Growing Interest in Inter-Religious Study at the State Islamic University Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung

Abstract

While global interest on Islam is growing in a number of non-Muslim countries, Muslims in Muslim-majority countries show growing enthusiasm in inter-religious studies, that includes subjects like Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Confucianism. The Inter-Religious Study program at the State Islamic University of Bandung (UIN Bandung) shows this phenomenon with the increasing number of undergraduate students of this study program during the last 3 years. This study investigates what factors behind this phenomenon and finds that trending issues such as peace, inter-religious tolerance, moderation, inter-religious community cooperation, are among the topics that draw interest of soul-searching students—in response to the media stereotype of religious radicalism, terrorism.

1. Introduction

Religion plays significant role in Indonesia. It becomes social bond as well as personal identity. It is very common for people to ask somebody’s religion as part of making relationship. Identity Card has a column of what religion the holder follows.

So significant the religion is to Indonesia that it has the ministry of Religion, which serve the community with religious affairs such as marriage, inheritance law, pilgrimage, and religious education. There are only six religions that are officially acknowledged: Islam, Christian Protestant, Catholic, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. Islam is the majority with 241.7 million or 87% of the population [1], followed by Christian 20.65 million (7.4pct), Catholic 8.5 million (3pct), Hinduism 4.69 million (1.69pct), Buddhism 2.2 million (0.73pct), Hinduism and Confucianism 74.899 (0.4pct) [1].

Although less significant in term of number, several forms of animism exist in several parts of the country. Animism was practiced in the archipelago before the arrival of Hinduism and Buddhism that came earlier than Islam and Christianity. It is assumed the two religions came to the region from India during the first century of the Common Era. Later, these animism mixed up with monotheistic religions (and Sufi Islam), resulting in several specific local belief-systems such as Kejawen in Java and Kaharingan in Kalimantan (practiced by Dayaks) in order to get state acknowledgement as monotheistic religion. The state ideology Pancasila stipulates “the belief in the one and only God”.

1.1 Islam

In Indonesia Muslims are associated to various Islamic organizations, but the two largest organizations are Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah. With around 80 million members [2], the NU is regarded to represent rural or traditional Muslims [2], while Muhammadiyah, with around 60 million members [2], is seen urban and modern Muslims. NU’s stronghold is villages; Muhammadiyah’s is cities.

The two large organizations at the same time indicate moderateness of mostly Indonesian Muslims. This can be attributed to peaceful spread of Islam when entering this region around thirteenth century. Indonesia, then called Nusantara, accepted Islam not by conquests or force, instead, through trade and exchange of commodities with the Muslim traders who, according to reliable sources, were the Sufis from central and South Asia [3].

The peaceful process of the Nusantara Islamization has helped built the moderate nature of religiosity in this area and over centuries gradually created harmonious inter-religious relations among Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Confucianists.

1.2 Christianity

Christianity was first brought to the islands by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century. After being granted monopoly in clove and spice trade by the local Islamic kingdom of Ternate, Moluccas Island, the Portuguese built fortress, churches and seminary schools for the locals. Christianity ever since spread to eastern part of the archipelago [4].

The coming of the Dutch corporation VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) that gradually took the Portuguese place marked the second period of Christianity propagation. This was followed by Christianization of locals, particularly in Eastern Indonesia.

The VOC main interest was actually in controlling spice trade, but when the Dutch government took over the corporation due to mounting debt that led to its bankruptcy, it deployed missionaries to ‘civilize’ the locals [5]. Since early eighteenth century, bunches of missionaries in significant numbers and made the greatest intrusions in Flores, North of Sumatra, North Sulawesi, Central Kalimantan and West Papua [5].

It may not be a coincidence that Moluccas is where the most violent Muslim-Christian conflict occurred during 1999–2002. But in general, Muslims and Christians live in harmony in Indonesia. There numerous instances that show the two faith followers work together in social projects for humanity and civilization.

Christians make up of only 20% of the population but that’s enough to make them the Indonesia’s second largest population. While insignificant in number, they are superior in the economy. Several Chinese businessmen, who mostly follow Christianity, are believed to control 80% of the country’s economy.

1.3 Buddhism

Buddhism can be said to be the first religion to build a civilization in the archipelago, particularly in Java and Sumatra Island. A number of history account note the presence of the Buddhist maritime empire Srivijaya in the southern Sumatra but its influence reached as far as China and India [6]. It is said that the empire served as a Buddhist learning center for Chinese monks in the seventh century [6].

