INFIDELS IN INDONESIA The Intention of Initiating Interaction Instead of Intolerance

MSc Thesis

written by

Daniel S.N. Otto under the supervision of Dr. L.G.H. Bakker, and submitted to the Board of Examiners in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MSc in Contemporary Asian Studies

at the University of Amsterdam

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Table of Contents

I Introduction ...... i

II Methodology ...... v

Chapter 1 The Roles of Religion and Atheism within Indonesian Society ...... 1

1.1 Religious Discourse and a Taboo called Atheism ...... 1

1.2 Alexander Aan, how not to Act ...... 5

Chapter 2 The Social Manifestation of Atheists ...... 9

2.1 Ways towards Atheism, Atheist Narratives & Perspectives ...... 9

2.2 The Multiple Stages for Presentation of the Self ...... 16

2.3 Difference between Online and Offline Manifestation of Atheists ...... 23

Chapter 3 The Multiple Actors in the Debate ...... 29

3.1 Liberals ...... 29

3.2 Conservatives ...... 36

3.3 Regulators ...... 39

Chapter 4 The Future of Indonesia’s Societal Tolerance ...... 43

III References ...... 47

Abbreviations

IA Indonesian Atheists FPI Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front) HMI Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam (Islamic Students Association) ISIL Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant JIL Jaringan Islam Liberal (Liberal Islamic Network) KAMI Kesatuan Aksi Mahasiswa Indonesia (Indonesian Students Action Forum) KEMENAG Kementerian Agama (Ministry of Religious Affairs) KTP Kartu Tanda Penduduk (Resident Identity Card) LGBT Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender NASAKOM Nasionalisme, Agama, Komunisme (Nationalism, Religion, Communism) NGO Non-Governmental Organization PGI Persatuan Gereja-Gereja Indonesia (Indonesian Council of Churches) PKI Partai Komunisme Indonesia (Communist Party Indonesia) PKUB Pusat Kerukunan Umat Beragama (Center for Inter Religious Harmony) RI Republik Indonesia (Republic of Indonesia) SNS Self-presentation and Social Connections UI Universitas Indonesia (University of Indonesia) UN United Nations UNY Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta State University) UvA Universiteit van Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam)

I Introduction

“It is not realistic for a community of 1,700 people, with 1,700 different perceptions to come out and protest against the public opinion backed by 250 million people, maybe in a couple of hundred years (…) We do not feel the need to take an aggressive stance to begin a movement or prove ourselves, we just want to be support each other, to be safe and survive. In the Philippines, people march on the streets with banners saying: “we are agnostic, we exist” and nobody takes offence. If we would do that here in Indonesia, we would be beaten up for sure.” (Glen)

Indonesia is a country with a rich amount of various religions with Islam being the largest. Although Indonesia is a secular state, national politics and ideology are strongly influenced and flavored according to religion. Mostly this is a struggle for power between Islam and Christianity. (Assyaukanie 2009) However, politics are not entirely driven by religion, which differentiates a religious state from a secular one. Nevertheless, members from a specific religious group may experience different judicial treatment than those from other groups. From this perspective, one could question the extent of secularism of the state if citizens are based

i differently based on their religion (Mujani & Liddle 2009). For that matter, religion is something that is definitely taken into account, a thing that can differentiate the one from another and therefore, it is obviously not a unifying phenomenon in the case of Indonesia. Thus, within the range of religions – larger and smaller ones – several dissimilarities can be identified. Small and local religions are the social minorities who often lose from the majority on the cultural, political and social level. But what if a group is such a minority that it is the odd man out, an anomaly that is not suitable to be determined within this range of religions? Up above is a quote from a young Indonesian teacher who feels part of this societal anomaly. Namely, the Indonesian atheist community1. He seems aware of the national religious discourse, the position of non-religion within that discourse and thus the small scope of the atheist community, in this case, to try and influence the discourse and improve their own position by protesting in public. This widely carried idea about religious minorities, combined with the active laws and judicial treatment towards this group, makes it a highly interesting interaction. The constantly underlying tension between atheist and non-atheists may often rise up till boiling point. This interaction is not just a confrontation between the religious community and the atheist community but involves many other groups who all have different backgrounds and ideologies and therefore may carry out intersecting opinions, aims and means. To find out about the mechanism, the interaction and the interrelations between all these different actors, it is important to expose these actors as well as to try and take a viewpoint from each of their perspectives. I have chosen to roughly divide these actors, besides the atheist community itself, into the conservatives, liberals and the regulating side. These three are each intrinsically linked to the other two in a kind of triangular dynamic, and to the atheist community within either the social or political domain of the issue. Besides the different actors, it is also important to take into account the time and place of the social phenomenon. One cannot simply try to observe and comprehend these kinds of large scale phenomena within its own sense of time and place. In order to understand them as complete as possible, one should take into account the specific historical background in its specific environment. Therefore, the first part of this thesis will look into the rich history of religion in Indonesia, the consequences that it brought and what all that has meant for the role of religion in contemporary Indonesia. Furthermore it will elaborately put apart the main events that are derived from this history, illustrate the friction between religion and atheism and at the

1 Facebook; Indonesian Atheists (IA) Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/indonesianatheists/, accessed on the 10th of June, 2016. ii same time have a significant affect for its future. Hopefully it is sufficient to shed a light on the current role of atheism as an anomaly within the religious discourse of the nation. Moreover, it will contain a detailed description of the narratives of the members of the atheist community. Part of this will be specific attention to their history, their stories of their roads to atheism, and their current perspectives on their own position in society and how they perceive the large role of religion in current society. I hope to try and expose their underlying reasons to give an illustration of how and why they chose to take this road and keep pursuing it. By means of rich data from many interviews with Indonesian atheists, I will portray them and indicate the singularities as well as the similarities in the context of the rest of the atheist community. By doing so, controversial insights about their stories will come to light and will be extensively explicated. The second chapter will also contain relevant theoretical frameworks to help understand the topic of atheist minorities in the context of the political state of Indonesia and to try and comprehend the manifestation that atheist realize within this society. Hereby, I will pay specific attention to the role of continuously changing identities and self-presentations in order to adapt as much as possible to their environment and taking in to account possible consequences of their actions. With some major sociological and anthropological theories describing self- presentation, shifts within different forms of self-presentation, but also how, why and when this happens, I will try to create a rich description and – if possible – understanding of this social phenomenon. In this light I will pay specific attention to the differences between online and offline presentation of self-identity and why it is applicable and relevant within this topic. Chapter three will describe the different actors playing a role within the atheist debate, besides the atheist themselves. By describing their fellow liberal thinkers, the inimical conservative thinkers and the regulators who supposedly have a say in to what policy is ultimately utilized, I hope to create a clear overview of the different actors and how they interact with each other in a somewhat triangular systemic relation. Hereby offering a complete understanding as to whom is involved, whom has any kind of interest and whom has any say within this debate.

Since the fall of Suharto, Indonesia went through a major change leading to an increasing democratic identity. Political power shifted from a central elite government to regional and local governments (Bunte & Ufen 2008). This allowed many citizens to become active within the political sphere. Indonesia became a democracy and since the last few decades, these changes are starting to crack through society. Mainly due to globalization and digitalization,

iii Indonesians have access to internet which exposes them to other ideologies and they are able to compare their country with other democracies worldwide. In a democracy, everyone should be free to share and express their thoughts and opinions. As Sukarno was attempting to create a constitution that represented the whole of the society, signs are appearing that this might seem slightly outdated. It is a fact that atheism is a form of religion as well and it is also a fact that they do exist in Indonesia. For the sake of democracy, politicians cannot simply ignore their presence and their ideologies. This research might contribute to the political realms as it addresses those who cannot identify themselves with the nation’s ideology and therefore letting their voice hear. As a democracy, Indonesia has improved as a relatively free country what should be the characteristic of a democracy. With the uprising of the internet, citizens are aware of the way that other democracies work and international organizations and activists can now be aware of the way the Indonesian democracy works. This means that the country faces some pressure from within the country as well as from international actors. By taking atheists into account, it might be needed to alter future politics in order to still use a political foundation that continues to represent all of Indonesian citizens.

In the last part of the thesis I will attempt to make a preliminary prediction for the future of religion within Indonesia’s politics and society. This is based on the history, compared to Indonesia nowadays, the changes that atheists have seen for their own position in the last couple of decades and how they see the nation’s future. All in all, I will endeavor to use as much of the information to elaborate on the controversy of the phenomenon of atheism, why it seems so difficult for a change to be realized and what this all means for the future of religious tolerance and the potential liberty of an atheist community within Indonesia.

iv II Methodology

The research has predominantly or actually entirely been a qualitative research. In the sake of the research question, quantity does not really matter. It is not significant for example to show how many atheists there are, although these can be roughly indicated without the use of quantitative research. Furthermore, there is no question to answer which needs the evidence gained through quantitative analysis. The research questions are mainly focusing on the how and what and therefore, qualitative analysis is a more useful and fruitful approach. For the collection of data in the field I have made use of a deductive approach. As can be read in the proposal, several theories have already been outlined, more or less. Based on this knowledge I have formed a question which can be divided in several researchable concepts. With this approach I have used the data collected from the fieldwork to figure out what I have found. These findings bring me back to the research question and determine whether or not I can answer it or perhaps rephrase or adjust it. The design of my research is a case study, it entails the detailed and intensive analysis of a single case. In this case, the research focuses on a single community, atheists in Indonesia. Although location, background or language may not be singular nor similar. I will focus on the factor that binds these people into one community, their disbelief. Depending on certain outcomes it might take some shapes of a comparative design. If there are some significant differences between primarily urban and rural areas, I might take it into account. But I will also try to be aware of serendipities which make me think of comparisons between different genders, ages, ethnicities, education et cetera. I have used different interview methods depending on the interviewees. With some respondents have had only one opportunity to interview them. In these cases, it is a smart thing to have some structure in the interview or else you will miss out on something. With the atheists themselves, I hoped to have the possibility to get back to them later in the fieldwork period, unfortunately this did not quite work out. Besides, I want to get a very broad picture of their activities, thoughts and opinions. Therefore, in their case it is better to use a form like informal interviewing, although I have based the conversation on a written interview guide as well. This way, I have minimized my own input in the conversation and gave the respondents the time and chance to express themselves in their own terms and at their own pace (Bernard : 211). In fact I have recorded their life histories and asked them about their daily activities to see what kind of practicalities or perhaps problems they have to deal with in perspective towards their non- religious identity. At most I preferred to probe the respondents in different ways to get the

v utmost out of their response. So the idea was to let the respondent ‘lead’ the conversation by telling and showing their experiences. It is important that the respondent keeps on talking and for me to interfere as less as possible. The sort of questions have mostly been open questions in order to minimize the chances of ruling out possible answers, which would be more probable when asking closed questions. Also I believe that using vignette questions will offer interesting outcomes as it puts respondents in a contextual situation of which they have to think about on the spot. Besides having illustrative information of everyday life examples as a minority, the atheists have clear visions of how they want society or rule of law to look like. Therefore, sketching an ideal situation or asking for their ideal circumstances, I believe have shown clear thoughts on their opinion and their aspiration. Moreover, responding to an interview might not give the full image. Some issues might only come to the fore when actually practising their activities. It might be possible that these provide essential information which are enacted unconsciously by the respondent thus it may never come to the surface while simply answering questions. Therefore, I am convinced that the combination of these two methodologies of gathering data can offer a more detailed and complete image in order to answer the research questions. Part of the observation method also includes observations of influential and telling sources like documents, television, newspapers, social media and commercials. Then over to the part of sampling. In order to gather my respondents, I have approached them through Facebook based on their membership of the IA group. I already had one atheist informant who told me in advance that she is very willing to join in my research. Although I did not know if atheists differ from this, in general Indonesian people are very well in making and preserving contacts. Therefore, I expected to benefit from the snowball effect which means that next informants are being gathered through the network of the previous informant, this worked out very well. Especially in this case, the atheist community is quite dense and therefore my first informant knew some others who would like to join as well. If this was not the case, I could still use Facebook to ask other people if they want to join, which seemed to be necessary at a later phase. In order to make contact with more ‘official’ respondents in the sense of people from NGO’s, organisations or alliances, I had to make use of more official channels to contact them than just Facebook. I expected that the issue of access might bring some difficulties as it is quite a sensitive and risky topic. Therefore, trust is an important aspect that is necessary to be gained between the interviewer and informant. I paid much attention to the way I present myself, how I explain

vi what I am doing, what I want to know, and my values; whether and how I will present my personal opinion about the topic and to what extent this is necessary. When in the setting of an interview, I am an overt researcher as I did not hide my position of being a student from the UvA (‘researcher’ has a rather negative connotation in Indonesia). Neither did I hide that I want to know more about their atheism and how they deal with it in such a religious society. When they asked me about my religion and about what my opinion is about the subject I did not lie, but if they did not, I did not exclaim being a Muslim in support of their position. Of course, this may differ in each situation as presenting myself as such can maybe loosen up informants if I notice they are rather careful and restrained in formulating their answers. Throughout the period I was also constantly observing and this could be done in a covert way. When I am not in an interview or attending a specific meeting or event, I do not have to present myself as being a student doing research. This way I could optimize my gathering of data and I was able to perceive the information in the most ‘natural’ way.

