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Abstract

This paper tries to understand why religious violence increasingly occurs in post-New Order Indonesia. There are two dominant views in understanding this. First, the secu- rity approach that perceives the violence as a result of the emergent of “radical” agent of political Islam in the more open political space. In this regard, the state is considered weak because the iron hand as used by the authoritarian regime in the past New Order has disappeared. Thus, the strong security instruments are needed as a solution, such as the law on anti-terrorism and the police force of anti-terrorism (Densus 88). Second, the cultural approach views violence as caused by the inability of society to build the religious tolerance. Society is considered weak. Religious expression in the political arena is believed as the source of the emergent of intolerant acts. To conquer this, intensive inter-religious dialogues are required. The author argues that those two approaches are not adequate. The historical fact shows that the emergence of political Islam today is the result of the oscillated relationship between Islam and the authoritarian state during the New Order period. In addition, the Indonesian historical experience also clearly illustrates that the presence of political Islam is nothing but a form of response to the critical social-political- economic situation. Political Islam does not appear in a vacuum, but it emerges from the crisis where another populist response from the left is absent.

Bahasa Abstract

Tulisan ini berupaya memahami mengapa kekerasan agama meningkat di Indonesia pasca Orde Baru. Selama ini, ada dua pandangan dominan dalam memahami persoalan di atas. Pertama, pendekatan keamanan yang memandang kekerasan agama sebagai hasil dari munculnya agen Islam politik yang radikal dalam arena politik yang semakin terbuka. Pada konteks ini, negara dianggap lemah karena kehilangan tangan besinya seperti yang sebelumnya digunakan oleh rezim otoriter Orde Baru. Konsekuensinya, dibutuhkan negara yang kuat dengan membentuk instrumen-instrumen keamanan semacam un- dang-undang anti-terorisme dan satuan khusus kepolisian anti-teror. Kedua, pendekatan kultural yang melihat meningkatnya kekerasan disebabkan oleh ketidakmampuan ma- syarakat dalam membangun toleransi keagamaan. Dengan kata lain, masyarakat dianggap lemah. Solusinya, dibutuhkan dialog antar-agama yang intensif. Menurut penulis, dua pendekatan tersebut kurang memadai dalam memahami meningkatnya kekerasan agama pasca-Orde Baru. Fakta sejarah menunjukkan bahwa kemunculan kelompok-kelompok Islam politik merupakan hasil dari hubungan yang fluktuatif antara Islam dan negara sepanjang Orde Baru. Dan, kehadiran eksponen Islam politik juga merupakan bentuk respon terhadap situasi sosial-ekonomi-politik. Artinya, Islam politik tidak hadir dalam ruang kosong, melainkan muncul sebagai respon terhadap krisis di tengah absennya re- spon populis lain dari kelompok kiri.

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