The Buddhism cultural and civilization legacy can still be witnessed today through beautiful temples in Java, with the most striking and conspicuous being the temple of Borobudur and Prambanan, which were built by the Sailendra Dynasty in Central Java. Not only is the Buddhism influence perpetuated in physical objects, but also in folk traditions and language spoken today. The national language Bahasa Indonesia as well as local languages carry a lot of Sanskrit words.

Buddhist temples, sacred sites and relics dating back from second through fifteenth century can be found today in various places in Java and Sumatra.

1.4 Hinduism

Hinduism has the longest history in the archipelago compared to the other religions mentioned. However, most of the Hindu remnants have banished by time or war. The only place where Hinduism both physically and culturally survive is Bali Island. Until today, Hindus are the majority of the island population. Due to its artistic building, natural beauty and unique tradition, the ‘island of the Gods’—as it is popularly called—has long become tourist attraction.

But through passages of time, the Bali Hinduism was becoming distinct from its India origin. It went through some radical changes and local adjustment. One of the spectacular changes is the union between Hinduism, more specifically Shivaism, with Buddhism. This is still evident now in Bali, where some Buddhist writings are used in the Balinese Hinduism. Bali also has a priesthood that includes both Hindus and Buddhists.

In theological view, the Balinese Hinduism is based on Indian philosophy while developing their own belief that form series of rituals. The Balinese Hindus believe elements of nature are under the control of spirit. This is the reason why they make offerings (sesajen) made from agriculture products. The Balinese believe that Mount Agung, the highest mountain on the island, is inhabited by gods and ancestors. This belief makes the mountain highly sacred. The Swastika, or ‘wheel of the sun’ is the main symbol of Balinese Hinduism, but the equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles is also widely used in many places in India. The symbol is believed to evoke ‘shakti’ or the sacred force of empowerment.

In general, Javanese art and culture is highly influenced by the mixture of Hindu-Buddhism. The two religion rituals are even absorbed by Javanese Muslims. Experts said that Islam in Java is the syncretized one, which has been flavored by Hindu and Buddhism ritual practices. There is even a particular Islam in Central and East Java called Kejawen, which is the mixture of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

1.5 Confucianism

Although Confucianism is not regarded as religion, for the sake of ‘freedom of religion and faith’, the late Indonesia’s President Abdurrahman Wahid approved Confucianism as one of religions in Indonesia. Confucianism is commonly seen as a worldview and philosophy, but in fact that it has worship rituals, celebrations, and shrines that clearly shows Chinese culture. The approval seems to be an effort to avoid conflict between the native Indonesians and ethnic Chinese. In effort to obtain wider and more solid recognition, Confucianism followers ‘merge’ with Buddhism and Christianity, particularly in identity card. History accounts mention that Confucianism was first brought to the Archipelago from mainland China primarily by Chinese merchants and immigrants in the third century.

Not only does the government, through the Ministry of Religious Affairs, acknowledges the six religions, but also develop an inter-religious relationship among its followers. Indonesia’s founding fathers believed that unity among religious communities help build a strong and solid national unity, which is the conditio sine qua non for a progressive nation, political and economic stability, and sustainable development.

Indonesia has maintained this relationship under the state motto ‘bhineka tunggal ika’, which means ‘diversity in unity’. Thanks to the diversity that has by nature develop tolerance on difference of faith, belief and opinion. Tolerance can only grow in diverse community.

Despite diversity in culture and religion, Indonesia has been successful in keeping its national integrity since its Independence Day on 17 August 1945 until today. This enables the country to make some progresses in economy, education, science and technology.

The adjoining location of the Istiqlal Mosque and the Catholic Cathedral Church in Jakarta may represent a harmonious relationship between the Muslims and the Catholics. In 2021, with the government support, the Muslims and the Catholics agreed to build a tunnel connecting the two holy places. The tunnel was named ‘Terowongan Silaturrahim’, which mean ‘the tunnel of love bond’. The Istiqlal Mosque and Cathedral Church also merge their parking lots so the two congregation share the same space for parking.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the Silaturrahim Tunnel on August 21, 2021, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin said that the harmonious inter-religious relation is the main capital for the national harmony, which is needed for a progressive and prosperous nation.