vii

viii Chapter 1 Understanding Religion and Atheism within the context of Indonesian Society

1.1 Religious Discourse and a Taboo called Atheism One time in a mall’s cinema in Depok, a suburb of Jakarta, I went to see an Indonesian movie by the name of “A Copy of my Mind”. The two key players of this dramatic love story were two young people, Sari and Alek, both living in Jakarta. She loved watching movies and bought pirated DVDs on a regular basis. He happened to make the subtitles for these movies as a living and haphazardly they meet each other in the movie store where she buys the movies. Sari is an uncertain and somewhat naïve young woman and Alek is depicted as a very tough and rugged man but with his heart on the right place. After their first encounter they decide to spend time together and Sari ends up at Alek’s apartment. During their conversation there, the call to prayer sounds from a nearby mosque on the background. Sari asks Alek if he does not need to pray: “Are you a Muslim?” Alek does not respond whereupon Sari asks: “Do you even have a religion?” The majority of the people in the cinema started to giggle. I was very surprised about this as I did not expect such a reaction at all. However, based on the first interviews I had in the couple of weeks before this specific event, I had already concluded that atheism is not the most common thing in Indonesia, to put it mildly. Then again, this ‘event’ was very interesting and useful at the same time as it, in a way, confirmed my findings until so far. This anecdote is one of many experiences during my fieldwork which portrays the current day discourse concerning the importance of religion in daily life and at once the exclusion of the possibility of atheism, agnosticism or anything such. This religious discourse, how I will call it from now on, already took a prevalent role in the preparatory weeks before my fieldwork. However, during the course of my fieldwork the role of this discourse became even more important. Namely, where the focus lied primarily on the legal part of religion and atheism in specific, this turned out to be less relevant for my research question as most atheists do not fear the legal treatment of people without religion. Many respondents told me that they hardly take into account the legal framework on religion and they do not per se fear criminal charges. Nonetheless, this did not mean that my research and research question became completely irrelevant. In fact, it immediately made me realize to look beyond this context and to see the bigger picture. Many respondents do not fear prosecution, but by contrast many of them told me multiple stories in which they have to alter or adapt their religious identity

1 depending on their situational context. Thus, they may not fear the law but they do certainly fear of consequences if people, firms or organizations in their surroundings would find out about their religious identity. What exactly is this religious discourse, what does it contain and to whom is it relevant and for what reasons? Although forms and expressions of belief religion in Indonesia are very plural. The idea of religion as a hegemonic determination of daily aspects in politics, culture and social life, is broadly supported by people from all religions. Nevertheless, the specific way in which this is being reflected may vary strongly per religion. These adhesive ideas for a huge part explain why the Republic of Indonesia has a Ministry of Religious Affairs and within it a Centre for Inter Religious Harmony. That what ties the nation, simultaneously causes friction and in some cases violence within the nation. This national religious hegemony stems from the day that the Republic was established. The country’s first president Sukarno attempted to tie the diverse people, cultures and religions together based on one national philosophy; Pancasila. Within Pancasila, believing in one God is one of the most important pillars, if not the most. No matter what religion, ethnicity or language, monotheism was ought to unify in diversity. After that, the history of the nation’s prolongation mostly involved battles in which religion played a strong role. Whether it was a direct involvement of religion, or religion indirectly being a part of it. The hegemony of religion has caused that these battles have left traces in to society’s discourse that are still observable today. An important example that has had great influence in the way of thinking towards atheism specifically is the role of Suharto during the 1965-1966 tragic mass killings in Indonesia. Sukarno at the time was starting to feel more and more affinity with communism and it became part of his triangular philosophy of the nation’s future; NASAKOM, which is an acronym standing for nasionalisme (nationalism), agama (religion), and komunisme (communism). Although Sukarno was very beloved, his propensity towards communism and his vision to add it to religion and nationalism offended the majority of the population. The PKI, Partai Komunisme Indonesia (Indonesian Communist Party) was created and given political power. Communists are not particularly known for having no religion, but they tend to not specifically perform religious activities or involve religion in their daily life. During this period, the republic’s second president Suharto was major general in the Indonesian Military Force. He joined the 30 September Movement preparing an attempt to overthrow Sukarno and initiate an anti-communist purge. To get the support of the majority, Suharto used the religious discourse in his advantage and depicted the communists as people without religion, atheists. What followed eventually were the communist killings which is still one of the nation’s most tragic historical events. Some estimates inform that the death toll is

2 between 500,000 to 1 million. Suharto, as the instigator, took over the nation’s power this was the beginning of the three-decade during New Order regime. I have experienced many things and especially heard many stories from many different people containing roots from Suharto’s era and his anti-communist propaganda. Many people to whom I have talked to and told about my research on atheism reacted in a very skeptical way. Often their first reaction was a miscomprehension of atheism, they often replied “artists?” To me this implies that it is a subject which is not often mentioned or discussed, this reply creates the impression that they are rather surprised about the subject. Next, after I was done introducing my research to them, they would almost all answer “Does atheism exists in Indonesia?” or “There are no communists here anymore.” At that time, to me these were very surprising yet useful reactions as it shows that atheism is definitely a minority and the comparison with communism shows that they are often misunderstood and it proves that the traces left behind are still present nowadays.

Education As a national philosophy, Pancasila is projected upon the people and shaped their minds primarily through teachings at school and parenting at home. Therefore, the educational system has a great influence in people’s way of thinking and thus, the majority’s way of thinking. First of all, most of the educational institutions are religion based, which is a significant issue considering interreligious conflict and alienation. A nation unified based on monotheism is strongly segregated based on differing religions in many parts of social life. One respondent told me that the educational system is the core of interreligious alienation as they maintain the segregation by founding religion-based schools (Headley 2007).

“If you are born from two Muslim parents, you will grow up as a Muslim, with Muslim neighbors, Muslim friends, you will probably go to an Islamic School where you get taught by a Muslim teacher and get in touch with Muslim kids, same goes for a Christian kid for example.” (Glen)

This example got confirmed by a friend of mine which I have met in Jakarta. She told about her youth growing up in a Muslim family, going to Muslim school. Once she entered High School, she started to have feelings for this boy from her class, but she retained herself before even trying. “He was from a Christian family, so it would be too difficult.” Of course, religious teachings like the prohibition of inter-religious marriage also have to do with these considerations, but social-religious segregation only strengthens these gaps.

3 These are examples of interreligious alienation, in which we do not consider atheism as a religion. Imagine how thoughts towards them are shaped and expressed. To discuss this issue of the legality of atheism and the general perception towards atheists as part of social and political society, I went to the Centre for Fig. 1: Pie Chart of Religious Affiliation in Indonesia as from a 2010 Interreligious Harmony at the Census. Source: http://relentlesspursuitoftikkunolam.blogspot.nl/2013/03/islamic- Ministry of Religious Affairs hegemony.html (CIH). I had a very interesting talk with the deputy head Wawan Djunaedi about the legal and social position of atheism in Indonesia. He confirmed that the New Order era has caused many people, even until now, to think that atheists are the same as communists. At one moment, we came to talk about Indonesian education and specifically on religion and atheism. He told me that Pancasila is taught in every school and so children get to learn about the six ‘official’ religions in Indonesia, which are generally known as Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. However, according to Djunaedi there is no official or legal document which states these religions as the official religions. Nevertheless, this is being taught at schools and the government decides that these religions are allowed to be on the National Identity Document (KTP) and these religions are allowed to enjoy specific religious services from the ministry that other religions are not. I asked him if children also get to learn about other religions, or the possibility that someone can have no religion as well. He replied that that is rarely the case. On top of that, religious segregation in educational institutions starts from kindergarten and this does certainly not improve literally that what CIH stands for. Especially when, besides the segregation, schools do not pay attention to teach the children and students about the possible other religions (or non-religion). This actually endures up until senior high school as majority of schools always carry a religious identity to it. Within such a religiously determined society as in Indonesia, such a religious identity often translates into teaching religious values as being the truth. This religious segregation in education only strengthens the differences between religions by supporting one’s own religion and depreciating others. Religious segregation begins at education but throughout society, observable segregations also occur

4 within other institutions which, at first sight, do not connect with religion in any way such as for example sport and hobby communities. This only enhances the standardized seemingly need to identify oneself through their religious belief, creating even bigger distances and differences between multiple religious communities.

1.2 Alexander Aan, how not to Act Online Activity and Jail Sentence Alexander Aan, born 1981, was a civil servant at the Dharmasraya Development Planning Board in the Minang area in western Sumatra which is nearby the major city of Padang. In 2012, Aan started an atheist group on Facebook on which he shared comic strips of Fig. 2. Quote from Alexander Aan edited in to a photo of him kept in custody in a local prison in West Sumatra. Source: Al Jazeera the prophet Muhammad having sex with his servant. This is an implicit mock and an attack towards Islam and the idea of religion in general. Story goes that he also posted some more explicit texts doubting the validity of religion with the words “God doesn’t exist” on his personal Facebook page. However, neither authorities, nor researchers on the case, nor Alexander himself, confirmed that this was indeed the case. As a result, he was found guilty of ‘deliberately spreading information inciting religious hatred and animosity’ by the Muaro Sijunjung district court in western Sumatra. It is said that he also uploaded three articles on his Facebook account, including one describing the prophet being attracted to his daughter-in-law. Alexander was beaten by an angry mob and arrested by police in his hometown of Pulau Punjung in January 2012 after posting the material online and declaring himself an atheist. Earlier, the court indicted Aan with two other charges – persuading others to embrace atheism and blasphemy. Prosecutors had sought a three and a half year jail term. Two charges were dropped and eventually he was sentenced to prison for a length of two years and six months under the ‘Electronic Information and Transactions Law.’ Aan was the first one in the country’s

5 history to be trialed based on the Pancasila’s first pillar. What he did caused anxiety to the community and tarnished Islam. 2 This last sentence symbolizes the controversy of the Islamic identity within in the so- called secular state of Indonesia. Tarnishes towards the address of Islam causes anxiety to the community. This is a clarification of the religious discourse which reigns in the country. Islam is the main denominator determining the national identity and attacks of any kind on Islam apparently is also a threat towards the society. This idea is also supported by the fact that Aan was beaten up by his fellow inmates in the local prison when they knew about his case. After the announcement of Alexander’s sentence, an outrage sparked as Indonesians and international activists opposed the outcome as it contradicts the nation’s idea supporting freedom of religious expression. A petition even started to circulate online in order to try and drop the charges, but these attempts turned out to be in vain.

