At a news conference in Jakarta the chairman of Muhammadiyah, which is a modernist Islamic social group with about 25 million members, Din Syamsuddin, said that religious harmony was difficult in Indonesia because Christianity and Islam were by nature proselytising faiths and naturally collided with each other.
Looking to protect his turf Syamsuddin said:
The idea of dissemination is crucial and Islam and Christianity are both expansionist. If we give them a free market there will be conflicts. In order to have peace it is important not to enter each other’s spheres.
Indonesia is facing Islamisation, although Muslims believe it is also facing Christianisation. The problem is proselytism. We have to solve the issue with mutual understanding.
I’ve always been surprised by the fear and loathing that many Indonesian Muslims show towards Christianity, there are always stories doing the rounds of dark plots by evangelicals to mass convert Indonesia.
Father Franz Magnis Suseno, a Catholic priest and the director of Jakarta’s Driyarkara Advanced School of Philosophy, told the same conference that Indonesian Christians are increasingly fearful.
Christians have been under increasing pressure and they are afraid of the future.
If president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono manages to implement changes and bring prosperity everything will be fine, but if this year brings a further worsening of living standards, we will be in trouble.
Well toma…most of the case it is the case of EGOIST and HYPOCRITE people. From both sides.
Who think that they hold the truth. Who think that their own understanding are the right one.
Coming from a small family with diverse religion (Christian and Islam), I never have a problem within my family but when we stepped out to the big family (uncle, auntie, etcetera) then the friction usually come to surface. When the third parties think that our family can be happier than it is now by being in one religion instead of two. Those people that basically has no understanding of our values (being respectful and tolerant to each other) try to rule our family life. Magnify this kind of attitude and arrogancy of knowing better than other…then you get the clash.
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Is that really a clash beetwen Christianity and Islam?
Isn’t it a social clash and also a clash beetwen stupid human beings?
My god, please throw some dash of sense down (or turn off the light)!