ISLAM, AHMADIYAH AND THE GOVERNMENT:Unresolved Religious Conflicts in Manis Lor Kuningan, West Java
Didin Nurul Rosidin♣
Abstract
Keberadaan Ahmadiyah di Indonesia tidak lepas dari kontroversi. Sejak kedatangannya pertama kali ke bumi nusantara ini, Ahmadiyah senantiasa mendapatkan penentangan dari beberapa elemen kaum Muslim. Namun demikian, seiring dengan waktu, Ahmadiyah sebagai sebuah kelompok keagamaan terus tumbuh dan berkembang hingga menyebar ke berbagai wilayah di Indonesia, termasuk Desa Manis Lor, Kuningan, dimana pengikut Ahmadiyah menjadi kelompok mayoritas dan mendominasi perpolitikan pada tingkat lokal. Konflik antara Ahmadiyah dan mayoritas Muslim pada level nasional sangat berpengaruh pada eksistensi Ahmadiyah di Manis Lor. Berbagai tekanan yang dilancarkan oleh kaum Muslim di Kuningan yang dalam banyak kasus juga didukung oleh pemerintah daerah Kuningan terus berlangsung termasuk pelarangan kebaradaan Ahmadiyah baik sebagai praktek keagamaan maupun gerakan keagamaan. Meskipun demikian, Ahmadiyah terus bertahan hingga kini. Tulisan ini memfokuskan diri pada sejarah kemunculan Ahmadiyah di Manis Lord dan bagaimana hubungannya dengan kelompok Muslim baik pada level desa maupun Kabupaten Kuningan serta bagaimana Pemerintah Daerah dalam menyelsaikan konflik yang hingga sekarang terus berlangsung.
Keywords: Religious Conflicts, Religious Authenticity, Social Boundary, Religious Movement, Social Integration Introduction
In terms of religious conflicts in Indonesia, the case of Ahmadiyah is to be one of
the best examples of the ongoing and even unresolved conflicts. Since its arrival
in 1920s, Ahmadiyah around the country has become the prime target of
religiously sanctified condemnation and attacks carried out by Muslims. To make
the matter even more complicated, the government has been applying ambiguous
approaches in dealing with these tensions. In spite of these uneasy realities,
§♣Lecturer at The State Institute for Islamic Studies (Institut Agama Islam Negeri or IAIN) Syekh Nurjati Cirebon and can be reached through [email protected]
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Ahmadiyah in fact successfully expands its influence, as it has been able to
gradually set up tens of its branches around the country and one of them is the
Manis Lor branch in Kuningan, West Java.
The case of Manis Lor branch of Kuningan is one of the most referred
successful stories of this expansion. In this area, the Ahmadi, a term used to name
followers of Ahmadiyah, grew very rapidly in number since the early 1950s and
successfully established their foothold where more than 80% people living there
was claimed to have converted to Ahmadis. Yet, in Kuningan regency where more
than one million people living, Ahmadiyah still constitutes as the minority group.
Thus, it is plausible to see that this village has become the locus of the
steady conflicts between the Ahmadi and Muslim groups as the majority force. A
variety of attempts such as issuing religious fatwa aimed at condemning
Ahmadiyah as a blatant form of religious deviance and forcefully shutting down
the largest mosque belonged to Ahmadiyah have been massively and violently
carried out by the local anti-Ahmadiyah movements. Furthermore, the government
in Kuningan more than other local governments in the country even promulgated
a joint statement banning all activities of Ahmadiyah.
This paper will explore how Ahmadiyah could strive as a minority group
for decades, in spite of continuing attacks from the majority groups and why the
majority groups are so profoundly gripped in their attempts to put an end to
Ahmadiyah in spite of the fact that Ahmadiyah has been successfully planting its
deep influence among people, as well as how the local government deals with
these conflicts. As the conflicts have been taking place for decades, this paper will
focus on the current state of conflicts between these two main religious groups in
Manis Lor.
The Setting
Manis Lor is one of the 14 villages existing under the control of the sub-district of
Jalaksana. It is located rightly at the main road connecting Cirebon and Kuningan.