Life after Prison Alexander Aan now lives in a small room in a dormitory in an outskirt neighborhood northwest of Jakarta, in the vicinity of the Soekarno-Hatta airport. He does now work as a math teacher at a Christian school nearby his place. Through one of the members of the Yogyakarta atheist community who had met him once, I got his contact details and made an appointment to meet him in Jakarta. Whereas many of my respondents did not mind to meet in public, Alexander insisted me to come to his place to have a chat. We worked our way through three stories of tight hallways and messy doorsteps and Alexander invited me to take a seat on the rooftop terrace with views over Jakarta. I was a bit anxious as to how I should approach him, as I can imagine that his history could be rather sensitive and even traumatic to him, but I was quite surprised how open he was to me and how he was willing to help me as much as possible. Taking into account what he possibly had been through, I would have expected him to give rather nuanced answers to my questions and perspectives on the atheist issue. In contrast, his experiences in jail seemed to have rather strengthen his stance and not scared him in any way. After all, he describes himself as a ‘free thinker’ when I asked him about his religion.

“I have learned from my mistakes, my opinion is not the mistake, but the way that I expressed my opinion. I still support my ideas and I am still an atheist, I just know now

2 Daily Mail UK: Indonesian man jailed for two-and-a-half years writing God doesn’t exist Facebook page http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159530/Indonesian-man-jailed-half-years-writing-God-doesn-t-exist- Facebook-page.html accessed on the 31st of May, 2016 6

that I have to keep quiet about it and find the right balance in expressing it.” (Alexander Aan)

He told me that he still believes that every Indonesian citizen is protected by the law stating freedom of expression and freedom of religion. That is the reason that the court sought an alternative charge in order to successfully sentence him. Blasphemy alone is not enough, that is why they used the Electronic Information and Transactions Law. To straighten things out, I asked him if the blasphemy law was used in the eventual trial, and it was not. In a very convincing way, he told me that there is no reason to change his perspective and neither was it the incentive of the imprisonment; every individual has the freedom to have their own thoughts, despite the extent of deviancy from the ‘standard’. Therefore, he sticks to his point of view and he clearly learnt that expressing it through media like Facebook crosses the transitory line which turns mere thoughts in to ‘spreading information,’ and thus becoming something penal. After the incident, he chose not to be active on Facebook anymore in order to prevent him from making a similar mistake but also to protect himself from threats from conservatives who see Alexander as an instigator and as a danger for the Islamic society. Personally, the fact that he was teaching at a Christian elementary school got my attention when talking about his current situation. Being such a profound atheist with such a tumultuous history, it seemed quite contradictory for me that he works in a place where religion plays such a big role. Surprisingly, he did not share in my amazement and he talked about it as if it was completely normal and not contradictory in any sense. In fact, all of his colleagues know who he is and even some of his students came to know about him and his case. “When the students pray, I just do not join in their prayer. Someone asked me why I did not join them, I just replied that I do not share the same ideas and religion has nothing to do with math.” This was his answer when I asked how he combines his atheist identity with the religious activities at his work.

Lessons Learned from Aan’s Case In my opinion, Aan’s case is a very symptomatic evidence that atheism is a rarity in such a strongly Islamic tinted environment, which at the same time is contradictory as well as, after all, the country is known to be secular. This is thus a great example illustrating the overlap of two issues which are ongoing in contemporary Indonesian society. Therefore, I tried to propose the case during every interview with members of the atheist community and ask them what they knew about it, if they had any thoughts about it and what it has meant for their own future.

7 Except for one or two, everyone knew his name and most of them also knew about his case. Although they admire his hardship and his eager to carry out his thoughts in order to make atheism more discussable in society, they were also quite unanimous that Aan’s approach was not quite clever. Considering the law, it was maybe even quite stupid to come out for such controversial – in context – thoughts on a publicly accessible environment like Facebook, and social media in general. However, it is debatable of course that these respondents could have shaped this opinion in retrospect after he was imprisoned, an opinion that might have been different before his case came to light. Nevertheless, fact is that Aan serves as an example of how not to act and what consequences these acts can possibly result in to. Many members of the atheist community might think twice and consider his case more attentively before they choose how to manifest their own opinion and identity into public spheres such as social media.

8 Chapter 2 The Social Manifestation of Atheists

2.1 Ways towards Atheism, Atheist Narratives & Perspectives This following chapter will be elaborately regarding and portraying the ‘key players’ of the debate. During my three months of fieldwork in the capital Jakarta and the major city of Yogyakarta in central Java, I have made an effort to meet as much members of the atheist community as possible in order to shape a clear image of who they are, what they have been through and why they have chosen the paths they chose. While conducting these interviews with approximately twenty different atheists, a couple of things struck me in the information that I received from them. These can be either similarities, nuances, or contradictions which I will try to set out and categorize in different subchapters.

History & the Youthful Generation Something which I silently expected in advance, was clearly proven after every single interview. Except for one lonely soul, all of the respondents were not born as an atheist but turned towards atheism at a certain moment in their life. The divergent one was born out of two Indonesian parents who lived in Japan for a while where the majority of citizens has no religion.3 Normally, the influence of the religious discourse is such a strong one that it minimizes the chances of people being born as atheists. As Glen posed, religion is an omnipresent phenomenon from which escaping is almost impossible. For example, when your parents are Muslim, you are automatically born a Muslim, you will grow up with Muslim neighbors and friends, most likely you will be sent to a Muslim school with a Muslim teacher and classmates. In a later phase, you will probably feel the pressure to marry another Muslim and then the whole cycle will repeat itself. In fact, in Indonesia, a marriage is invalid to the state when it is not performed through a ceremony conforming one of the nation’s recognized religions. This clarifies and supports the expectation that the majority of respondents would have a history of growing up as a religious child. At some point in their life, they have experienced something or developed thoughts that initiated them doubting about their specific religion or religion in general. In general, I could see a broad similarity in the atheist respondents regarding to their age. Except for one respondent, Eko, who was just in his forties, all of my respondents in Jakarta

3 Table with numbers on Religiosity among citizens from several countries http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/9460.html accessed on the 1st of June, 2016.

9

were between the age of twenty-five to thirty-five. The group of young atheist students which I talked to in a café in Yogyakarta were around twenty years of age with the oldest one being twenty-five years old. I believe that the average age is relatively low for a specific reason as getting in touch with atheism correlates with access to internet, social media and living in urban areas. I am aware of the fact that these same factors could be the reason that my respondents are between this range of age. Namely, the fact that I have predominantly contacted my respondents through Facebook which is probably more actively used by the younger part of society. Therefore, it is quite likely that this method of finding respondents generally excludes the older atheists within society. However, regarding the religious discourse which is entrenched within the nation’s history, I believe that atheism is actually something that predominantly plays among the younger generation (Jaafar, Wibowo & Afiatin 2006). Considering this division in age, I believe it entails an important message about the future of religion in society and that it marks the beginning of a new generation with deviant ideas and thoughts. I find myself supported by the different perspectives between the younger and older generation. Whereas the older generation in general have never heard of atheism or denies the existence of it in Indonesia, the younger generation present it as something quite normal and they foresee big societal changes in the following few decades. Different instances have different definitions as to until what age someone can considered to still be youth. While UN defines youth in the age range 15-24, recent Indonesian law-making prolongs the formal boundaries of youth to a more advanced age. The new Law on Youth, defines youth as ‘Indonesian citizens who are entering an important period of growth and development and are aged between 16 and 30 years.’ This is in line with many other developing-country governments which define the upper boundary of youth as 35 or even 40 years. Current theories approach youth in many interesting ways, including youth as transition, youth as identity, youth as action, youth as cultural practice, and youth as cultural production. The social and scientific construction of youth tends to see it as typically a period of transition – from child to adult, from education to employment, from family of origin to family of destination. It is important to understand that young people do not necessarily see themselves in this way, or not only in this way. Often they are busy developing youth cultures and identities in their own right, that is, trying to be successful in the eyes of their peers as youth, rather than trying to prepare themselves to be successful adults (Naafs & White 2012: 3-4). Suzanne Naafs and Ben White have written multiple articles on the importance of studying the youth as an indicator for presenting the working of social structures and proposing possible developments for the future. Although their focus is pointed at urbanization and de-agrarisation among rural

10 communities, the location of their study is primarily in Indonesia. They divide their key ideas about youth in three main sections; ‘youth as generation’, ‘youth as transition’, and ‘youth as makers and consumers of culture’. By analyzing their theory on Indonesian youth, I will try to apply it as much as possible to the young atheist community in Indonesia.

Young people are key actors in most important processes of economic and social change. As mentioned before, Naafs and White take the examples of two macro structural changes which are often forgotten to be initiated by young people. In the light of this specific research on atheism, you could see a similarity. The increase of atheism and the decrease of religious devotion and activities is also initiated by young people. An important change happening to youth in Indonesia, as in many other countries, is its prolongation. Young people remain enrolled in education longer, as their average age at first marriage rises and as entry into the labor force is postponed. For example, many urban middle-class men and women in their late twenties, still single, completing an advanced degree and not yet having entered professional employment would consider themselves ‘youth’, while other men and women in their early twenties, having left school at age of 15 or even earlier, already working as a laborer or market trader for many years, married and having children, would consider themselves ‘adult’ in their communities. Therefore, social scientists and historians should define youth not by age but by social perceptions and shared historical experience. Social change is characterized by tension in intergenerational relations, which disturbs effective communication between them. These tensions are nothing new – although each succeeding adult generation may think they are – but may well have become more accentuated in many regions of Indonesia where for recent generations each new young generation of men and women grows up better educated than their parents and community elders, but is often less equipped with livelihood skills. Youth is also a key life-course period in which identities are shaped. Identities are produced collectively and in this process class, ethnicity, religion and sexuality intersect in varying combinations (ibid.: 6-7). Notions of ‘youth’ and ‘the young generation’ are often value-laden: “youth as the hope of the nation”, “youth are owned by the future”, or “youth must be guided” and so on, show how loaded are the values attached to ‘youth’. The two dimensions of Indonesian youth – as the vanguard of political and social change, and at the same time as dangerous threat to social and political stability – coexist uneasily in both popular and academic understandings of youth (ibid: 8).

11 Location In general, I have met my respondents and conducted my interviews in Jakarta and in Yogyakarta. It is primarily a practical consideration to just pick one or two locations within a country of 250 million citizens, but there is also a tactical consideration for these locations. I had chosen Jakarta before I went there as for some reason I expected that most of the atheists would live in urban and modernized areas. Also, most of the social and political activism happen in the capital as many ministries, secretaries, NGO’s, and universities are located there. Moreover, my expectation was that ideas of atheism and activism towards the religious discourse were spread through internet and social media, and obviously Jakarta is the area in Indonesia with the best access and connection to internet and where an environment of social media is the most present. Consider that many rural areas in the rest of Indonesia are still hindmost from decent internet connection and smartphones are a luxury, whereas it seems that in Jakarta it is one of the basic needs. My choice to go to Yogyakarta developed as I spoke to respondents in Jakarta. They told me that there are several sub-organizations throughout Indonesia but primarily in urban areas such as Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. One specific respondent, originating from Ponorogo, Eastern Java, which I met in Jakarta because he was meeting a friend there, told me that the Yogyakarta atheist community is quite active and that he has been there a few times to meet with them. Speaking to him and considering that many of my respondents were students, I decided to visit Yogyakarta in order to get in touch with the community. Yogyakarta is known as one of the major university cities in Indonesia where students from all over the country move to. This way, I hoped to get stories from students who could clearly argument their position as to why they chose to become an atheist.

“At that time I joined this atheist community on a Forum and until 2011 I did not think that there was anyone besides me in Indonesia and I did not even try to find an atheist group on the internet (…) I did not really use Facebook until I joined the group because there were some very interesting discussions.” - Karina

The first reason regarding connectivity to internet is a major determination for atheists to mostly organize in urban areas, also according to many respondents. When asking them about how they came to knew about the IA community on Facebook, many of them responded in a similar way. Before encountering the Facebook group, many atheists thought that they were the only one and therefore felt lonely and misunderstood. This is exactly the reason that they try to find fellow atheists. They are, however, quite surprised when they find the IA group, to see that

12 there are so many Indonesians with the same ideas. Once they are member of the group, they have an outlet to share their thoughts and opinions among people who feel the same way. Therefore, I believe that there is a triangular correlation between age (or generation), atheism and living in urban areas. One respondent, Eko from Indramaya, explicitly stated this connection.

