The people of Indonesia & their culture, politics, economy and environment - Inside Indonesia: The peoples and cultures of Indonesia

Politics of Religion

Safeguarding tolerance in Semarang

Police and interfaith activists are helping defuse tension and safeguard minority expression

A kinder, more gentle FPI?

The historically hardline defenders of Islam plan to enter the political mainstream by softening their rhetoric and abandoning hate speech

Blasphemy on the rise

As blasphemy convictions increase in this democratic era, election campaigning indicates little will change

Sectarianism, culture and politics

An emerging conservative Muslim coalition is a force to be reckoned with in Indonesian politics

Gambling with truth

Two Acehnese young women hold up colourful protest signs demanding justice for past human rights violations.

Aceh’s Commission for Truth and Reconciliation has an important, though delicate, mission ahead

Islam and citizenship

Speakers address Wahdah Islamiyah's members at the third 'muktamar' (congress) in Jakarta, July 2016. (Imam S/Kiblat.Net)

Organisations like Wahdah Islamiyah envision an ‘Islamic’ citizenship for Indonesia

Indonesia’s woman to watch

Yenny Wahid readjusts her headscarf fabric.

Yenny Wahid is the new face of moderate Islam

Imagining a nation divided

A mosque in Sidikalang, a town in North Sumatra just across the border from Aceh Singkil - Daniel Andrew Birchok

Aceh Singkil’s recent church burning may reflect common ways Indonesians have linked religion and region

Bridging the divide after conflict

A recent visit to Ambon shows that trade is helping to bridge the divide in a religiously segregated society

Stopping intolerance

Government must act to halt growing discrimination against minorities

What gives rise to moral outrage?

Rather than being merely the result of religious extremism, recent cases of moral outrage point to a wide range of current political and social problems

For the good of the people?

The challenges of governing ‘societal organisations’ pose difficult questions for Indonesian democracy

Convenient thugs

FPI thrives when mainstream Muslim groups remain silent

Front stage with the PKS

At its upmarket congress, Indonesia’s biggest Islamic party tried but failed to convince it has become an open and inclusive party

Praying across borders

Doctrinal borders that divide traditionalist and modernist Muslims in Banjarmasin are breaking down, but slowly

Supporting syariah, advancing women

The life and work of an Islamic teacher in Aceh shows that the struggle for gender equality is about much more than syariah.

New leadership, new policies?

The Nahdlatul Ulama congress in Makassar arrests the slide away from liberal views but shows the organisation's vulnerability to outside political interference

God and democracy

A Christian church is asserting its democratic rights by suing the mayor of Depok

Inside the Laskar Jihad

From the Archives Greg Fealy (ii65: Jan-Mar 2001) interviews the leader of a new, radical and militant sect

Killing for God

When Nahdlatul Ulama members killed communists, they believed they were doing it for God

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Lontar Modern Indonesia

A selection of stories from the Indonesian classics and modern writers, periodically published free for Inside Indonesia readers, courtesy of Lontar.