Rebuilding ties
The violence in Central Sulawesi essentially had run its course before the government authorities intervened, notes the International Crisis Group. Authorities did not try to suppress the well-armed Laskar Jihad and other irregular forces but sought to mediate an agreement between the combatants.
In January 2007, the police launched operations, reportedly driving away teachers of radical Islam in Poso who came from Java, and arresting perpetrators of jihad-related crimes without any backlash, at least up to this time.
With the relative peace in Poso, Christian and Muslim leaders have sought to pick up the pieces from the rubble of the conflict by renewing ties, establishing dialogues and rebuilding what they said was a long tradition of cooperation between members of the two faith communities.
"The conflict has challenged us to teach young Christians to learn and understand more about Islam in order to avoid Islamophobia (fear of Islam)," says Rev. Ishak Pule, first chairman of the Christian Church of Central Sulawesi Synod. "It is this lack of understanding that separates us from one another."
Pule met last 19 July with members of the Living Letters team sent to Indonesia by the World Council of Churches at his office in Tentena by the Lake Poso.
Pule reveals that after the conflict had subsided both Christian and Muslim leaders instituted what is called the Communication Forum for Religious Harmony which continually seeks to promote dialogue and understanding between the two faith communities.
"What happened in Poso was not an issue of religion. Unfortunately, some people have politicised religion, using it for the wrong purpose," says Abdul Malik Syahadat, a Muslim leader who now chairs the interfaith Communication Forum. "All people of Indonesia want to be safe and in peace. So let us now work towards peace and harmony."
Shahadat was among three Muslim leaders who met with the Living Letters team 19 July at Pule's office.
Noting signs towards normalcy and stability in Poso, Haji Yahya Mangun, another Muslim leader and secretary of the Forum, says an immediate concern is how to convince those who left Poso to return and rebuild their lives.
That the number of police personnel dispatched to Poso has been reduced from 235 in 2003 to only 12 since 2006 indicates a trend toward normalisation, says Mangun.
"We actually had a culture of working and living together and helping each other," he adds. He cites how Christians and Muslims would help each other in farm work and in religious feasts, sharing food together because Christians knew what types of food were appropriate for their Muslim brethren.
Mangun is among the Muslim leaders who seek to rekindle this history of cooperation between members of the faiths.
With such desire, and having instituted mechanisms for dialogue, the signs of tolerance and co-existence are evident in Tentena.
On 28 May 2005 someone bombed Tentena's public market, killing 22 people, mostly Christians.
But last 20 July, a Sunday, members of the Living Letters team were awakened by the early morning prayer of a Muslim muezzin in a nearby mosque and a lively choir from a Christian church, all mixing it up with crowing roosters as the sun rose over Tentena.
Maurice Malanes is a freelance journalist from the Philippines. Currently a correspondent for Ecumenical News International (ENI), he also writes for the Manila-based Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the Bangkok-based Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN).
