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Athanasia Safitri
Indonesia has seen ups and downs due to various conflicts and threats to peace from the colonial era, post-independence, and now during the era of democracy. The experiences have shown the connections between the development of democracy, peacebuilding initiatives, and conflict resolution decisions. The reflections that take place afterward inevitably come with multidisciplinary and intersectional approaches in the hope of the realization of a better democracy for Indonesia.
A national seminar titled “Conflict Resolution and Peace Experiences in the Context of Indonesia’s Future Democracy” was held on November 28, 2024, to address the issue. It is a forum for exchanging experiences, learning from best practices, and developing strategic goals in Indonesian democracy, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution. It is a component of UGM’s 75th Anniversary and 15th Lustrum events which touch several fields including those in relation to conflicts violating freedom of religion or belief (FoRB).
Athanasia Safitri
Politics in the Netherlands and Indonesia share something in common as their recent elections have made two populists win; Geert Wilders in November 2023 and Prabowo Subianto in February 2024. Polarisation has increased inevitably since various social media platforms get massive attention and play a major role in political campaigns and debates. Despite the success of the freedom of speech and expression, as well as the full practice of democracy, divisions have developed between elites at the grassroots level in several areas, including religions.
Hongsok Lee
The last presenter at the Wednesday Forum was Subkhani Kusuma Dewi. She teaches in the Hadith Department at UIN Sunan Kalijaga and recently completed her PhD study at Western Sydney University. Her research focuses on Sufi-based practice of short pilgrimage to Mecca (umrah) in the interweaving pilgrimage field of Java, Indonesia. Her work contributes to current discussions on digital anthropology and material religion by using hybrid ethnography tools in the context of the pandemic.
Her presentation is part of her thesis about the practice of the Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the practice of the pilgrimage among Indonesian Muslims. She argues that the Internet media sector has emerged as a developed economic sector in this practice, which has increased significantly during the pandemic. Her research has uncovered two notable changes in Indonesian practitioners. The first change occurred during the transition to the new normal, face-to-face engagement was replaced by a reliance on virtual modes of pilgrimage. Indonesian travel agencies developed a phenomenon among pilgrims called networked individualism (networked community; Campbell, 2022), where individuals and leaders stay in their own spaces and maintain virtual religious gatherings. Second, the pandemic has contributed to the rise of proxy pilgrimages, where religious leaders represent pilgrims and provide live-streaming options. While the recent phenomenon has resulted in some modifications to Islamic guidelines (Badal Hajj/Umrah), pilgrims’ interest in new ways of traveling attests to a changing perception of the spatiality and materiality of the Indonesian Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
The massive development of digital technology today has gradually changed the learning process in various educational institutions, especially universities. Digital technology can no longer be denied in the learning process and affects the academic interaction between educators (teachers/lecturers) and learners (students). In this case, universities must provide a progressive and creative response rather than just being reactive, even emphasizing it.
With this academic awareness, Universitas Kristen Indonesia Maluku (UKIM) strengthens the intensity of cooperation with Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) through joint academic activities. On Friday, November 14, 2024, at the UKIM hall, the UKIM Postgraduate Program invited Dr. Leonard Chrysostomos Epafras (Core Faculty UGM/ICRS) to give a public lecture for lecturers and postgraduate students. The theme of the public lecture chosen was “Digital Pedagogy: Utilization of Artificial Intelligence in Learning and Digital Profile Management” which is directly directed at achieving competence in understanding and skills in using several AI applications or PromptBots for the benefit of teaching and research of the UKIM postgraduate academic community.
Overview
In an era marked by rapid technological innovations and digital transformations, the domain of interreligious dialogue faces both novel opportunities and unprecedented challenges. The emergent capacities of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital media are reshaping foundational interactions across religious boundaries. This special issue of the Studies in Interreligious Dialogue seeks to explore the intersections of interreligious dialogue with digital practice and the advent of AI, inviting global scholars to contribute their insights and research findings.
Refan Aditya, The Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP)
On September 21, 2024, Tangerang’s Chinatown Pasar Lama was abuzz with the cheers of thousands of people. They came to witness the most anticipated procession of the Benteng Chinese Peranakan: Gotong Toapekong 12 tahunan (12-yearly of Gotong Toapekong). Since it is only performed once every 12 years in the Dragon year of the lunar calendar, thousands of tourists flock from all over to visit this Chinatown district.
Gotong Toapekong is one of the most grandiose Chinese folk religion rituals that engages the wider public, not only the Chinese but also the non-Chinese communities around, making this ritual performace as a part of the mass culture that is both sacred and festive. Gotong Toapekong presents a parade of kimsin or deity statues that are taken out of the klenteng and carried around the city or Chinatown, serenaded with various art performances, such as drumming music, tatung, or spirit medium, and cengge or cosplay (costume play) of Chinese legendary figures such as Sun Go Kong and the Goddess of Kwan Im. Hence, Gotong Toapekong features the street as an important place where Chinese folk religion is performed and preserved, alongside the klenteng, Chinese cemetery, and home.