RESEARCH & PROJECTS

Religion and Polarization

The Impacts of Interfaith Tolerance and Faith-based Polarization on the Promotion of Social and Environmental Justice in Indonesia

As part of what may seem a current global trend, people are increasingly fragmented and polarized, based on their identity, sense of belonging, and traditional cleavages in society. This phenomenon is more apparent during political moments such as elections and, in many cases, lasts much longer afterwards, or even becomes an additional trigger for violent conflicts. While in a democracy, differences in opinion and political expressions are common, or even to be expected, what we have seen is that the intensity of polarization has in many cases reached a point where communication, let alone coordination, between groups—not to mention common deliberation, which is essential in a democracy—becomes impossible. Therefore, there are reasonable grounds for concern that polarization may negatively affect access to justice and harm democracy, in addition to increasing the level of intolerance, discrimination of minority groups, especially religious and sexual minorities, in the country.

In the case of Indonesia, a country comprising hundreds of ethnic and religious groups and a relatively young democracy, scholars have seen that a trend toward religious majoritarianism or religiously-differentiated citizenship has partly contributed to and strengthened polarization. Such polarization has denied certain minority groups equal treatment in policymaking and its implementation. Attempts to overcome polarization by the government may have, in some cases, mixed up with their own political interests, thus further exacerbating the polarization and contributes to democratic regression. Current research suggests that civil society is not immune to partisanship or polarization. It is highly fragmented, and some groups may have even contributed to the polarization in the country.

Since 2022, ICRS conducted a program to better understand the impact of polarization on the promotion of social and environmental justice in Indonesia, with the support from the Ford Foundation. It is part of the Global Initative on Polarization. (https://ifit-transitions.org/the-global-initiative-on-polarization/)

The program will continue until the end of 2025, with the aim of producing some narratives of depolarization on the aspects of political, social, environmental, religious justice, in the form of papers, popular essays and a documentary film.