peaceful and
harmonious coexistence among peoples of different religions. And
then they go home till their next dialog.

The reality on the ground is often far from cordial and
harmonious. In some places in Indonesia, for example, there are
tensions between the different religious communities, some
lurking just under the surface, while others, as in Maluku and
the Central Sulawesi district of Poso, have blown up into full-
scale communal conflicts.

It is at the grassroots level that interfaith relations are
lived and experienced, with all of their challenges and
complexities. The challenge for the leaders engaged in interfaith
dialogs is to come down from the hill and convince their
communities to follow their lead. Interfaith dialogs should not
be confined to the top leaders of the different religions; people
at the grassroots level should also be encouraged to engage in
similar interaction.

Recent events at the national and global levels have made
interfaith dialogs more important than ever -- locally,
nationally, regionally and globally. This week's ASEM forum,
which will be kicked off here on Thursday by President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, is one such contribution at the regional
level.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and on the Pentagon
in 2001, the series of bomb attacks in Indonesia, including the
most devastating one in Bali in 2002, the Spanish train bombings,
and more recently the London bombings, have made relations
between followers of Islam and other faiths around the world
uneasy. The perpetrators of all these attacks have claimed to be
acting in the name of Islam, and in the process have driven a
wedge between Muslims and Christians in the West.

It is heartening to see that in response to this month's
bombings in London, just about every Muslim leader and
organization in the world has denounced the attacks and thus
immediately distanced themselves from the radical groups that try
to hijack their religion.

Still, this and past tragic events have created tensions among
people of different faiths, most notably between Islam and
Christianity. The terrorists seem to have got their way, at least
partially. There have already been some backlashes in Europe
against Muslim minorities. Turkey's bid to join the European
Union has also been jeopardized because of strong opposition, not
so much from the governments as from the peoples of Europe.

Similar tensions are also being felt in Indonesia, the nation
with the largest Muslim population in the world. The terror
attacks at home and abroad have obviously had some impact on
interfaith relations, but tensions between people of different
religions have also been increasing independently of the global
trend. The conflicts in Maluku and Poso had nothing to do with
the spate of terrorist attacks that began on Sept. 11.

For a nation as diverse as Indonesia, in which all the major
world religions are represented, interfaith dialog is a must.
Religious tensions have played a part in this nation's life, but
somehow Indonesia has managed to ease most of them. Without
dialog, however, many of the tensions could easily come to the
surface again and then explode into conflict.

But while Indonesia can pride itself for having a long
tradition of dialog among its religious leaders, the conflicts in
Maluku and Poso, as well as the tensions affecting interfaith
relations in some other parts of the country, suggest that
religious leaders still have their work cut out for them.

Indonesia needs to have more interfaith dialogs at both the
local and national levels, and now with the growing tension
between Islam and the West, also at the regional and
international levels. But we need to have more intensive as well
as extensive dialogs, expanding the range of participants down to
the grassroots level. And most of all, we need to have dialogs
that are effective in addressing the questions that divide us
along religious lines.

High profile dialogs, including the one held in Bali, are
bound to be loaded with technical, theological language, which,
while relevant, often has no bearing on the lives of ordinary
people. What these leaders have to do once they return home is to
recreate at the community level the spirit and the atmosphere of
cordial and mutual respect that characterize these dialogs, for
it is at the community level that true interfaith relations are
lived and experienced.

The writer is chief editor of The Jakarta Post.