“I doubt that If I would still live with my family in Indramayu, which is a relatively small village, that I would encounter the IA group and thus speak out about my atheism. After I came to Jakarta for work, I became more active on social media and someone told me about the Facebook group (…) I believe that the odds for encountering the IA group are per definition smaller if you live in more rural areas.” - Eko

To my opinion, Eko refers to two different reasons about not speaking out about his atheism when living in Indramayu. However, the main point is about access to and involvement with internet and social media, another argument concerns the reaction of the conservative neighbors in the village and coincides with the taboo on atheism. Although this is not explicitly stated in the quote above, we have discussed this in our further conversation. Considering this statement by Eko, we could hypothetically conclude that there are many atheists, or at least people with atheist-minded thoughts, throughout Indonesia. Those who we can determine and identify online, are only the ones who found fellow atheists online and thus found the strength to come out as one. Based on this information, we can say that the power of internet and social media is quite strong in this specific environment but that it still has not reached its full potential either.

Becoming an Atheist In order to dedicate a separate subchapter to the ways that my respondents became atheist, they had to fulfill the condition that they were something else than atheist before. Disregarding one exceptional case, this turned out to be so, in a way. All of my respondents were brought up with a religion; Islam primarily, but also Christianity and Hinduism. However, the extent to which some of them were really religious, differs from ‘quite fanatic’ to ‘not religious at all’. Nevertheless, they all experienced events, met people, read information or learnt insights which made sure that religion is nothing for them and that they do not believe in any kind of deity. This diverse range of reasons for becoming atheist causes for a diverse range as to what extent they are an atheist as well. Eko, who came up earlier, had a very personal and specific reason to become atheist. In primary school, which was an Islamic school, he got Quran reciting

13 lessons. During these classes, kids (including him) got hit when they recited incorrectly. He said that it was very difficult to follow a religion in which you get punished physically when making a mistake. From that time on, Eko had an unconditional aversion towards Islam and never dug for information again. To my opinion he was a rather ‘fragile’ atheist and I had the feeling that talking to him was a constant epiphany for him. He had some general propositions about Islam which he had only heard about from other people, he was surprised to hear my answers arguing these points. However, I have to admit that Eko was a very gentle and polite man which could have given me the impression that he was fragile. Fact is that there is a big difference between his determination compared to for example the determination of Karina. Karina is a Bandungnese women living and working in Singapore. She also grew up with Islam but she already developed critical thoughts towards Islam in junior high school. Karina was part of the IA community since the beginning and became administrator of the group in a later stage. She is very determined towards atheism and almost nothing can even slightly nuance her opinion on this. My interview with her turned into a quite fiery conversation and I have to admit that I briefly lost my objectivist stance in the discussion. In general my respondents seemed to come up with critical thoughts towards atheism, doubts about stories from holy books and doubts about stories from influential people in their environment which eventually developed in to atheism. Unlike Eko, many of them did try to find out more about their religion and try to find answers on their questions by reading the holy scriptures. Where the holy books are a great guidance for those who do believe, it seems that they can also serve as a last convicting step towards disbelief for those who have doubts. Seemingly easily, many of them set aside stories as being incredible, stories that mean so much to the majority of society. “Why,” I asked them, “are these scriptures so hard for you to believe?” Obviously, stories on epiphanies are in no sense comparable to anything which we encounter in our daily lives currently. However, “we all have a sense of imagination that makes it acceptable to believe right?” But it is exactly this that seems to lack with most of the atheists, a sense of fantasy. This lack enables them to strongly support their atheist thoughts without hesitating about a possible occurrence of epiphanies or other Godly happenings in the past. Key words that return in interviews with these determined atheists are ‘science’ and ‘common sense’. The word science, remarkably often served as an answer to the question why they do not believe in God. To my opinion this was not a sufficient answer, if it is a suitable one in the first place. When I asked them to elaborate, many of them referred to what is observable and what can be proven. “You cannot see God and you cannot prove that there is a God.” This is a discussion that I had with several respondents in a rather similar way. I would answer “But you

14 cannot prove either that there is no God” to make a subtle wink towards Popper’s falsification theory (Caldwell 1991). Often I would get “But how can you prove that something does not exist”, and this is exactly my point. I would make them clear that it is useless and I would ask them why they are so determined in saying that there is no God. After all, religious people believe in the existence of God, that is why it is called belief. Where believers do not want to prove the existence of God and use the word ‘believe’ in God, for some reason atheists have the urge to come out much more decisively with their opinion on divine existence and often take a scientific point of view in the issue. I believe that this urge to approach religion in a singular, scientific way, derives from the scientific educational background that many respondents have. Due to their scientific knowledge and scientific way of observing, analyzing and concluding, religion and divine existence receive the same scientific approach treatment. Which is very striking, because Islam itself preaches the harmonious relation between its religious teachings and science. A couple of years ago, I have met with a Dutch Imam at a Moroccan mosque in Haarlem, the Netherlands. We had a small discussion addressing the relation to science among others. He told that that there are many scientific claims, but until now there has not been any proven claim (theory) which contradicts anything stated in the holy Quran. In fact, there are many things that modern science has just discovered until a couple of centuries ago, these same things were already written in the holy Quran. There exists a popular notion that Islam, like Christianity, is in conflict with science. On the contrary, there has been a mutually enriching relationship between religion and science over the ages (Loo 2001).

Family ties Once atheists have decided to come forward as one, they still have to face a difficult dilemma. Whether or not to tell it to close relatives, especially parents, is a common topic that comes up when talking about coming out as an atheist. Despite their decisiveness to become an atheist to the outside world, informing their parents about their new religious identity can carry along complications as impaired trust, pride, feelings of parental failure, sometimes even insult which can all lead to changes within the relationship and communication between parent and child. Therefore, a fair amount of ‘converts’ (to which I will not refer anymore using quotation marks from now on as atheism can be considered a form of belief as well) choose to lie for best interests in order to maintain the relationship with their parents. The interesting example of Isti, a graduate student at the University of Wageningen, is one that keeps lingering around in my mind when thinking about presentation towards parents.

15 Isti was born and brought up in Yogyakarta and now goes back and forth between her apartment in South Jakarta and her campus in Wageningen. She actually wore a Hijab before she converted to atheism, which in fact does not have to be meaningful as it could just be an external expression of which the choice to wear it might have been influenced by others in her surroundings. It does however say something about her amenability during her pre-atheist era, or about her will or possibilities to unveil her atheist thoughts by means of unveiling. She admitted that she had these thoughts since junior high school. Her fortitude on atheism is debatable though, as she answered quite hesitant to my question if she thinks that there is any kind of deity. She told me that she had not figured it out quite entirely for herself, but that she tends toward the idea that there is not any. This uncertainty causes her to identify herself differently depending on the context or environment. In Jakarta, she often hangs out with her atheist friends and joins the atheist community, but she told me that when she visits her mother back in Yogyakarta, she would still do prayers and read the Quran together with her. Isti is one of several examples of atheists who lie to their parents for their sake. Others have chosen to tell their parents, but some of them have experienced a negative change in the relationship with their parents after they did. Adi said that especially his father is acting much more distant from him than before and they do not have in-depth conversations any longer. His father is simply disappointed by the choice that his son made and considers it as an insult on his parenting. This ambiguity in ways of presenting the self among atheists may very well result from the religious taboo and especially the taboo on not having a religion. However, this taboo is slowly seeming to decrease with the younger generations. This causes atheists to only open up to their fellow atheist and peers, but when it concerns their parents or other relatives they might have to think twice.

The LGBT community A rather different (and yet again not) kind of social group within Indonesia is the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender) community. The reason that it differs from atheist is obviously because the group is formed, based on gender, external characteristics and sexual preference instead of religious beliefs. However, there is a significant similarity because just as atheists, LGBT are people who deviate from the social norm and hegemonic ideas. This is the reason why many respondents start to mention LGBT as a reflection on their own position in society. They fear to have to deal with the same consequences as the LGBT community. During an interview with Annisa at the UI (Universitas Indonesia), University of Indonesia, she told me that there was a group of students starting a peer network on the LGBT community and

16 posting flyers throughout campus as an open invitation for LGBT’s to sign themselves up and join this network. This group of students was tracked down (there is no confirmation, but FPI presumably is involved) and were requested to stop the activities. This got a lot of media attention and from then on there is a large-scaled anti-LGBT riot going on.4 If I ask atheists about whom they fear the most, the majority mentions the FPI, mainly because they already openly campaigned against the rights of LGBT and stating how they are a shame for Indonesian society. Automatically, atheists assume that they will get the same treatment as LGBT as they are a deviation from social norms as well. However, there is one big difference that makes the atheist’ situation much more safe than the LGBT situation. Glen was the one who addressed this difference. “It is one major advantage for ‘us’ that you cannot tell from someone’s exterior that he or she is an atheist, in contrast to most of the LGBT’s.” As a side note, the notion of social deviation is quite contextual concerning LGBT, as for instance in Javanese cultures it is quite ordinary for traditional dance performers with ancient Hindu influences to represent a mix of genders or a third kind of “in between gender”.5 The writer of this article (5 red.) also addresses the peculiarity of this cross-gendered performance concerning the country’s Muslim majority. For some reason people seem to condone this form unclear gender expression because it is a part of cultural history, and thus intertwined with cultural identity. However, this could be considered as an extreme expression of LGBT kind of identities, and it is not at all meant as a caricature or parody. I will further leave this little side jump alone as this could serve as a research topic on its own for a whole different thesis.

2.2 The Multiple Stages for Presentation of the Self One of the aspects within the narratives of the atheists that struck me the most, was that of the ways of presenting the self differently within different contexts. For some reasons they instinctively act differently and express their atheism to a different extent, depending on who they are with. What are the reasons for speaking up more freely in one case or rather more indistinctly in the other concerning the same topic or personal attribute? What causes for such a distinct personal reflection to occur within different social contexts? I will elaborately treat

4 The Sydney Morning Herald: Gays and lesbians feel heat of discrimination and prejudice in Indonesia. http://www.smh.com.au/world/gays-and-lesbians-feel-heat-of-discrimination-in-indonesia-20160213- gmt8ng.html, accessed on the 20th of August, 2016. 5 College of Arts & Sciences, University of Washington: GENDER BENDING ON THE EAST JAVA STAGE. https://artsci.washington.edu/news/2013-10/gender-bending-east-java-stage, accessed on the 20th of August, 2016. 17

each of the possible answers on these questions by using sociological and anthropological theories known for dealing with self-presentation.

The Presentation of Contextual Self-Identity When mentioning the characteristics or the core of one’s identity, everyone, including the person concerning, seems to have some sort of idea what this identity contains, what it refers to and what vocabulary to use to appoint it. However, is it possible to categorize or to determine such a personal identity in a static way, what is relevant when describing one’s identity and does it even serve a purpose to do it?