The more concrete cooperation among religions is what is being initiated by the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI), which represent Indonesian religious leaders and indigenous peoples. The organization incorporates scientists, academics, environmental organizations and activists to a joint action against forest degradation, environmental destruction, and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources.

The religious leaders share the same concern for the deteriorating quality of the environment and losses of bio-diversity that will affect generations to come. They are of the same view that the nature they are living in is a trust from God to mankind to be preserved wisely use for their own good.

After jointly issuing religious decrees—fatwas, bhisama, pastoral command—against deforestation and illegal wild animal trade, the religion representatives engage in mobilizing religious communities to guard the forests and prevent their environment for further destructions.

The religious leaders are now planning to mobilize their respective congregations to reduce plastic waste by utilizing mosques, churches, temples, synagogues as agents of plastic waste management. “Religious can play a significant role in solving waste problem. Uncontrollable waste amount has something to do with our lifestyle, habit and behavior. Religion guide human behavior,” said Hayu Prabowo.¹

Director General of Hazardous and Poisonous Waste Management of The Forest and Forestry Ministry Vivien Rahmawati said the plastic waste volume in Indonesia during 2022 reached 67.7 million metric tons. Only 18% of it was recycled. She said 30% of the plastic was imported.

Following plastic is food waste. Indonesians waste of a lot of foods and the amount of food leftovers is enormous. He said that religious people can start with leftover-less food consuming. Many of us eat with a lot of leftovers while many others struggle hard to get food. Wasting our foods can also mean selfish and unsensitive behavior, which is denounced by all religion.

The Jakarta Archbishop Ignatius Kardinal Sunaryo said that there are the poor rights on our foods. Wasting foods means depriving the poor rights for food.

Data at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows that during 2018 Indonesia was the world’s second largest producer of food waste after Saudi Arabia, with 13 metric tons every year. The food waste mostly came from party and business and social gathering. The figure does not change a lot until this paper is written in 2023.

2. Religious conflicts

While inter-religious relation moving toward a national unity, however, the potential of religious conflict remains. If no necessary measure is taken, the potential can undermine the current good relations due to past experience of religious conflicts. The following incidents indicate the potential of conflict:

2.1 Aceh

Aceh is given the status of Special Autonomy due to its distinct Islamic tradition. The province in the northern tip of Sumatra Island imposes Sharia Law although not all the province’s residents are Muslims. In 2015, the Muslims want churches to be destroyed to make Aceh 100% Muslim province.

On October 13, 2015, a mob attacked the Huria Kristen Indonesia (HKI) Church in in Gunung Meriah District and the Pak-Pak Dairi (PPD) Church in Simpang Kanan District. A few days later, from Oct 19 to 24, the local civil police locally called Satpol PP demolished 9 churches in the district. Some church officials fled to nearby forest.

One year after the incident, the Aceh administration issued a regulation on construction of places of worship that requires consent of local residents (Aceh Qanun No. 4/2016). But this only applies to the construction of churches. The construction of masjid does not require local resident consent because the Muslims are the majority.

2.2 Poso

The night before Christmas 1988, a drunk Christian stabbed a Muslim. While it was then in the Christmas atmosphere, it was also the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan. This made the stabbing spark strong reaction from the Muslims. Religious spirit quickly ran high.

The Muslims made retaliation attack and soon a series of violent clashes erupted in the mountainous area of Central Sulawesi. Various reports said more than 1000 people were killed during 1998–2001.

A peace agreement in December 2021 called Malino Declaration the prolonged bloody communal clashes. Still, due to severe and massive conflicts, Poso remains vulnerable to further bloody communal clashes.

2.3 Tanjung Balai

A series of religious conflict in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, was triggered by the construction and placement of the Amithaba Buddha statues at the monastery Tri Ratna. The Muslims, who are the majority of the population, saw this construction as disturbing. Despite peaceful protest and soft resistance from the Muslims, the construction continued and unavoidably sparked Muslims’ anger.

On July 29, 2016, the Muslims attacked the Monastery and set it on fire. Although the Muslims are the majority of the population, but the Chinese descents control the economy of the district. Social jealousy, economic gap between the two groups contributed a lot the escalation of violent communal clashes.

Complain by some Chinese descendants about the ‘noisy’ adzan (Muslim call for prayer) has aggravated the tension between the two religious groups. 11 Viharas and eight cars, including some motorbikes, were burnt. Local administration said that the loss incurred reached Rp3 billion rupiah.

