Sunni-Shiite tensions Threaten Indonesia’s culture of tolerance

 The Sunni-Shiite tensions that have been smoldering for the last few years are indicative of the radicalization of religious identities in Indonesia, threatening our culture of tolerance.

Before the declaration of the Anti-Shia National Alliance (ANNAS) in Purwakarta regency recently, violence and hatred against Shiites have been widespread. The displacement of Shiites from their homes in Sampang, Madura, after an incident in 2013 that left two persons dead, has remained unresolved. Anti-Shia pamphlets have appeared in many places. Even Yogyakarta, known for a while as a city of tolerance, has recently witnessed increasing threats against Shiites.

On the other hand, there is a tendency among Shiites to shift from a locally embedded expression of Shia to what Chiara Formichi calls “a paradigm of devotion promoted by the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

In her “Shaping Shi’a Identities in Contemporary Indonesia between Local Tradition and Foreign Orthodoxy”, Formichi contends that in the post-reform era certain groups within the Shia community “have tended to polarize between those committed to the practice of ritual paradigms promoted by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and those cultivating cultural and local manifestations of devotions”. It is true that conflict between these two religious communities has deep roots in the history of Islam, but the recent sectarian conflicts seem to have new elements of religious, political and socio-economic reconfigurations in this country. From the perspective of religious differences, the Sunni-Shia divide is reconcilable.

In the context of legal thought and practice, the differences between Sunni and Shia beliefs are by no means greater than those among different Sunni schools of law madhhab (schools of law). Just as Sunnism crystalized into four schools of law (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali), Shia is also divided into the Imamiyya or Twelver Shia, Zaydiyya and Isma’iliyya. It is these broad communities to which by far the overwhelming majority of Muslims belong nowadays.

The aspiration toward ecumenical rapprochement between Sunnis and Shiites has been attempted by al-Azhar, one of the oldest Islamic institutions of learning in Egypt. It started quite early in the 20th century when the Shaykh al-Azhar, Salim al-Bishri, had a correspondence with the Shiite scholar ‘Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din from Jabal ‘Amil in southern Lebanon. This rapprochement culminated in the establishment of Jama’a al-Taqrib bayn al-Madhahib al-Islamiyya (The Society for Rapprochement of Islamic Legal Schools) in 1947 with the goal of promoting reconciliatory relations between Sunnis and Shiites. Once this ecumenical thinking was institutionalized, contacts took place that paved the way for peaceful coexistence.

In 1949, Jama’a’s journal, Risala al-islam, was founded in which both Sunni and Shiite writers were afforded the opportunity to voice opinions in favor of ecumenism. Among Shia scholars, the Lebanese Muhammad Jawad Mughniyya was the staunchest supporter of rapprochement between Sunnis and Shiites.Perhaps, the greatest success of this rapprochement was when the Shaykh al-Azhar, Mahmud Shaltut, issued a statement in 1959 saying that worship according to the Twelver Shia was valid and its madhhab was also fully recognized within Islam.

Mughniyya visited Shaltut in Cairo a few weeks before the latter’s death 1963 and vowed to bring his noble ideas to fruition.I discussed Mughniyya’s life and ideas in my book, Scriptural Polemics: The Koran and Other Religions, and I found his ecumenical thinking transcended the theological divide. When he was in Cairo, Mughniyya visited mosques, bookstores and universities in order to find out the opinion of the local Sunnis regarding Shia. What outraged him most was the widespread ignorance and ineradicable prejudices about Shia.

It was with this in mind that he had devoted several monographs to comparative law and encouraged a reform of the curricula to include Shia law in the courses of legal studies at the University. Until today, the Shia madhhab continue to be studied at Al-Azhar along with other Sunni schools.This Sunni-Shiite rapprochement initiated by the most acclaimed Islamic institution in the world reflects the extent to which theological differences that divide Sunnis and Shiites can be overcome and turned into meaningful conversations.

This is exactly what a scholar like Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the towering figure among Islamist groups, attempts to do. In his 2004 Mabadi’ fi al-Hiwar wa al-Taqrib bayn al-Madhahib al-Islamiyya (Declaration of Principles for Dialogue and Rapprochement among Islamic Legal Schools), Qaradawi urges Muslims not to brand others as unbelievers. He appeals to both Sunnis and Shiites alike to avoid the exaggeration of religious extremists.It goes without saying that Indonesian Muslims must learn from the al-Azhar initiative and reliable scholars like Qaradawi.

Seen from the context, nature and significance of the recent phenomenon of sectarian conflict, it seems clear that the radicalization of Sunni and Shia identities has more political undertones due to the volatile political atmosphere. Much of the support for sectarian organizations comes from interest groups, both locally and globally.

It is no longer secret that anti-Shia movements have had some connection with Saudi Arabia as much as certain Shia groups with Iran. The Saudi anti-Shia position is reflected in a number of fatwa (edicts) issued by Saudi ulema who consider Shia as a form of unbelief. It is worth mentioning a fatwa by Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Baz, who served as Grand Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1994, saying that the differences between Sunnis and Shiites were unbridgeable. The modern historical context framing this fatwa is the struggle for political influence between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Thus, the radicalization of religious identities seems to be fueled not so much by religious orientation as by political contestation taking place outside this country. Of course, there are theological differences between Sunnism and Shia, yet they are reconcilable. When religious motivation interacts with political context, then our culture of tolerance is under a serious threat.

The writer i Mun’im Sirry, Notre Dame, Indiana s an assistant professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, USA