Social Identities Social psychologist Henri Tajfel developed a theory on ‘social identity’ together with his student John Turner. This theory states that an individual partly bases his identity or what is supposes to mean on the characteristics of a group that he or she psychologically assigns him or herself to be a member of. The ascription of properties believed to be part of the individual self are, according to this theory, mostly based on its social identity or the collection of group memberships that define this individual (Tajfel 1974). The human species is highly adapted to Fig. 3. Personal and Social Identities group living and not well equipped to survive outside a group context. Yet the known theories on self-identity show little regard for this aspect of living in collectivity. As a consequence, most of the theories are inadequate to account for much human action in the form of collective behavior. The representation of the social identity theory can be presented in the form of a schematic figure (fig. 3). The concentric circles represent definitions of the self at different level of inclusiveness within some particular domain. Personal identity is the individuated self; those characteristics that differentiate one individual from another within a specific social context. Social identities are categorizations of the self into more inclusive social units that depersonalize the self-concept, where I becomes

18 we. Social identity entails “a shift towards the perception of self as a unique person”. The concentric circles in Figure 3 also illustrate the contextual nature of social identity. At each point in the figure, the next circle outward provides the frame of reference for differentiation and social comparison. This illustration shows that the self-concept is expandable and contractible across different levels of social identity with associated transformations in the definition of self and the basis for self-evaluation. When the definition of self changes, the meaning of self-interest and self-serving motivation also changes accordingly (Brewer 1991: 475-476). This is quite a major explanation for the differing presentation of the self within different social and cultural contexts within the atheist community. To go back again to the example of Isti, presenting herself as being an atheist depends on which part of the circle the situation is placed in. Her personal identity might have all the characteristics of a self-ascribed atheist. At her home in Jakarta, she does not pray, let alone five times a day, and she drinks beer. When moving one bigger circle outwards towards social identities, she starts to present herself in different ways. Within her family and when in her hometown Yogyakarta, she acts as if she still is a Muslim. When visiting her mom, she prays together with her, wears a scarf to cover her hair, reads the Quran and joins in other religious activities like visiting the local mosque. This social situation could also be described as an religious environment in which she knows most of the members. If we move towards an even bigger circle, another social situation in which identity is formed, another presentation of Isti can be acknowledged. Namely, when she is part of the group of IA in Jakarta meeting up and having a drink together, she returns more to her personal identity, that of being an atheist. She told me that they talk about their daily personal encounters or small problems within the religious environment that surrounds them, be it at work, within the family, in the neighborhood, or in any other public space. Accompanied by a beer mostly, they share each other their personal accounts of being an atheist within the religiously influenced society in Indonesia. About these public spaces, we can distinguish yet another kind of social circle where another side of the social identity is formed. I am referring to public society in general. Taking in to account the state laws and the cultural religious hegemony which is present in Indonesia, all of the members of IA know that they are somewhat limited to act as an atheist in public spaces compared to how they would represent themselves in smaller circles.

19 Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life Although these frequent shifts seem to imply that the self is not singular but plural, there are certain theories stating that this plurality is exactly that what makes the self. The self in itself is such a broad and complex phenomenon that it is difficult to state what does and what does not include in the definition of the self. Tajfel’s theory about the multiple social identities which can be ascribed to a singular self is one of them. The theory of social identities describes what it means and contains to have a different content and presentation of one self within the different shifting social situations that an individual can be situated in. A complementary theory that helps in understanding the way this differential presentation comes to reflection, is the theory put forward by Erving Goffman. Rather than to address the meaning and the content of the different social identities part of the self, Goffman described the way in which an individual continuously shifts between these different presentation of the self within everyday life. He does this by presenting social life and social relations as one big stage play. Goffman presents a dramaturgical model of human life and uses it as the conceptual framework for understanding social life. He saw a connection between the kinds of acts that people put on in their daily life and theatrical performances. In this view, people in everyday life are actors on stage, the audience consists of those who observe what others are doing, the parts are the roles that people play (whether work, familial, friendship roles, or whatever), the dialogue consists of ritualized conversational exchanges, while the costuming consists of whatever clothing happens to be in style. The insightful analysis offered by Goffman provides a framework from which we can gain a remarkably different perspective of what we do in life (at home, at school, with friends, or while on a date) (Goffman 1978: 135).

“When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. (…) Although some of this information seems to be sought almost as an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it. Information about the individual helps to define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he will expect of them and what they might expect of him. Informed in these ways, the others will know how best to act in order to call forth a desired response from him.” (ibid.: 136)

This is all part of the front stage when speaking in terms of his dramaturgical metaphor. This is where the positive or desired aspects of the idea of self are highlighted. There is also a back

20 region or stage that can also be considered as a hidden or private place where individuals can be themselves and set aside their role or identity in society (Ritzer 2008: 372). Goffman’s theory emphasizes the usage and the implementation of the contextual identity shifts performed by the actors, which are the members of society in this case. When an individual appears before others, his actions will influence the definition of the situation which they come to have. Sometimes the individual will act in a thoroughly calculating manner, expressing himself in a given way solely in order to give the kind of impression to others that is likely to evoke from them a specific response he is concerned to obtain. Sometimes the individual will be calculating in his activity but be relatively unaware that this is the case. Sometimes he will intentionally and consciously express himself in a particular way, but chiefly because the traditions of his group or social status require this kind of expression and not because of any particular response that is likely to be evoked from those impressed by the expression (Goffman 1978: 139). This theory addressing contextual presentation of the self in everyday life is a useful means to try and comprehend the social situational plays in which the actors are acting. Depending on their audience within the specific play they take part in at a given time, they consciously pick and use the role they play, the lines they speak and the performance that reflect their impression towards these audiences. Within the context of the atheist minority group in Indonesia this would be a play in which the atheist are the actors towards the religious audience (or rather the rest of Indonesian society) in which they play the role of theists on the frontstage, and safely return to their role of atheists when backstage again among their fellow atheist actors.

The Private, Public and Collective Self The statements that people make, that constitute the self, have implications for the way people sample, process, and assess information. Thus, for instance a self-instruction could maintain or either change the current self-structure. This has implications for behavior because self- instructions are among several processes that lead to behavior. In other words, the self is an active agent that promotes differential sampling, processing and evaluation of information from the environment, and thus leads to differences in social behavior (Triandis 1989: 506). One major distinction among aspects of the self is between the private, public and collective self (Baumeister 1986). Thus, we have the following: the private self, cognitions that involve traits, states, or behaviors of the person (e.g., "I am introverted,"); the public self, cognitions concerning the generalized other's view of the self, such as "People think I am introverted"; and the collective self, cognitions concerning a view of the self that is found in some collective (e.g., family, coworkers, tribe, scientific society); for instance, "My family

21 thinks I am introverted". All these perspectives concern the same opinion on the same characteristics of the ‘I-person’, the only difference is through who’s eyes it is being seen and from whom this perspective is being stated. These differences opt the possibility to bring forward different statements as it can be interpreted in different ways by different actors. This is especially probable when the ‘selves’ purposely tend to manifest themselves differently according to whom they are manifesting to. A major part of the atheists are indeed atheists in all three domains of the self; they are personally convinced that they are an atheist, they have told everyone in their surroundings about their belief and they come forward publicly as an atheist. In this case, all forms of selves match which does not produce any complexities. In some other cases, the selves do choose to manifest their identity in different ways according to whom they are manifesting to. In these cases there is such a thing as an imbalance between the private, public and collective self, resulting in a forced continuous switch between identities when entering different domains. One complex example – although clear in explicating imbalance between the selves - is that of Isti (mentioned earlier) who has more or less developed her personal religious beliefs into that of an atheist (private self), who also joins the IA group and its activities in the public spheres (public self) but still clamps on to her former heritage of being a Muslim when returning to her hometown visiting her families (collective self). The self is dynamic, so that different elements of the self will be sampled in different situations, across time, moods, and depending on negotiations the person has had with others about the way the situation is to be defined. Depending on which elements are sampled and if the elements have action components, social behavior will be influenced by the particular self (Triandis 1989: 508). This dynamism is also partly a result of the social, political and cultural environment in which the self is situated. Within the political system of Indonesia concerning differential treatment of religious groups, citizens are more likely to be drawn towards a multitude of presentation of the self. It results into the possibility and perhaps probability of reconsidering the presentation of the self within different social environments. It is attractive but challenging to state that the political system insufficiently takes into account the digital development the country is going through and therefore enhances and strengthens the extremities in social life. The digital social network environment offers all kinds of views on social life within the country as well as outside of the country. The access to information about politics in countries worldwide have a big impact on the social development in Indonesia. Many respondents formed their opinion on the country’s system based on their knowledge about more progressive (often western) states concerning freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Social networks and

22 public information sources offer a glance into the rest of the world and active users of the internet may either use it as a tool to highlight the other’s flaws to support their own social system or either as a step-up towards challenging and changing their own flaws and copy the upsides of other societies, so the other way around. The last option is often seen among sub- societies who do not (entirely) agree upon the social and political system and feel subordinated to the majority of society. This explains why so many atheists use the information to change their own situation and oppose the hegemonic system. For example, the theist part of society will use this information to support their own views and thoughts and will be occupied with depreciating the minority’s vision.

2.3 Difference between Online and Offline Manifestation of Atheists To continue in the light of changing contexts and stages for social self-presentation, I would like to address another seemingly contrasting dichotomy, namely the offline and online manifestation of presenting the self. The process of self-presentation becomes an ever- evolving cycle through which individual identity is presented, compared, adjusted, or defended against a constellation of social, cultural, economic, or political realities. Goffman (1978) described this as an information game: “a potentially infinite cycle of concealment, discovery, false revelation, and rediscovery”. This somewhat ego-centered approach has been related by other sociologists to contemporary historical developments, which render the self more liquid, reflexive, or self-identity a process. Self-identity in public and private life thus traverses distinct yet connected planes of interaction or networks. Technology may provide the stage for this interaction, linking the individual, separately or simultaneously, with multiple audiences. Online social networks constitute such sites of self-presentation and identity negotiation. A Networked Self (2011) introduced an anthology of discussions on what it means to present the self in online networked environments. Social network sites enable individuals to construct a member profile, connect to known and potential friends, and view other members’ connections. Their appeal derives from providing a stage for self-presentation and social connection (SNS). SNSs provide props that facilitate self-presentation, including text, photographs, and other multimedia capabilities, but the performance is centered around public displays of social connections or friends, which are used to authenticate identity and introduce the self through the reflexive process of fluid association with social circles. Thus, individual and collective identities are simultaneously presented and promoted. Online social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld, Orkut, LinkedIn, and Bebo reinforce the social affordances of online environments, by fostering

23 interaction that is primarily interpersonal, and founded upon norms of everyday interaction adapted to the online setting. Enabling both identity expression and community building, SNSs are initially structured around a niche audience, although they frequently expand beyond that target market (Papacharissi 2011: 304-305). A diverse but substantive theoretical and empirical literature deals with the idea that our identity as individuals may have multiple facets that are expressed or emerge in different contexts. Some theorists have suggested that we may have a sense of our ‘true’ self that is distinct from the ‘actual’ self that we normally present in social interactions, and that interacting on the internet may facilitate its expression (Marriot & Buchanan 2013: 171). The bigger social networks, primarily Facebook, are very popular in Indonesia among people who look for a stage to facilitate self-presentation and to connect to people with shared backgrounds and interests. For some reason the abstract realm of online social networks invites people to present themselves thus to be much more open and accessible than the concrete real social world where conversation is necessary to obtain this kind of personal details. Because most members publicize their information details and interests which eases the possibility to find members with similarities. On top of that, finding these ‘friends’ with shared interests, can be done as incognito as possible and is a lot easier compared to offline searching which is often more time- and effort-consuming, and a whole lot less effective.

What is at Stake? “It has been suggested that the internet, as a communication medium and interaction space, facilitates self expression of one’s true self in two main ways. It first offers the ability to remain anonymous to (or at least non-identifiable by) dyadic or group interaction partners, and secondly the opportunity to locate interaction partners who share aspects of one’s true self.” (ibid.: 171)

To elaborate on this quote I subsequently want to show the differential possible consequences between offline and online social presentation and manifestation which most likely influence and partially explain the different ways in which one act in real life opposed to the virtual realm such as on social media. Although there is no line of generalization to draw in which atheist do or do not present themselves as an atheist, it is possible to set out the possible consequences and the differences within these consequences when acting online or offline. When considering the manner in which Indonesian atheists are opening up about their religious identity online, mainly through the platform of Facebook using the Indonesian Atheists group, there is a great

24 difference in how they act offline. The IA group seems such a safe way for them to share and expose their identity but also to share stories and information about this identity as long as it is among equivalent members of the social group.