Digging into the root of the conflict, Marsudi Utoyo, a senior lecturer at the Sumpah Pemuda Law High School, sees the economic disparity between the ethnic Chinese Buddhists and the indigenous Muslims as the core of the problem [7]. The Chinese control the local economy and collaborate with the local officials by giving them economic support. The Chinese businessmen were getting rich and the officials were becoming more and more corrupt.

2.4 Sampang

The conflict within one religion also happened in Sampang, Madura Island. It was a conflict between Sunni and the Shia school group. The tension between the two has actually started since 1990s, when a Shia teacher spread the Shia teaching in the area. Tajul Muluk, the teacher, made some success after several years, but the Sunni, who are the majority in the island, reacted strongly to this.

The Sunni saw the Tajul Muluk teaching as ‘swaying from the truth’ and unacceptable and should be stopped [7]. During 2006–2008, the Shias faced intimidation, terror and threat from the Sunni. This forced them to live in a very limited and restricted area [8].

In 2010, local residents reported to the Muslim Ulemas Council (MUI) a number of residents that the Tajul Muluk teachings had caused disturbance on the community. Despite call for peaceful solution from the MUI, in early 2011, the Shia boarding school was set on fire. Soon the local Muslim clerics, officials, academics and Tajul Muluk held an emergency meeting and came up with three agreements: (1) stop all activities and return to the teachings of Islam/Sunni ideology; (2) leave the Sampang without any compensation for existing assets/assets; and (3) if these two options are not fulfilled, the Sampang Shia congregation would be dissolved (CRCS UGM, 2012).

2.5 Papua

In 2018, the Association of Churches in Jayapura Regency (PGGJ) rejected the renovation of Al-Aqsa Grand Masjid in Sentani, Papua. The reason is that the masjid’s minaret is taller than the nearby church on Jalan Raya Abepura. Since then, conflicts over places of worship continue and even intensified. Data at the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) of Gadjah Mada University shows that in 2008 alone, at least 12 cases of conflict around houses of worship happened in the area. The number rose in 2009, with 18 cases and in 2010 with 39 cases.

The conflicted cases aforementioned does not actually represents the real number of cases, which have been on the rise from year to year.

The Indonesian government has issued a regulation on the construction of places of worship and religious broadcasting that set requirements for the number of congregation members who should own places of worship.³ If these requirements were not met, then houses of worship may not be built. This is a problem of minority, despite the constitutional guarantee for their rights of faith.

Until a comprehensive solution is found, the religious conflict will weaken the society and will keep it stagnant in economic growth, scientific and technology innovation [9]. It also undermines national security and political stability [9]. Bob Marta, a researcher at the Humanity and Development Study Center, recommends four solutions. First, enhancing religious education by educational institutions and religious leaders. Curriculum on religious subjects at educational institutions should prevent young generation from intolerance and extremism. Religious leaders, at the same time, are expected to play their significant roles in preventing extremism—particularly in the communities that have little access to official educations such as schools and universities.

Second, clear and firm government regulation in building national unity. The clarity and firmness of a regulation is not just shown in what the regulation says, but with assessment and enforcement to make the regulation effective in all level of social organizations from national down to neighborhood level. The all-out law enforcement would not enable any terrorism activity to carry on.

Third, inter-religious joint research to solve religious conflict by using scientific methods. The scientific approach enables community and religious leaders to find long term solutions for religious conflict and, by studying past conflict experiences, they would be able to make anticipatory moves to prevent the conflict.

Fourth, inter-religious social project. Inter-religious forum or dialogs are not enough without real joint works and cooperation. The government, local and regional, organize such joint project [10]. It can be initiated with small scale projects, and gradually improved to large scale ones [10].

Sidney Jones, Asia division executive director of Human Rights Watch, also sees more of historical, political and economic factors at the root at the aforementioned conflicts instead of religion perse.

Jones denied that this communal conflict is an outgrowth of the fall of Suharto. “There was a huge number of outbreaks of communal violence not only during the Suharto period but also during the Soekarno rule” [11].

She also refutes that these conflicts are worse with democracy in multi-ethnic societies than it is with strong authoritarian governments that keep these kinds of conflicts under control. She argues that what was going on right now is in many cases the legacy of an abusive past more than it is the result of a permissive present.

