U.S., Indonesia and religious tolerance

U.S., Indonesia and religious tolerance

Muhamad Ali, Manoa, Hawaii

Christmas is coming soon; Christmas trees with all their
trimmings and lights have been placed in offices, shopping
centers, streets, and campuses. For many Americans, Christmas
appears to be secularized, but for others, it is still a deeply
religious celebration. While the nature of the state is
admittedly secular, the American identity remains overwhelmingly
religious.

Like America, Indonesia is overwhelmingly religious, although
the nature of the state is not admittedly secular. Both America
and Indonesia guarantee freedom of religion, and therefore the
challenge is quite the same: How to uphold religious tolerance?

For many, "the American Creed" was initially religious. Within
the new, radically different global context many Americans have
turned to religion. Historically, religion has become a crucial
element of American national identity. Christianity, especially
Protestantism, has become the vital element of the American
Creed. As Samuel Huntington has eloquently argued in his Who Are
We? The Challenges to America"s National Identity (2004),
American identity was and still is predominantly Anglo-
Protestant, despite some internal and external challenges.

Arthur Schlesinger, as Huntington quotes, maintained that the
language, law, institutions, political ideas, literature,
customs, precepts, and prayers were primarily derived from
Britain. Britain was historically Protestant, in opposition to
the Catholic French during the 17th to the early 19th century,
despite the current secularizing trends. But America is still
predominantly Protestant.

Huntington quotes Gunnar Myrdal (the American Dilemma, 1944),
who argued that Americans had something in common: A social ethos
and a political creed. Myrdal wrote about the dignity of the
individual human being, equality of all men, freedom, justice and
fair opportunity. Alexis Tocqueville found that American people
agreed on "liberty and equality, the liberty of the press, the
right of association, the jury, and the responsibility of the
agents of government." More recently, Daniel Bell described
individualism, achievement and equality of opportunity as
American values.

Huntington concurred: "the Protestant emphasis on the
individual conscience and the responsibility of individuals to
learn God's truths directly from the Bible promoted American
commitment to individualism, equality, and the right to freedom
of religion and opinion...it also promoted moralistic efforts to
reform society and to secure peace and justice at home and
throughout the world."

It should be added that the 2000 and 2004 elections have been
partly religious as well. Religious factors -- clothed in moral
issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and the emphasis on
"family values" -- has helped the victory of George W. Bush. Many
religious figures have attempted to shape the path toward which
national and state politics should be directed.

In the economic field, "it was Anglo-Saxon Protestants who
created the gospel of wealth and the ideal of success," Robert
Bellah maintained.

As Huntington pointed out, the words "separation of church and
state" are not found in the Constitution, although the line
between the two has been drawn to ensure religious freedom. But,
interestingly in America the prohibition of an established
national religion promoted the growth of religion in society.

About 90 percent of the Americans believe in God. Some 60
percent of Americans claimed membership in a church. Voluntary
religious organizations have played a crucial role in deepening
civic, economic and national values.

Minorities, including the significant Catholics, have been
assimilated into the dominant Protestant culture. Catholics are
proud of their American identity too. "Americanization",
Huntington believes, has been largely successful. The Protestant
character of America remained unshaken. The bulk of Americans are
still Christians.

The emergence of different religious communities is one of the
big challenges that American identity has to face and has not
been resolved. Both the Protestants and the minorities have to
redefine their identities. Multiculturalism reflects such a
challenge.

Muslims in America for example love the American
constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, despite the fact
that it has never been of perfect equality. For example,
Christmas is still the most popular and most celebrated holiday,
while the Jewish Hanukah and Islamic Idul Fitri, for example,
represent only a peripheral phenomena.

Americans have generally attempted to tolerate and accommodate
the practices of non-Christian groups.

If American history is unique, so are the histories of other
countries, including Indonesia. Indonesia was once animist, then
predominantly Hindu-Buddhist for centuries, and has now become
predominantly Muslim. But Indonesian religious history is quite
similar to the American religious history that Huntington has
spoken of. In Indonesia, it is Pancasila (the five pillars
consisting of belief in God, civilized humanism, national unity,
representative democracy and social justice) that has become the
Indonesian creed. The Indonesian creed is also largely religious
as reflected in the belief in God, albeit interpreted
differently.

Like America, Indonesia guarantees freedom of religion,
although for many non Muslims it is more difficult now to believe
that the principles are truly implemented as they perceive more
intolerance now in daily government policies and practices.

Some scholars have recently suggested that America has
increasingly become pluralistic with the coming of Jews, Muslims,
Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and others, and therefore has
challenged the Protestant American identity. Trans-national,
diasporic, and ethnic identities have also challenged the
salience of the American identity.

Indonesians have had a tradition of civil society and strong
tolerance has been displayed by the country's two biggest Muslim
organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah. But the
challenge of religious tolerance is still so pressing to the new
government and the already existing civil society. The meaning
and application of religious tolerance is still far from being
revolved. New generations of Indonesians should redefine what
religious tolerance implies and how it should be applied in
different and changing contexts.

The writer is a lecturer at the Hidayatullah State Islamic
University (UIN); he is pursuing his Ph.D in History at the
University of Hawaii on Manoa and is a fellow at the East-West
Center. He can be reached at muhali74@hotmail.com