Polls show there has been no upsurge of support for political forms of Islam in Indonesia, an expert on Muslim modernity said at the March 18-19 conference of the Program on Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding.

Robert Hefner of Boston University was among 15 presenters at the Hesburgh Center. His discussion of democracy in the largest Muslim-majority country was in keeping with the conference theme, “Building Peace Through Religious Encounters.” Hefner credits strong, moderate Muslim leaders with leading past battles against authoritarian rule, and convincing their followers that democracy is in the best interest of true believers.

“Recent polls show that Muslim Indonesians’ view of democracy is shared by the great majority of Muslims elsewhere,” Hefner said. But he added a sobering reminder about the “disciplined corps of Jihadists” who promote terrorism and have tarnished Indonesia’s reputation for moderation.

Hefner participated in one of three PRCP conference panels organized by 2004-05 Rockefeller fellows Haley Duschinski, Patrice Brodeur and Jennifer Connolly. The fellows also took part in the panels, which focused on three places in the world where religion plays a role in resolving or promoting conflict: Kashmir (Duschinski), Jerusalem (Brodeur) and Indonesia (Connolly).

Connolly’s presentation focused on religious identity in East Kalimantan, which has escaped the sectarian violence of neighboring regions. After Hefner’s comments about Islam and politics in Indonesia, Mark Woodward of the University of Arizona explained how sacred space is used in social and political drama in the country.

The Kashmir discussion began with Rekha Chowdhary of the University of Jammu. She noted that conflict there started in the 1980s as a result of Kashmiri frustration with the political situation, and that religion only became a significant factor when religious mercenaries began to dominate. Duschinski discussed feelings of betrayal among Kashmiri immigrants to India, and how religious nationalist movements promote that community’s “right to return” to Kashmir. In her wide-ranging comments on Kashmir’s northern Ladakh region, Ravina Aggarwal of Smith College said that the utopian reputation of the region dominated by Buddhists, who are cast as peace-loving, actually undermines peace efforts because it fails to acknowledge inter-religious disputes.

The Jerusalem panel began with Brodeur’s discussion of the Old City of Jerusalem, and the difficulties of managing sacred sites in a multi-religious, multi-country setting. Marc Gopin of George Mason University said that efforts to make peace in Israel/Palestine, such as the 1978 Camp David accords, have been undermined by the failure to pay enough attention to religion. Kroc alumnus Yousef Al-Herimi, who teaches at Al-Quds and Bethlehem universities, emphasized that holy places do not need to be exclusively assigned to one religion, noting that “the whole idea of holiness in Islam includes others.”

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