Jones pointed at the historic colonial roots of the conflict as one of the factors. “Some policies of the Dutch colonial government in Indonesia set the stage for many of these conflicts. This is particularly true with regard to how the Dutch related to the ethnic Chinese as well as how the Dutch related to missionary work and the way they parcelled out the country to different missionary groups” [11].

She sees further the demographics and population balance. Ambon used to have a fairly balanced proportion of Ambonese-Christians and Ambonese-Muslims with traditional cultural methods of conflict resolution. Until ‘70s and ‘80s, when people from Sulawesi and other places migrated to this Muslim area, the population balance shifted, which led to job opportunity problem and access to income sources.

There is also resentment of local indigenous populations to the transmigration program during Suharto’s rule, which was often seen as moving Javanese Muslims to their areas. This often led to competition for land and economic resources.

The government policies, as Jones sees it, is another contributing factor to the inter-religious conflict, particularly in giving business concession to—not by coincidence—Chinese-ethnic businessmen and foreign companies with poor consent of the indigenous people whose lands and living resources were taken over.

The country’s economic growth, meanwhile, was in favor of the ethnic Chinese and this added the indigenous resentment against them. During the 1998–2000 Asian monetary crises, the Chinese shopkeepers were found to hoard goods, which worsened the economic calamity.

Prostitution business and gambling that are mostly owned by the ethnic Chinese, added up to the Muslim resentment. The Muslims see such business as detrimental to the Islamic moral codes. In Java and Sumatra, some Muslims groups attacked prostitution and gambling centers, which often ended up with the Muslims accused of being intolerant and ‘radical’.

And now, with the latest development of communication technology, it is not easy to keep a local conflict as being ‘local’. A blast of local conflict will soon spread throughout the internet and become national, regional and even international issue, which often draws ‘solidarity’ act from outside. In the Maluku conflict, for example, both Christians and Muslims mobilized their respective supporters from outside Maluku, which in turn aggravated the conflict.

Jones noted that the way these conflicts are portrayed in the media (newspapers and the broadcast media in particular) is critical. “…the international press focuses almost exclusively on the Christian victims. In fact, there are an equal number of victims and perpetrators on both sides. It is critically important that the media be attended to as a factor in the conflict,” she wrote [11].

The negative outcome of this media bias was that all NGOs worked on only for one side of the conflict, in this case the Christian side. This made the conflict even worse and out of control. Learning from this, Jones called for NGOs to work on ‘building civil society’—not one side of the conflict.

In West Kalimantan the Dayaks had all the NGOs while the Madurese had virtually no single civil society organizations working for them. “The same was largely true in Ambon; most of the NGOs were Christian and not Muslim. This is something to think about as we look toward conflict resolution” [11].

Jones also noted that any peace pact among the conflicting groups that is forcedly imposed by the government would not work. Instead, she recommends conflict resolutions that are initiated by social organizations and leaders of the conflicting groups.

Siswo Mulyartono, a researcher at the Center for the Study of Religion and Democracy at Paramadina University, found at least 122 cases of local communities resisting the construction of houses of worship, from 2015 to 2020—the real figure is believed to be higher. Around 60% of these cases involved churches (48% Protestant and 12% Catholic), while 28% of cases involved mosques, and the remaining 12% involved Buddhist, Hindu, or Confucian temples [12].

The aforementioned figure does not include intra-religious conflict, with increasing Islamic sectarianism over the same period [12]. The majority of cases targeting mosques focused on those said to be run by Salafi-Wahhabi Muslims (9 cases), followed by those suspected of teaching “deviant” sects, such as Ahmadiyah and Dakwah Islam Indonesia (6 cases). Mainstream organisations Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama each experienced just one case of resistance against the construction of a mosque for their communities [12].

While religions conflicts repeatedly occur, so does the effort to build a peaceful relationship. But something needs to be noted is that a joint agreement to end the conflict often barely effective at the grassroot level.

Such faltering process of ending religious conflict could be seen at the implementation of the Malino Declaration, which agreed upon by warring parties in Poso, Sulawesi on December 20, 2001. This was a government initiative to initiate reconciliation in Poso that includes 1 agreements. In fact, the declaration is poorly effective. Just within 1 year after the peace agreement, there were 30 violations, which involved both parties.