From Cirebon, it is about 26 km to the south and about 9 km to the north from
Kuningan, the capital of the Kuningan district. Geographically, Manis Lor is
belonged to the highland areas with the Ciremai Mountain, one of the highest
mountains in West Java, as its background. It is also one of the core rings of the
tourist destination sites in the northern part of Kuningan along with Sangkanurip
with its hot natural water named Cipanas, Linggarjati with its historical and
natural attraction through the historic building where the Peace Settlement
Agreement between the government of Indonesia and that of the Netherlands was
signed, Peusing with its natural beauty and Manis Kidul with its legendary pools
named Cibulan. In holiday seasons, a large number of both local and foreign
tourists come together to visit one or all of these sites.
Before 1835, there was only one Manis village, but since then, the village
was divided into two separate villages. Manis Kidul (South Manis) became the
formal name of the southern part of the village. Meanwhile, the northern area was
called Manis Lor (North Manis). The growth of population and the vast area
covered by the administration of this village were to be the factors of this
partition. Although it had been formally declared independent since 1835, only
did in 1838 Manis Lor started to have their own Kuwu, a name used for the head
of the village. Wisaprana was proclaimed as the first Kuwu. From that time up to
now, there have been 13 leaders who have ever occupied this leadership post. One
of them, Kulman Tisnaprawira took this office twice in 1968-1979 and 1991-
19991. Plawira Sasmita was recorded to be the longest Kuwu with 28 years in the
office from 1904-1932. Meanwhile, Argadipura was the shortest in the office time
with only two years of service from 1947 to 1949. The current Kuwu is Yusuf
Ahmadi, one of the prominent leaders of Ahmadiyah in Manis lor. 2
Like other villages in Indonesia, the population of Manis Lor actually
tends to be homogenous with most of them in many ways have shared
1 Interview with Ilyas, 28 September 2009.
2 Chronologically, the kuwu of Manis Lor are Wisaprana (1838-1853), Kertamenggala ((1853-1868), Anggaprana (1868-1878), Raksa Permana (1878-1893), Rana Sasmita (1893-1904), Plawira Sasmita (1904-1932), Wangsareja (1932-1947), Argadipura (1947-1949), E. Bening (1949-1968), Kulman Tisnaprawira (1968-1979), Rusja Sutadasim (1979-1987), Acting kuwu, Udin Maduri (1987-1991), Kulman Tisnaprawira (1991-1999), Prana Imawan Putra (1999-2007) and Yusuf Ahmadi (2007 up to present).
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genealogical or family linkages. For instance, in one small chat with the writer,
Ilyas who is Muslim says that “in spite of the fact that many of his families,
particularly those who live in the western part of the village are Ahmadiyah
followers, they are still his family.3” Based on the current statistics (August 2009),
there are 4478 inhabitants living in Manis Lor with about 730 houses4. People in
this village like those in other villages in Kuningan have a variety of professions
such as teacher, trader, but the majority of them is laborers and farmers whose
lands are mostly outside the inhabitant compounds.
According to some sources, before the arrival of Ahmadiyah, all
inhabitants were registered as Muslims, although with different levels of
obedience. There were at least two general features of Muslims in this village
before the arrival of Ahmadiyah, Jangjawokan, literarily means amulets, and
Santri, literarily means those study or affiliate with pesantren. The first was
mainly belonged to those affiliated with the head of the village. They believed in
supernatural beings whose power could influence and control the life of human
beings. The medicine man or dukun deserved an influential stature before the
people. In Java, they might represent the Abangan religious culture. This group
was the majority of the population in Manis Lor due to which the development of
Islam as a set of religious teachings and practices was slow as not so many people
paid attention to Islamic practices.
Meanwhile, the second was seen to be loyalists of the Ketib or Khotib, a
religious official of the village. We may say that they represented the Santri
culture. The main mosque of the village named Al-Huda and located at the village
governmental compound along with the Kuwu office has been in the hands of the
Ketib officials. Unlike the Kuwu, there is no a clear record of the Ketib officials.
People just explain that this post has been simply belonged to one family from one
to another generation. That is why people when they have questions about religion
will refer to what they call the members of the Ketib family. As Islam was
identified with this family, Islam represented a minority force. It was not unusual
3 Interview with Ilyas, 28 September 2009.
4 Laporan Bulanan Kecamatan Jalaksana Bulan September tahun 2009.
to see only a small number of people came to the mosque to pray. Efforts had
been made to improve the situation by inviting different Muslim preachers such as
Kiyai Haji Abdul Manan from Sangkanurip to give regularly religious sermons
but no significant outcomes could be seen as people continued with their own
businesses and the mosque was still left without any significant new comers.
