Lived Experiences As A Muslim Minority in North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Lived Experiences As A Muslim Minority in North Sulawesi, Indonesia

By Sulaiman Mappiasse

Indonesia is well-known as the world's most populous Muslim country. However the majority of people in North Sulawesi are Christians. The major concern of the Muslim minority community, which consists about 28% of the Sulawesi population, is to adapt to such a situation in North Sulawesi.

Manado seems to have been spared the ethnic and religious violence experienced by its neighboring Muslim-Christian communities in Ambon, Maluku and Poso. In light of a long history of Muslim-Christian ethno-religious conflict and violence elsewhere in Sulawesi and other parts of Indonesia, what are the factors that allowed Manado to limit such communal violence?

Sulaiman will address this question by highlighting and explaining the different forms of interactions between Muslims and Christians in Sulawesi from three different levels: daily life, institutional and political. Sulaiman argues that local cultural insights and an equitable system of resource distribution among the community have helped maintain structural integrity. More importantly, social stability is also greatly influenced by national and global events. Though such events cause some problems at the local level, they nevertheless increase local solidarity among the people in North Sulawesi.

Sulaiman's personal experiences as a Muslim who has lived for several years in a Christian majority society in North Sulawesi, Indonesia will therefore be of much interest.

Date: Monday, March 30th, 2009

Time: 12.00 p.m - 1.15 p.m

Venue: Tokioka Room, Moore 319

For information about the event please contact msia@hawaii.edu 

Speaker's Bio

Sulaiman Mappiasse is a PhD student at the Department of Sociology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He also currently holds the position of lecturer for the Sociology of Religion at the Department of Islamic Education in the State College of Manado for Islamic Studies, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.