Blasphemy, the Fate of Ahmadiyya in Lombok and a Critique of Religious Discourse

Though Indonesia has claimed a principle of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika ("different but one"), in reality the country has faced fragmentation over the differences in its society, with its people blaspheming and killing each other. Ironically, the inter-religious conflict which has occurred is no longer between practitioners of different religions, but between practitioners of the same religions. This article is based on observational research conducted by the writer during his time in an area which has faced relatively intense violence: Lombok. Observations indicate that several types of violence are occurring in this area, namely cultural violence, social violence, gender violence, and violence in the name of religion. This last type of violence has been particularly dominant in Lombok, which is popularly known as “the island of a thousand mosques”. One form of violence in the name of religion is violence against the area’s Ahmadiyya population. One may ask, then, why is violence still used and considered a superior approach to problem solving than non-violence? Why are people trapped in the logic of difference and forget that different peoples have meeting points? How can these differences be dealt with so that they do not become self-destructive forces?