In spite of that fact, the Ketib continued to maintain his social as well as
cultural networks with other santri world centers in Kuningan. Many of the
members of this family were sent to study in the pesantren. For instance, Salimin,
who is now the chairman of Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Muslim
Scholars Assembly or MUI) of Manis Lor and the headmaster of Madrasah
Tsanawiyah (Islamic Junior High school or MTs) 24 of Manis Lor, was sent to
study religious subjects at the Pesantren in Sangkanurip5. Sending children to
pesantren is also a part of maintaining the stature of the family as a source of
religious authority.
In terms of religious culture, Kuningan is among the main centers of the
santri world in West Java along with Tasikmalaya, Ciamis and Cirebon. There are
312 pesantren with 30.424 pupils, from whom 20.569 permanently stay and sleep
in the boarding houses provided by pesantren and 9.855 are only registered as
santri kalong, those who study religious studies in pesantren in their part time6.
One of the largest pesantren in Kuningan is Pesantren Husnul Khotimah located in
Manis Kidul with more than 3000 students. In addition to pesantren, there are also
a number of major mass-based Muslim organizations such as Muhammadiyah that
was set up in Kuningan as early as 1930, Nahdhotul Ulama or NU in 1950,
Persatuan Ummat Islam or PUI in 1952 and Mathla’ul Anwar in 1992. From those
organizations, only does NU have its local office in Manis Lor and Haji Nasrudin
is its general chairman. Nasruddin, a son of Ketib Marjan, along with his younger
brother, Haji Salimin, have become the leaders of the anti-Ahmadiyah movement
there.
In spite of being well known as the santri culture centre, the nationalist
5 Interview with Haji Salimin, 28 September 2009.
6 Dapartemen Agama Kab. Kuningan, Data Pondok Pesantren Kabupaten Kuningan, 2007.
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parties in fact have been dominant in the political competition in Kuningan since
the early time. In the 1955 general election, PNI won with 81.524 votes
overpowering Masyumi with only 55.911 and PKI with 15.401 votes. During the
New Order, Golkar under the strong support of bureaucracy and military forces
dominated the political stages compared to PDI before being transformed in PDIP
as the potential contender. PPP believed to represent the Islamic political voice
failed to significantly attract the votes. In the last general election in 2009, the
nationalist parties won the majority of the votes in which PDIP won with its 14
seats, Democrat Party (7), Golkar (7) and Gerindra (4) Meanwhile, all Islamic
parties consisting of PKS, PAN, PPP, PKB and PBB could only get 18 seats out
of 50 possible seats at the local people representative. Moreover, in the last two
Bupati elections, Aang Hamid Suganda, supported by PDIP and Golkar, won the
election with, particularly in the last election, more than 70% of the votes.
Likewise, the nationalist parties such PNI in the Old Order, Golkar in the New
Order and PDIP after the Reformation era have been the dominant political parties
in Manis Lor and Islamic parties failed to attract significant votes.
The arrival of Ahmadiyah
Before coming to elaborate the history of Ahmadiyah in Manis Lor, it is important
to briefly see the development of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia in general.
Furthermore, as Ahmadiyah that arrived in Indonesia was not a single entity, it is
of course necessary to also highlight both of the two existing branches of
Ahmadiyah, Lahore-affiliated and Qodiyan-affiliated groups from which we can
see to which of these two Ahmadiyah streams the Ahmadiyah of Manis Lor is
religiously and structurally affiliated.
The Ahmadiyah of the Lahore-affiliated group came for the first time to
the shore of Indonesian archipelago in 1924. Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig and
Maulana Ahmad were claimed to be the first preachers who introduced
Ahmadiyah in Indonesia. Their arrival was a part of the missionary programs
designed by the central government body of Lahore-based Ahmadiyah to send
their preachers to many parts of the world, including Europe, America and other
parts of Asia, including Indonesia7. Mirza Wali Ahmad Baig and Maulana Ahmad
firstly came to Yogyakarta where some of local Muhammadiyah leaders such as
Djojosugito, Muhammad Husni and Wahban Hilal, welcomed them and even later
became the first generation of followers of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia8.