It was then obvious that conflict resolution skill was needed at the grassroot level. And it was also clear that effective communication, dialogs, and social services did not come impromptu, instead, they come through training, habituation and education. Conflict resolution involves psychology, sociology, culture and tradition. Those who have proper knowledge of these sciences would have the capacity and capability of resolving conflicts.

The Religious Ministry was aware of the demand for conflict resolution skills. In 2016, the Ministry’s Directorate General of Higher Islamic Education issued the decree No.6943 Year 2016 on the Inter-Religious Study program in 58 universities under its administration.

3. Growing interest in IRS

The Inter-Religious Study (IRS) program develops views on religious and cultural plurality that in turn create the mindset and attitude of inclusiveness. At the undergraduate level, the study program has been drawing encouraging interest from the school students who step into higher education. Data at the State Islamic University of Bandung shows the number of new students for the inter-religious program increases during the last 3 years.

Figure 1 shows the number of Pendaftar, Bahasa Indonesia word for enroller during the 2020–2023.

Figure 1.

Shows the number of Pendaftar, Bahasa Indonesia word for enroller during the 2020–2023.

The interest also comes from foreign students. In 2023, the IRS of the State Islamic University of Bandung started an international class with 30 foreign students from Turkey, Malaysia, and the Netherland. The international class is available online now to response to the foreign student demand.

When the study program started in 2018, it had only one professor and eight lecturers of master graduates. After 3 years now, it has three professors and 11 lecturers of master graduates.

In the UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, students said they take the IRS study for flexibility reasons. “I can become a social worker, teacher and project officer,” said Mela Rusnika, a graduate of the UIN Bandung’s IRS study program.⁴

Mela, who is a project officer in the Peace Sociopreneur Academy (PSA), found that her conflict resolution capacity increases a lot along with her experience in building a joint social project with different schools within Islam: NU, Muhammadiyah, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) and Ahmadiyah.

Another UNI Bandung’s IRS graduate, Gina Agniawati, found that her organizing and social management capability gets better and better with field experience. “I can round up people with different cultural background and beliefs and organize them for a common goal, in my case is civil rights, gender equality, and community empowerment,” Gina said.⁵

Gina works for a non-government organization (NGO) called Halaqah Damai (Peace Circle) that campaign for harmonious relationship of religious groups and gender equality.

Fikri Gusti Adenanysah, who was graduated in 2022, joined chorus in saying that the knowledge he gained in the IRS enables him to improvise in his work of capacity building among youths of different religions in humanitarian works and peace building.

“Science and knowledge are just not enough to deal with a diverse community. The ability to adopt different approaches is also needed. But it is in the field work I found that IRS is significantly relevant with the current community problems,” Fikri said.⁶

Fikri is a field manager at the Nawang Wulan Peace Building and Study Center, which promotes peace and humanitarian actions based on equality, freedom of faith and human rights.

There are those, however, who take the IRS just because they have had been interested in the subject irrespective of the current social problems. “I have been interested in studying different religions, faiths and cultures since I was in junior schools,” said Arfi Pandu Dina, who graduated from the UIN Bandung’s IRS in 2022.

Then she found that religions could not only be studied with theology, but more interestingly with humanistic studies. “I am then aware that religions have universal aspects, but at the same time they have their own uniqueness and typicality. Above all, all religious communities in one area share a common problem in the social, economy and political aspects,” Arfi maintained.⁷

Arfi is now a consultant for the Ministry of Religious Affairs in religious conflict resolution, particularly in gender issues and the social conflicts caused by the church constructions in some areas of Indonesia.

Maulina Thahara Putri, an 2020 graduate, took the IRS because she has been interested since she was a teenage in school. And although she is a Muslim girl, she went to a Christian school in Bandung.

“In fact, differences complement my life, not the other way around. It brings openness and because of it I came to know the other cultures, arts, worldviews, including faiths,” Maulina said.

She is now a lecturer assistant at the university she graduated from and teach the subjects that have enriched her knowledge and social management capacity, while working on religious service in her neighborhood.

“Being an academics in campus and socio-religious servant in my community, I see clearly how relevant the subjects I learn and teach in the campus with how they are applied in the community,” she said.⁸

The IRS also brings Paelani Setia, graduated in 2020, to become a lecturer assistant in the UIN Bandung, the very university he graduated from. He has been interested in IRS because he is concerned with religious conflicts in his country and interested in studying religions and modernism.