“It’s very normal for atheists to be paranoid because the environment does not support them,” said Ms. Karina, 26, who uses only one name. But, she said, “in this group people don’t need to be afraid.”6

Online platforms offer a relatively safe way to expose these identities for several reasons. Mentioned before is the possibility to alter your identity online as in using an incognito name, not publishing a personal profile picture and not showing or filling in your personal details. Besides that, the internet can be considered almost as some kind of parallel universe in which the conditions and thus the consequences differ (partly or entirely) from the real world. In some cases therefore, consequences which lead from specific actions in the real world may decay when translated in or applied on to the virtual world because of the absence of specific actors, relations, conditions or circumstances. To clarify this point I will use an example of one respondent who makes a clear discrepancy between his on- and offline realm and how he shows his self to the audience. When I first met Glen, he gave the impression of being a quite introvert and cautious person. We had an appointment in a restaurant in the central business district of Jakarta. Along with his coffee, he was muffled away in the far corner of the restaurant. In the end, we had a very long and deep conversation but it took quite a while before he opened up, socially as well as substantially. In hindsight, his skittishness at our first rendezvous was illustrative for his general attitude as an atheist within a religious society. He was very hesitant to be on camera when I asked him to and he was the one who warned me to not use any full names in combination with respondent’s actual faces. “Do not use any real names, even if they agree upon it themselves, because they may not identify the possible risks that it brings, but this is such a sensitive and risky topic. You do not want to be responsible if they or their lineages get in to any kind of trouble because of this.” Within the online realms of communication platforms for religious minorities, Glen was already active for quite a while. He told me that he already actively joined a few fora before

6 New York Times: For Indonesian Atheists, a Community of Support Amid Constant Fear. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/world/asia/26iht-indonesia26.html?_r=0, accessed on the 16th of August, 2016. 25

Facebook was that popular and before the IA group even existed. In search of fellow atheists, Glen shared his thoughts and opinions on this relatively new kind of religious identity in Indonesia. However, he did not get the amount of responses that he has to deal with currently in the Facebook counterpart of the atheist community. When Karl Karnadi7 started the group, Glen was one of the first to join it as he already knew Karl a bit. Until now, Glen is still a member of the group and he even fulfills the role of administrator responsible for activities such as deciding on the entries from new members of the group. Although his first impression evoked other thoughts, he turned out to be quite an active member of the group with strong, outspoken but realistic thoughts on the social position and possibilities of atheism in contemporary Indonesia. He emphasized the importance of an equal treatment and simply being listened to as a religious and social minority as a primary point for him personally. Simultaneously he admitted that this could not be achieved through means of for example marching and protesting in public.

“It is too idealistic to realize that as, although we are growing, we are still such a small part of society and even within the group the motives, rationales and goals are too divergent to make a strong and unanimous statement to the outside world.” (Glen)

It is shown clearly that Glen is an self-assured atheist with a realistic view on the nation’s society. The next point reaffirms this but at the same time shows how differently this comes to being in the real, concrete world compared to the virtual, ‘abstract’ world of internet. When I asked him about his profession, he told me that he is working in the educational sector with kids from junior and senior high school. I wondered how his religious identity would manifest itself and what consequences it would bring for his relation with the students. He told me that nobody knew about his atheism at work and that he purposely chose to keep it a secret. This is an affirmation that he is very much aware of the stigmatization and discrimination in Indonesian society when it comes to atheism. He believes that it would not improve the relationship towards his students and also he said that it would probably cost him the job which he obviously does not want to happen. After all, in a society influenced by a religious hegemony, which parent would accept the fact that its child is being taught by an atheist? This example shows that the reflection of one’s self can be truly discrepant between the online and offline world. The offline world, which in this case refers specifically to his job within the context of the social hegemony,

7 Raising Kids Without God: Atheist Parents in Indonesia https://richarddawkins.net/2013/07/raising-kids- without-god-atheist-parents-in-indonesia/, accessed on the 16th of August, 2016.

26 is thus intertwined with a set of conditions and circumstances. This is the same set that ultimately moves him to decide not to come outward as his true self, when it comes to expressing religious identity because he is aware of the consequences and takes them into account by doing so.

27

28 Chapter 3 The Multiple Actors in the Debate

3.1 Liberals

Liberal Islamic Network, harmonizing polarities or adding fuel to the fire? Founded by Ulil Abshar Abdalla, Jaringan Islam Liberal (JIL), Liberal Islamic Network is one of the main oppositions of FPI (I will mention that later) as JIL tends to take into account current embodiments of law, like Human Rights, while interpreting Islamic scriptures. They have a liberal point of view on Islamic thoughts which tries to harmonize Islam into national rule of law of today. This has given Ulil and JIL many opponents including the FPI which accused Ulil of being an infidel. What role does JIL play in national politics and opinion making and how does this influence the position of atheists? My first encounter with JIL occurred when one of my atheist respondents pointed out for me that it could serve as a great nuance in my research to set out a liberal front in the atheist discussion as I had only paid attention to the atheists and their opponents up until then. Little did I know of an institution which supported the atheist community without being a part of it. Although JIL is not per definition an organization that explicitly stands for the defense of atheist rights, it does, among others, oppose conservative views on atheism as being fully part of society. After some research on JIL and Ulil, I discovered that JIL’s voice was already being heard by the mainstream conservatives and not in a very positive manner. As mentioned before, Ulil was considered to be an infidel because of his ‘unacceptable liberal interpretation of Islam’ and this even resulted in to a letter bomb addressed to his office in 2011 which caused one police officer to get injured.8 This occurred almost a decade after a group of Indonesian Islamic clerics from Forum Ulama Umat Islam issued a death fatwa9 against Ulil10 for an article that Ulil wrote in Kompas in 2002, "Menyegarkan Kembali Pemahaman Islam" (Rejuvenating the Islamic Understanding). I managed to obtain Ulil’s phone number and to make an appointment with him. He gave the impression to be quite enthusiastic about me and my research so he was glad to meet me. Initially, we agreed to meet in his office which is located in eastern Jakarta, not too much

8 Indonesia faces a looming constitutional crisis. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/18/indonesia- faces-a-looming-constitutional-crisis.html, accessed on the 16th of August, 2016. 9 Merriam-Webster: ‘fatwa’ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fatwa, accessed on the 16th of August, 2016. 10 Fatwa on vocal Indonesian moderate. http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/01/22/indo.fatwa/, accessed on the 16th of August, 2016. 29

from the informal city center which is the Monas (Monumen Nasional; National Monument). As I almost arrived at his place as he sent me a text with a change of plans. He had a gathering at the PGI11 (Persekutuan Gereja-Gereja di Indonesia, Indonesian Council of Churches) and asked me if I could meet him there, which – regarding the purpose and topic of our meeting and the person concerning – I thought was quite an interesting place to meet in advance. The actual location of our conversation was of a lot lesser ambiance. Ulil invited me to come sit in the PGI canteen lit up by white bright lamps reflected upon the chilly two-toned black and white interior accompanied by a constant cheerless silence. This did not negatively influence the content of our conversation as I more and more learnt about the emergence of JIL, the ideas that lie behind this emergence and all the developments that it had been through until now. Although Ulil considers himself, and is also considered as others, to be a liberal person with contemporary thoughts on how to implement the right form of Islam into current day politics and society, there was still a cautiousness inside of me which kept me from directly telling him about my research on atheism. I chose to be rather tentative to find out as to what extent Ulil is a liberal Muslim to prevent him from being presumed while answering my questions knowing it is all directed towards the topic of atheism. The conversation turned out to be more of an interview to know more about JIL and the specific ideas that they support which clearly interfere with traditional or conservative Islamic thoughts and uses. At this moment I have to explain that during my interviews with atheist respondents, I noticed that a small selection of a few stories, presented as arguments, was repeatedly told in order to obelize the validity and credibility of Islam. Stories that caused the atheists to doubt about religion and to validate atheism as being the truth. These were quite often conservatives ideas and perceptions from Islamic scriptures which were interpreted in a literal way to use it as an argument against the verity of Islam. I wrote these things down and I was quite curious how a liberal outspoken Muslim would answer these questions. Without directly speaking about the atheism debate, I actually figured that this could be just as useful or perhaps even more useful. I will try to elaborate on this, many atheists have showed interest in the theories and information provided by renowned atheist Richard Dawkins12. For some reason this encourages them to get to know more on atheist theories but also to debunk religious theories. It struck me that a rather big amount of atheists came up with the same things, while this would be an undisputed debate among the religious society. The following particular story was such a

11 PGI http://pgi.or.id/, accessed on the 16th of August, 2016. 12 Richard Dawkins. https://richarddawkins.net/, accessed on the 17th of August, 2016.

30 beautiful example of an argument used by the atheist to undermine the Islam which Ulil, to my opinion, succeeded to beautifully respond to this using his liberal set of thoughts. In Islamic scriptures, there seems to be written down that only Muslims can go to heaven and that all other followers of other religions, and atheists would go to hell. I proposed this same question to Ulil and this was his answer;

“First of all, God is merciful so would you really believe that he would punish a person who did good his whole life by sending him to hell just because he is no Muslim!? That would be just naïve and inconsequent. Secondly, the key to the right understanding of religion is interpretation, do not read and understand everything in a literal way. Compare it to a novel, if you would give it to ten different people, do you expect all ten to make the same interpretation and have the same conclusion? No! Do not forget that the Quran is also a work of art, a work of art that is written by people who were absolutely convinced that this was the truth. Through art, one can exaggerate to make his point more convincing. Similar to someone saying that his son is the most beautiful kid in the world, people were so enthusiastic about Islam that they said that only Muslims can go to heaven. It is an expression of strong believe and should not be understood in a literal way.” (Ulil)

This quote really impressed me and by emphasizing the importance of interpretation of scriptures within contemporary context it is quite easy to condone religious disputes to the advantage of Islam. However, it might very well be a solution to solve all the problematic disputes in the light of contemporary social context without choosing sides too much. If it was not the end of my research period, I would be very happy to use this perception of explaining Islamic teachings to challenge atheists in a discussion. This point of view offered by Ulil and JIL is a great way to continuously develop and update religion into modern ways of thinking without abandoning Islamic philosophy or excluding any group of people from society (Bakti 2005). In the end of our conversation, I could not help myself to not mention the specific direction of my research focusing on atheism in Indonesia, which seem to trigger Ulil in a rather surprising way. He told me that this is a very interesting gray area between the conceptions of conservative versus liberal Islamic teachings and that he had only just started to pay attention to this area. It seemed that this topic enters some sort of next level in to this debate, even for liberal Muslims, as he was quite hesitant to immediately come up with clear opinion or

31 statement concerning the position of atheists through the philosophy of JIL. Nevertheless, it is clear that the liberal way of thinking is building a bridge towards extreme conservatives and extreme liberals or atheists, provided that one or both is willing to make their way towards this harmonizing bridge. From the conservative point of view it could lead to less outspoken opinions on the treatment of atheism within an Islamic society. Vice versa, if atheists learn more about this liberal way of thinking, they would be less judgmental towards Islamic teachings by letting go of the conservative thoughts and focus more on the liberal way of interpretation.

Setara Institute While I was browsing for informational pieces of literature on the debate on atheism and the case of Alexander Aan, I stumbled upon an article which was published by the Setara Institute. I could tell in own words what the institute stands for but a short profile summary on their own website could not only show any clearer what kind of philosophies drove the founders to start Setara, but also why it fits seamlessly on the topic of my research and thus how useful it would be to get in touch with someone who is active at Setara.

