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Two reports by the Setara Institute and the Wahid institute both indicate that religious-related violence has increased in 2008. Read about the report from Setara institute here Read about the report from Wahid institute here |
The Indonesia Project
Project group: Dag Kaspersen (group chair), Nelly Van Doorn Harder - Wake Forest University in Winston Salem NC, Tore Lindholm - UiO/NCHR, Kari Telle - Christian Michelsens Institute, Kari Vogt - UiO/IKOS, Lena Larsen - UiO/NCHR.
The Indonesia project aims at establishing relationships both between faith communities and between academia in Norway and Indonesia, with a view to co-operation in the fields of inter-religious dialogue, human rights protection, and conflict resolution. The project focuses on the role of the faith communities in civil society, with a particular attention to women- and youth. The project emphasises the role of religious education, dialogue and cooperation in fostering tolerance, and interfaith perspectives in academic training.
One of the greatest challenges in Indonesia today is the education of children and youth for a pluralistic and globalised world. Where people with different cultural and religious identity study together there is a great need for analysis and critical self reflection. Many different groups in Indonesia today are trying to reinterpret their holy writings, their traditions and their laws in order to find a peaceful way forward. Most institutions of learning act as cultural and religious meeting places. In some contexts these meeting places have enormous positive potential, in others they become a destructive force.
In this situation, the Oslo Coalition works to promote cross-religious cooperation at the university level. The Coalition works to create networks of NGO's, sentral institutions of education, and religious leaders.
In 2010:
The Bridge Building Joint Action of 2009 will continue, and a delegation from Oslo Coalition will travel to Indonesia to a partnership meeting to evaluate the project and discuss its future.
In 2009:
The Bridge Building Dialogue in 2008 led to the Bridge Building Joint Action. The main objective of the Bridge Building Joint Action programme is to increase understanding and tolerance between religious communities in Indonesia through joint actions on common problems. In order to reach as broadly as possible, 3 sets of organisations will carry out three different interfaith programmes with a focus on the environment. This was the topic identified in 2008 as having the greatest potential to expand the area of interreligious consensus. These are parallel activities that between them will involve all the participants of the Bridge Building Dialogue workshops of 2008.
- The SOBAT Programme, run by Percik,aims at empowering the local interfaith networks to solve environmental problems by engaging their networks of local leaders of differing religious backgrounds, including hardliners. Read the 2009 report here
- Interfidei held courses for teachers of religion invited through its network of interfaith NGO’s, and also organises an interreligious summer camps for youth to work together in the field on concrete environmental projects. Read the 2009 report here
- The ICRS at Gadjah Maja University, Yogyakarta and the University Consortium CRCS, have employed one masters student and one doctors student on research papers and articles in magazines on the interfaith benefits of the joint bridgebuilding action, and on how understanding and tolerance between religions is promoted by joint action on the environment in the field. Read the disposition for the main paper here.
In 2008:
The Oslo Coalition project group for Indonesia has concentrated on one main project this year. Together with the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), the Indonesian Consortium for Inter-religious Studies (ICRS) and HIVOS (the Dutch Humanist Association), the OC has participated and supported a "Bridge Building Dialogue" process. The objective was to initiate a dialogue on the global impact on sides of life that affect us all, and involve both academics and representatives from the entire spectrum of religious life, bringing together people who have never before had the opportunity to hear each others' views.
A series of three workshops were held, with the following titles:
- Globalisation, Media and Education
- Globalization, Poverty and the Environment
- Globalization, Religious Symbol and Identity
The dialogue developed through these workshops culminated in an International Conference from June 30th to July 3rd, entitled: "Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities for Religion". It was satisfying to note that those who had attended the workshops returned for the conference, which was attended by more than 200 people.
In 2007:
The following projects were carried out:
- Makassar, January 2007: A workshop on Teaching for Tolerance in the Indonesian context was held 19-21 January 2007 in cooperation with the State University of Islamic Studies UIN Makassar.
- UIN (Islamic University) Yogyakarta: University training course in freedom of religion and belief, see here
- UIN Sunan Kalijaga/UIN Alauddin Makassar: Development of the pilot workshop material into a further education module for teachers of religion in Makassar at the Islamic State Universities
- CEPDES: Essay competition on human rights and sharia in Koran Schools
- PSIF (Center for Islamic and Philosophical Studies)/UMM (Muhammadiyah University of Malang): Preparation and groundwork for NCHR's field work research on the Hindu-Balinese minority on Lombok.
- Interfidei: research project on Indonesian Religious education at primary and secondary level, see here.
- Delegational visit til Indonesa in the Summer of 2007 to follow up the agreement on cooperation with the universities in Yogyakarta, Medan og Surabaya (both Islamic and Christian seats of education).
Earlier Projects:
Please note: most of the links below link to our old website. Please use the arrows on your browser to come back to this website.
- Yogyakarta, June 2004: International Workshop on Equality and Plurality, in cooperation with UIN Yogyakarta
- Indonesia delegation visit, August 2002
Surveys and thematic reports:
- More information about the school education project in Indonesia
- From Lily Zakiyah Munir, Interfidei:
- Islam, Feminism and Islamic Education in Indonesia (interview, 2004)
- Nurturing Tolerance in Pesantren (article, 2003)
Project group chairs Dag Kaspersen and Nelly Van Doorn
