Jakarta Church Report
This research seeks to examine the factors that play a role in initiating and resolving conflict over places of worship in Jakarta.
Created with the ARC Federation Fellowship, "Islam and Modernity: Syari'ah, Terrorism and Governance in South-East Asia, the Centre for Islamic Law and Society, and The Paramadina Foundation, Jakarta.
This research seeks to examine the factors that play a role in initiating and resolving conflict over places of worship. Places of worship are specifically limited in this study to Catholic churches and Protestant churches that are members of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (Persekutuan Gereja-gereja di Indonesia, PGI). The methods used were participant observation and in-depth interviews of church members representing one of four categories:
(1) undisputed churches;
(2) disputed churches that have since resolved the dispute;
(3) originally undisputed churches that have since become disputed; and
(4) churches that have never been able to resolve the dispute.
Based on 13 case studies, the research on which this report is based confirms the influential role of state regulation and social factors. The cases show that the obstacles some churches experience are generally related to weak government agencies due to political, social or ideological reasons. In terms of social factors, demographic factors were not found to have an influence. Resistance to churches was more often caused by a lack of communication, or provocation or intimidation by specific groups.