“SETARA Institute is an organization that founded by some individuals which dedicated to the ideal that everyone should be treated equal while respecting diversity, giving priority to solidarity and upholding human dignity. It was founded by people who would like to eliminate discrimination and intolerance on the basis of religion, ethnicity, tribe, skin color, gender, and other social statuses, and promote solidarity with the weak and victims. SETARA Institute believes that a democratic society would allow progress and mutual understanding, uphold honor, and recognize diversity. However, discrimination and intolerance still exist and even lead to violence. Therefore, some measures that strengthen respect for diversity and human rights through broader participation should be undertaken to advance democracy and peace. SETARA Institute is promoting the creation of conditions that would lead to an open political system based on respect for diversity, defense of human rights, and elimination of intolerance and xenophobic attitude. Since its establishment, at least for 5 years operation, Setara Institute has been produced 20 reports (in research report form, policy paper) and assesses many appreciations. The presence of Setara Institute has another inuence in promoting pluralism which di-ers from another institution that

32 did the same issues with theological approach, while SETARA Institute do it with secular based.”13

After a little bit of online contact back and forth with this Jakarta-based NGO, I got in touch with one of the researchers, Halili. He asked me to come to Yogyakarta as he has two jobs and thus two offices. Besides being a researcher for Setara Institute, Halili is also a teacher in law education and human rights at the UNY, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta State University). I agreed to meet him in Yogyakarta as we were already planning to go there in first instance. We met in his office at the UNY after working hours and the conversation focused very much on the case of Alexander Aan and which policy of law was used to ultimately adjudicate on. As a matter of fact, Halili turned out to be one of the appointed researchers during the Aan case to try and defend his rights and those of freedom of religion and opinion in general. In 2013, the Setara Institute even published a book based on the dispute of Alexander Aan, Stagnation on Freedom of Religion. After several people told me, apparently falsely, that Aan was eventually tried based on the blasphemy law. Halili told me that this law, part of the abstract – unstatutable – Pancasila, is too abstract to actually base a verdict on. Moreover, the blasphemy law is a verbal statement that contents deviation of the formal (six) religions.

“Every person is prohibited to telling, to recommending or to striving public supports, in order to do interpretation about certain religion that is embraced in Indonesia or to do religious activities which resembles religious activities of that religion; interpretation and the activity of which deviates from the principle teachings of that religion.” (Halili & Naipospos 2013: 6)

However, there is no article in the law whatsoever that explicitly states, describes or explains how to enforce the law. Therefore, in the end Aan was sentenced based on the Electronic Information and Transaction law (EIT).

“Many actions are deemed to be criminal acts under Law No 11 of 2008, among others, distributing and/or transmitting and/or making accessible electronic information/documents which are contrary to moral norms in Indonesia or related to gambling or insulting or blackmailing or threatening other people. The law also

13 Setara, Institute for Democracy and Peace. http://setara-institute.org/en/profile/, accessed on the 18th of August, 2016.

33

prohibits illegal access to other people’s computers in any way whatsoever. These restrictions are also applicable to other people who commit such acts outside the territory of the Republic of Indonesia against electronic systems in the territory of the Republic of Indonesia. Criminal penalties imposed by Law No 11 of 2008 are imprisonment and/or fines depending on the seriousness of the criminal act committed by the relevant parties.” 14

Contrary to the blasphemy law, this EIT law does contain what criminal penalties may result for trespassing this law and thus it was a more practical way to make use of this law so the court had a paw to stand on in any case of protest from the public or specific NGO’s, such as Setara Institute, which eventually lost their attempt to defend Aan and thus the constitutional laws on the freedom of Religion. Within Indonesia’s political history, freedom of expression seems to be merely a temporary concept that came with change of regimes, rather than a structural measurement to safely assure the citizens of their freedom. The downfall of Suharto’s regime in 1998, among others, gave birth to huge expectation on the space for freedom of expression. Successive president Habibi abolished the Press Publishing License, the republication of several mass media that had been once banned by Suharto and political amnesty for political detainees and prisoners that were put behind bars as they had been considered crossing the line in exercising their freedom of expression. The guarantee for freedom of expression was mentioned in at least three different articles, namely:

Article 28 Constitution of RI 1945: The freedom to associate and to assemble, to express written and oral opinions, etc., shall be regulated by law.

Article 28E Paragraph (3) Constitution of RI 1945: (3) Every person shall have the right to the freedom to associate, to assemble and to express opinions.

14 Law on Information and Electronic Transactions in Indonesia. http://www.worldservicesgroup.com/publications.asp?action=article&artid=2608, accessed on the 18th of August, 2016. 34

Article 28I Paragraph (1): The rights to life, freedom from torture, freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of religion, freedom from enslavement, recognition as a person before the law, and the right not to be tried under a law with retrospective effect are all human rights that cannot be restricted under any circumstances (Hasani 2012: 3-4).

However, such guarantee for freedom cannot convince judges of the Constitutional Court of RI that tried the request for judicial review of Law No. 1/PNPS/1965, Case No. 140/PUU/VII/2009, to declare that the Law was against the Constitution. This way, it can be concluded that the freedom of religion/faith in Indonesia is in the same condition as the freedom of expression, which is subject to the restriction provided in Article 28J (2). In the political construction of freedom of religion/faith that is ‘discriminatory’, interpreting religious views that are considered against the views of the mainstream, let alone declaring oneself as an atheist, can be criminalized as violating Article 156a of the Penal Code. Legally, it is difficult to find legitimacy while tracking the position of atheism in the Indonesian law. The general interpretation of First Pillar of Pancasila that mentions Belief in the One and Only God, is that each of Indonesia’s citizens has to be a theist. This way, it is not right to let atheism grow and develop in the country. However, there is no legal basis in Indonesia that prohibits atheism. The Chair of Constitutional Court M. Mahfud MD asserts that a person cannot be punished for his/her personal belief or thought, as this is a personal space or forum internum. Besides, there are no laws that stipulate this…” According to Mahfud, the philosophy that is contained in Pancasila indeed provides a basis that Indonesia is a state who believes in God, but these basic principles are yet to be contained technically in laws (ibid.: 10- 11). Some of these laws are stated constitutionally, however, they will come to expression differently depending on the political and religious structure of the state’s regime. It is not that these laws are completely neglected within Indonesia’s regime, rather that it is slightly confined as to what they really mean in practice when compared to for example rights on freedom of expression or religion in a (mostly) secular state. Conclusively, it is very complex to vindicate such religious-laden laws in a country where religion, although not officially, enjoys such an important implementation. Largely, this paradoxical interaction between laws and social hegemonic structures can increase the likelihood of uncertainties and misconceptions during specific conflicting events such as the case of Aan.

35 3.2 Conservatives

Indonesian Students Action Forum In the light of the education system in Indonesia which I already mentioned in chapter 1, Halili brought up another interesting point. I mentioned to him that I had an appointment with the leader of a large Islamic student union the day after. HMI (Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam) The Islamic Students association is active throughout Indonesia but the roots lie in Yogyakarta, as the headquarters are still there today. Although the appointment did not go through, I received some interesting and useful information about HMI, but also about KAMI (Kesatuan Aksi Mahasiswa Indonesia), the Indonesian Students Action Forum. Halili said there are some attempts to make religion a less segregated topic and more multicultural and objective. Nevertheless, this happens at the same time that radicalism seems to grow. HMI is actually more of a moderate union compared to KAMI. The difference is that KAMI is not per definition based on religion as their members have all kinds of religious backgrounds. However, KAMI is more of the radical ideas and it is becoming the increasingly dominant group among students and universities. As a teacher working at UNY, in maybe the biggest student city in whole Indonesia, he saw an interesting link between one’s field of study and one’s extent of religious conservatism or liberalism. Halili says that there is significant difference between the KAMI and HMI members as “KAMI mostly consists of members with an exact field of study; doctors, technicians, physicists and mathematicians.” He suggests that students with these kinds of backgrounds will pay less attention to taking in to account the social side of the issue as they are continuously exposed to a study where there only is something as true or false, and nothing in between. Whereas members of HMI are mostly students from social studies, Setara Institute is working together with them to instigate and initiate movements to encourage rather moderate perspectives among students.

Islamic Defenders Front Earlier I suggested that the biggest fear for Indonesian atheists is not the law, rather the community that repeatedly stigmatizes atheists and especially those who deliberately slander atheism by comparing it with communism. This community consists of multiple parties who each have their own arguments and rationale to denigrate the atheist community. Among them is specifically one who has clear religious driven rationales and the majority of atheist respondents has informed that they fear them the most, to wit the FPI (Front Pembela Islam), the Islamic Defenders Front.

36 In general, Indonesia is known as a modern, moderate Islamic society. Although it is the country with the largest amount of Muslims worldwide, people on the external do not often link Indonesia to this religion. I have often experienced surprised reactions if I tell people this information. Most of the time, ideas of Islam go hand in hand with extremists and terrorists and therefore Islam is mostly related with Middle Eastern and Arabic countries. Indonesia is one of the few examples of an Islamic country where democracy does not need to be in conflict with religion. Since the retirement of Suharto in 1998, the country has shown that democracy can be an adequate alternative to dictatorship and extremism.15 Logically, there will always be minorities who do not concur with the general ideologies and in Indonesia these minorities have increasingly made themselves being heard. They consist of Islamic strongmen who believe that the society is increasingly westernizing and envision the country to be ruled through an Islamic State. During the last few years, there have been a number of suspects caught, accused for preparing terrorist attacks in the name of ISIL.16 The most extreme and recent example of an ISIL attack was the one of January 2016, when five terrorists struck the capital of Jakarta with suicide bombings and gunfire. This attack, which relatively failed with only seven casualties including the five attackers, was confirmed to be claimed by a “crusader alliance” of ISIL.17 ISIL must be the most extreme example of a group advocating for an Islamic State in Indonesia, but there are several gradations of extreme groupings who advocate for the same cause. The most active group within the country itself must be the FPI. It is a radical religious organization group, notorious for hate crimes and violence in the name of Islam. It’s aim is the implementation of the sharia (Islamic law) in Indonesia. It was founded in August 1998 by Habib Muhammad Rizieq Syihab backed by military and police generals. In the last couple of years they were engaged in many cases of violence and destructive behavior in provinces throughout the country. The targets are often people or organizations that oppose or offence the conservative ideas of Islam. Among them were members of the National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion, the Communist Party of Indonesia, Ahmadiyya Muslims, churchgoers, LGBT activists18, alcohol selling shops, and Playboy Indonesia. This notorious

15 The American Spectator: Moderate Indonesia? http://spectator.org/articles/35404/moderate-indonesia, accessed on the 1st of May, 2016. 16 The Jakarta Post: Police find IS flag after arrests in Surakarta. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/08/13/police-find-is-flag-after-arrests-surakarta.html, accessed on the 1st of May, 2016. 17 The Guardian: Jakarta attacks: Islamic State militants claim responsibility – as it happened. http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/jan/14/multiple-explosions-gunshots-reported-in-jakarta-rolling- report, accessed on the 1st of May, 2016. 37 18 BBC: Lady Gaga 'devastated' as Indonesia concert cancelled. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-18224783, accessed on the 2nd of May, 2016.

history has warned the atheist community in such a way that FPI is their biggest fear, although there has not been any case in which the FPI deliberately went after the atheist community. The fear is based on the substantial size of the FPI. Everyone who is Muslim and shares the ideologies of FPI can become a member and therefore throughout the biggest Indonesian cities, FPI counts around 470.000 members. This enforces the fear as FPI is in fact everywhere. Luckily for atheists, exterior does not reveal one’s religion or lack of one. However, their fear is mostly for being caught for their online activities. I have browsed through the official FPI Facebook group which has public access. Their online tasks consist of reporting every Facebook-user (FPI or non-FPI) who are performing Facebook activities which are not in line with the conservative Islamic visions of the FPI. Members of the group simply sprawl through Facebook to find and report these people. One example was a print screen of someone who liked or replied on a profile picture of a scarcely dressed woman, his name and reply was highlighted in red and posted on the public wall of the FPI group. I am not quite sure what the consequences would be for such a person, but I think it is clear that they do not do this with the best of intentions. Partly because of this, the IA community decided to change the public status of their group from public to a closed group. The conditions for someone to join the group also became much more strict as the IA admission board are increasingly careful with whom to let in to the group. The FPI is considerably the complete opposite of the JIL when it comes to interpretations and execution of Islamic ideologies. It fits in the line of the mostly black and white perspective of atheists to refer to the conservative side of Islam by means of mentioning FPI, but not once mentioning the more liberal side of Islam, which is JIL. It is possible that atheists really do not know about JIL, or that they purposely neglect the existence of JIL when slandering the conservative extremism in Islam to support the correctness of atheism. Either way, it is quite significant to see that all the atheist respondents have a similar way of thinking and what they choose to mention within the discussion on atheism and religion. Therefore, FPI is a clear target to use in order to denigrate Islam as, admittedly, FPI members are not the most intelligent or subtle in expressing their ideologies. The way that FPI works, is slightly related to the gray area within jurisdiction where national law and constitutional law do not correspond. Although freedom of religion is constitutionalized and the state is secular, FPI maintains a strategy to defend the existence of Islam by eliminating too strong influences from other (non-)religions in an obviously violent and compulsory manner. Nevertheless, the majority of society participate in and act to the religious hegemony which is mainly influenced by Islam. As a result, the society somehow