Paelani, who is now a researcher at the post-graduate IRS of the UIN Bandung, involved in the resolution of conflict between Muslims and Catholics in his home town of Cianjur, West Java. The conflict arose from accusations that the Catholics was trying to convert the Muslims in the area, who is the majority.

“I did an investigation, observed the accusation and reaction thoroughly and thoughtfully, then we found that the accusation was baseless and reaction was out of proportion. We approached the conflicting sides, the local government, brought them to a dialogue, and soon the conflict was resolved,” Paelani said.⁹

Rika Dilawati, take the IRS took IRS by accident, but it turned out to be ‘blessing in disguise’. She wanted to become a teacher and sought an educational study program, unfortunately it was full and the study program which was still open was the IRS. With a little observation, she decided to take the study program and later found that the she got what she needed.

Rika is now a teacher at a primary school in Bandung and at the same time go to the IRS master degree to accomplish her education. “I found that subjects like psychology of religion, sociology of religion and anthropology are very useful for my teaching work. I am able to build human communication with my students, which make easier it for me to lead them to good character. I think that’s what education is all about,” Rika said.¹⁰

4. The IRS curriculum

There are 73 subjects in the IRS program students are required to pursue in seven semesters. Among the compulsory ones are Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, Shinto, Indonesia’s local culture and religions. The highlighted subjects in this discussion are Socio-Religious Conflict Resolution, inter-religious relation, anthropology of religion, new religious movement, religion, media and information technology.

Socio-Religious Conflict Resolution takes three SKS, Indonesian acronym for ‘Semester Credit System’, and later show its significance in the capability of IRS graduates to resolve the religion-related conflict in the community. Inseparable with the subject is inter-religious relation; anthropology of religion; new religious movement; religion, media and information technology.

We take 30 samples of 93 IRS graduates during 2021–2023 to trace down the compatibility rank between subjects they studied with the jobs they acquire. No single respondent said that his/her jobs in incompatible with their study background. 10 of them said their jobs are moderately compatible. 20 said their jobs are highly compatible. 39 of the 93 graduates acquire teaching jobs at schools or become teachers. They said their jobs are highly compatible with IRS program.

5. Analysis

It is obvious that the religious conflicts in Indonesia gives a boost to develop the IRS program in the state Islamic universities in Indonesia and at the same time elevates the student interest at the study program. It is also clear that the subjects in the IRS program have provided the study program graduates with the skill and knowledge needed to resolve religious conflicts in the community. The compatibility and relevance between the subjects in the IRS with the reality in the field have been shown in the decreasing number of religious conflicts in Indonesia during the last 3 years (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Flow of the IRS input-output during 2020-23.

Even when harmonious relationship among religious communities started replacing the religious-related community segregation, the IRS program remains relevant by providing students with sciences needed for education, which is a more basic and long-term resolution of conflicts. So, there is a shift from being conflict resolvers to educators.

Dadang Darmawan, the dean of the IRS Faculty said: “The first bunch of our graduates were mostly conflict resolvers, but as the social situation gets better and peace and social harmony reign, the following bunch is mostly teachers, educators and socio-religious workers.”¹¹

But it is in this later development the IRS program shows more of its significance because it provides basic tools for building a stable, harmonious and prosperous society.

6. Conclusion

Religious and religion-related conflicts have restrained to a certain extent from progressing. Indonesian universities’ response to this has been spot on by establishing the Inter-Religious Study program with its curriculum that was designed for conflict resolution and harmonious inter-religious relationship. The State Islamic University of Bandung is one of Indonesian universities to formulate the curriculum based on the social reality it encounters.

The curriculum conformity with the social realty is shown by the increasing number of IRS program students during the period of 2020–2023 at the UIN Bandung. Even when the social situation turns out to be less of conflicts, the IRS remains significant as a source of public educators, community associates, social workers.

Acknowledgments

Authors thanks to Dr. Dadang Darmawan for his willingness to share the Inter-Religious Studies (IRS) document a policy work. However, the opinion bearer in this writing is authors’.

Conflict of interest

There no conflict of interest in writing this paper.

Acronyms and abbreviations

UIN	Universitas Islam Negeri Bandung
IRS	Inter-Religious Study
PSA	Peace Sociopreneur Academy
HTI	Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia
NGO	Non-Government Organization