38 condones the way FPI works and they thus get away with it while clearly not following the constitutional law. When I spoke to one of FPI’s lawyers he was unable to – and seemingly did not even seem to try to - challenge this idea. He admitted that FPI’s method is not the most peaceful method but by saying this he seemed to be aware of the majority’s ‘silent support’. Sugito is a lawyer for FPI who works according to Islamic Law and often has to deal with charges from opponents who believe that FPI is not working according to the state law. However, for some reason he seemed to muffle away what the outcome of these cases were, of which I assume it is often in advantage of the FPI. His political correctness in answering my questions was undeniably the way how lawyers probably always talk about their cases. After our conversation I realized that I could interpret more from the way how he was talking than from what he was actually saying. I became curious to what he has to say in favor of FPI as he himself admits that they do not act according to law. He answered in a way that it is all permissible and justifiable within some kind of self-created framework of legality. He gave one example of a few FPI members who same someone drinking in public in a park. Without calling the police they repeatedly told him that this is not allowed. When nothing happened, they decided to act up themselves by using violence. Sugito justified this action as they initially tried to solve it in a peaceful way. After this, just as after many other questions regarding the dubious justice of FPI’s many violent acts (Ugur & Ince 2015), Sugito would quickly change the focus on to the good acts that FPI performs. “You only ask about the negative stuff, but the media chooses only to highlight those. You will never hear about the fact that FPI support projects in education.” Sugito would often say something similar to this in essence to distract me from all the negative acts. In conclusion, even the FPI lawyer cannot do anything but ignore questions about the negative FPI stories as long as the majority condones them.

3.3 Regulators

Ministry of Religious Affairs The several organizations and institutions mentioned in the ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’ section are merely non-governmental groupings which have different degradation when it comes to actually influence the general opinion but has no say in the actual policy regarding these topics. At most, FPI seems to have found a method to have a slight influence as they know about to the disruption between law and society and how to make use of it in their own advantage.

39 Concerning this policymaking, we have to focus on a different embodiment which is part of the state-run regime. I found out that Indonesia has a ministry of religious affairs (KEMENAG, Kementerian Agama) in contrast to many other countries who have not. Once again, this seems nothing but normal seen the vast amount of religious citizens the country counts. However, we must not forget that it is a secular state and thus one could wonder why this ministry exists and what purpose it serves. Without making an appointment, I went to their head office and asked the reception about whom I could possibly talk to concerning my research topic. They redirected me to the seventh floor, the offices of the ministry’s ‘Center for Inter Religious Harmony’ (PKUB, Pusat Kerukunan Umat Beragama). Ironically, their office is just one block away from where ISIL attack took place a few months earlier causing seven casualties. I managed to speak to Hery, a very welcoming and helpful man who advised me to bring a formal letter from the university as a confirmation for them that I am really here for the reason I say I am. A few weeks later I came back bringing the letter from the UvA and I had an appointment with deputy head Wawan Djunaedi. Wawan gave a clear explanation of what the law (and Pancasila) really means in practice for the citizens of Indonesia. To be clear, there is no article that literally says that citizens without one of the officially recognized religions cannot or may not live in Indonesia. He gave an example of a subgroup of Islam, the Ahmadiyyah. “They are allowed to live in Indonesia, to pray in Indonesia, as long as they do not preach people to join them which can cause disharmony in a community, and that is the problem. According to their definition (Mubarok: 56). Blasphemy concerns the government not allowing everybody to cause disharmony. Asking him the question if this is not considered to be discrimination, he answered that the government guarantees that everyone is allowed to have a religion (ibid.: 61). Not everything is happening in favor of Islam, as for example FPI officially has to stick to the law as well. There have been a few members of FPI arrested based on anarchy laws.

Determining Religious Citizens Regarding the seemingly discriminated position of atheists, Wawan explains it based on historical accounts. Atheists are often linked to the PKI as many members of the PKI were accused to be atheists during the 60’s. This did count for the majority, however, Suharto’s persuasive indoctrination of this fact have had such a big impact that the two are still immediately connected to each other even fifty years later. This has no correlation with the fact that atheists are not included in the services of KEMENAG, says Wawan. Their specific task is to offer service to the religious community. The government would not allow us to grant service

40 to atheists, even if we wanted to. The protection comes from the government, the constitution merely says that everyone can live in Indonesia.

“For example, there even is a Jewish community in Manado, Sulawesi counting around twenty members. There are two kinds of services; (1) religious services and (2) basic civil rights services. The first service include religious education (not just in school), building homes of worship and printing religious books. The second service include having a birth certificate and to be registered when marrying. The Jewish community only enjoy the civil rights as religious services are only granted to communities with a specific minimum of members. So in fact, religious rights should be regarded separate from the civil rights.” (Wawan)

However, as Wawan implies that atheists do not need religious services as they do not have places of worship or religious books. The fact that they cannot even speak freely about their atheism does not even belong under the basic civil rights. Concerning the religion line on the KTP, Wawan says that they are trying to change the law upon that as it does not correspond with the idea that every citizen has a birth certificate, can be registered but is not allowed to atheist, or leaving the space blank, on their KTP. Law 23/2013 states that only official religions can be filled in on one’s KTP. At the same time, Wawan admits that there is no official article stating what these official religions actually are. So the terminology in this article is a little bit of a problem and the revision should be that all religions could be stated on the KTP. Thus, the whole system of jurisdictional inclusion and exclusion is purely based on an idea of what the ‘official religions’ ought to be. Because of the lack of official notions of ‘official religions’, it is relatively easy to change them, for example when the sixth official religion of Confucianism was added by former president Abdurrahman Wahid (better known as Gus Dur) because of the increasing number of citizens with Chinese roots. Smaller religions, or ‘beliefs’, or ‘non-official religions’ belong to the policy of the ministry of culture & tradition. A belief is considered to be local where a religion is global. Although Wawan claims that he is in favor of including atheism in to their policy to enhance the equality and decrease discrimination based on religion, he says that their hands are tied because they are dependent on what the parliament decides what the activities of the different ministerial bodies should be.

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42 Chapter 4 The Future of Indonesia’s Societal Tolerance

"When the power of love overcomes love of power the world will know peace." - Sri Chinmoy (Ghose 1970)

When arranging and formulating all the rich variety of information that I have acquired during my three months of fieldwork, I had to think about this specific quote from Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy. Although his field of work has nothing quite in common with the content, neither the message of this research topic, I believe that his work is very useful and concerns many aspects of spiritual, but also social life. It may be very clear that this actual, yet historically important, debate on the minority of atheists in religious Indonesia is one which touches upon many aspects in social, political life and also treats many aspects that do not only belong to anthropological or social fields of study but also concerning laws, politics, and policies. It is obviously very difficult to formulate an appropriate message which touches upon all these different fields of studies, especially considering the relatively short time in which this research was conducted. Therefore, I will focus mainly on the social science issues put forward in this thesis and use the arguments based on law and politics solely to support the social science issues. We can suggest, based on the general information on what kind of role religion plays in Indonesia, that it can be quite vague concept. It is such an important aspect of daily social life, yet it is not officially included in the state’s philosophy, but yet again at the same time there are specific body’s which task is directed towards servicing only the religious citizens. Considering this dazzling conjuncture of repeating paradoxes, it is very complex to get a grasp on the actual religious identity of state, politics and law and therefore whether it is or is not naturally how the concept of atheism is approached and implemented within this state. What is clear is that atheists, although they may enjoy the same basic civil rights as every other fellow citizen, do not enjoy the maximum of freedom considering freedom of religion and freedom of act and/or speech. Especially when we consider the case of Alexander Aan who was publicly sued for his anti-religious statements posted on his personal Facebook page. Ending up in jail for publishing one’s personal opinion on religion or on whether God does or does not exist, does not quite prove of freedom. Another issue that illustrates the lack of freedom for this community is the fact that atheists have to express their ideas or execute their activities (may it be on- or offline) without constantly fearing the control and surveillance of opposing groups such as for example the FPI. In addition having the knowledge that a group

43 as FPI act in conflict with the law but at the same time enjoying silent support from the majority of society does not enforce the sense of freedom among atheists. As a result, the atheist community is forced to shift the way of presenting their self and their identity depending on a specific, momentous and contextual environment as to whether they are or are not an atheist. This happens mostly offline as they realize that declaring to be an atheist towards specific groups of people or within specific environments (school, work, home neighborhood, specific social circles) may result into radical and undesirable consequences for their own position in society. The clearest example of this dynamic is of teacher Glen, who knows what consequences will derive from declaring himself to be an atheist at his work. Therefore, because of the social and political circumstances that are part of today’s society, he chooses not to publicize his religious identity for his own sake. Based on many atheist narratives, it is not realistic to expect that this discourse will change in the near future. Many of them do not think that their generation will even experience an Indonesia where anyone is really free to speak or act regardless of their – in this case – religious identity. “It will probably take another hundred years at least before we (atheists) can speak up.” Liberal groups such as JIL and conservative groups such as the FPI each try and influence these hegemonic discourses present in society in order to shape it towards their perception of truth and justness. Conservatives appeal to their notion of national policy by referring to the state philosophy of Pancasila with the difference that they have an outspoken preference to implement Islamic law transforming Indonesia to an Islamic state. On the other side, the liberals try to adapt and continuously contextualize Islam in such a way that it fits in current society, with an angled view to other ‘modern’ societies throughout the world. Logically, these two perceptions of how the society should be realized often collide and do not improve the harmony between the two camps. In between these camps are the regulators who rests the difficult task to keep everyone happy and obviously one can suggest that this impossible task and its consequential policy is part of the reason why the other camps keep colliding. From the way that the policy, especially that from the KEMENAG, is set up, we can conclude that is mainly based on Pancasila and thus the current hegemonic discourse in society that religion, mainly Islam, is the driver for state policy. This is supported by the fact that deputy head Wawan stated that there is not even a legal document stating the official religions, although these are widely recognized by the larger part of society. Thus, the whole system of political and social inclusion and exclusion of citizens concerning rights, whether these are religious or not, is based not on official documents. Rather, it is more based on interaction between laws, policies and social hegemonic discourses. Therefore, we can suggest that it is impossible to

44 abruptly let go of this fundamental philosophy without evoking any form of friction from society. However, letting go of religious values and discourse as the base for political policy seems to be the only way for atheists to gain an increasing sense of freedom. Conclusively we could say that political power thus plays a too important role to just let go and return to the actual base on which the Republic of Indonesia was meant to look like according to Sukarno, which is to emphasize more on the commonalities and the unity of the society instead of differentiating based on the (religious) differences within the plural society counting 250 million citizens. It is difficult to distill this given in to a realistic or expectable vision for Indonesia’s future. However, it seems impossible to neglect religion as some sort of base and simply creating another base for a common identity of the Indonesian society. Therefore, if the power of love overcomes the love of power, every Indonesian citizen will know peace.

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46 III References

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