More than that, Muhammadiyah’s leaders also frequently invited both of
the Ahmadiyah preachers to present their ideas about Islam and their main
mission in Indonesia. For instance, in the 1924 as well as 1925 Muhammadiyah
National Congresses, both Ahmadiyah preachers, particularly Mirza Wali Ahmad
Baig, gave speeches before the floor. Not only did Muhammadiyah’s leaders show
their high attention to Ahmadiyah, but some important leaders of Sarikat Islam
(SI), including Agus Salim and Cokroaminoto, did show their eagerness to discuss
and learn religious subjects with both of the early Ahmadiyah propagandists.
Cokroaminoto studied and even translated the Holy Qur’an composed by Maulana
Muhammad Ali, the president of Ahmadiyah of Lahore, although his Qur’anic
translation accused of being very much influenced by the Holy Qur’an of Maulana
Muhammad Ali was rejected by Muhammadiyah and NU.
Nonetheless, the arrival of early Ahmadiyah preachers also created
controversies among Muslims, particularly within Muhammadiyah from which a
number of sympathizers initially came from. Many Muhammadiyah leaders
started realizing that there were a number of conflicting notions between
Muhammadiyah and Ahmadiyah. Thus, they criticized and even attacked the false
tenets of Ahmadiyah9. For instance, in 1926 or only two years after its arrival,
Haji Rasul (or Haji Abdul Karim Amrullah) who had been so critical against the
7 Iskandar Zulkarnaen, Gerakan Ahmadiyah di Indonesia, Yogyakarta; LKiS, 2005, p. 182-183.
8 In addition, according to the report made by R. Kern in July 1924, there were four Javanese students who went to study at the Ahmadiyah school in Lahore including Djoenab, a son of Haji Moechtar, Mohammad Sabitoen, a son of Haji Wahhab, Djoemhan, a son of Kiyai Haji Ahmad Dahlan, the founder of Muhammadiyah, Maksoem, a son of Haji Hamid. Iskandar Zulkarnaen, Gerakan …p. 187.
9 The new awareness of the falsities of Ahmadiyah doctrines rose following the arrival of an Indian Muslim scholar, Abdul Halim Siddiqi, to Yogyakarta where he criticized and attacked Ahmadiyah by showing its deviances from the true Islam. Iskandar Zulkarnaen, Gerakan …p. 189-190.
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Qodiyan-affiliated Ahmadiyah in West Sumatra harshly attacked some principles
of the Ahmadiyah teachings and demanded Muhammadiyah to take firm actions
against Ahmadiyah, which was believed to have negative impacts over
Muhammadiyah.
In 1927, the Central Board of Muhammadiyah sent all branches an
instruction prohibiting all Muhammadiyah preachers to teach and disseminate the
ideas and doctrines of Ahmadiyah. One year later, in its Nasional Conference,
Muhammadiyah took a further action in outlawing Ahmadiyah. It issued a
statement condemning Ahmadiyah’s teachings and considering those who
followed them as infidels and demanded all of its members who already followed
Ahmadiyah to choose one of the two options; remaining in Muhammadiyah and
thus leaving Ahmadiyah out or supporting the latter but at the same time being
ousted from the membership of the former.
As the immediate result of this decision, Muhammadiyah expelled its
members, who decided to maintain their loyalty to Ahmadiyah. One of them was
Muhammad Husni who was the General Secretary of the Central Board of
Muhammadiyah. He was forced to resign not only from his highly profiled post
but also retreated from Muhammadiyah altogether. Another key figure of this
example was R. Ng. H. Minhajurrahman Djojosugito who since the beginning
supported Ahmadiyah. Like Muhammad Husni, he was finally fired out from his
strategic position as the general chairman of Muhammadiyah branch of
Purwokerto. In responding to this decision, Djojosugito supported by other
Ahmadiyah loyalists such as Muhammad Husni, Muhammad Kusban, Sutantyo
and Supratolo, started to lead the remaining followers of Ahmadiyah and took
some initial steps. One of them was to set up their own independent organization
under the banner of Gerakan Ahmadiyah Indonesia in 1929. From that time,
Ahmadiyah with the Lahore connection established their foothold in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, unlike the Lahore faction that arrived at Indonesia through
sending their special missionaries, the Qadiyan-affiliated branch started its
influence through Indonesian natives. 1n 1922, three West Sumatra-based
students; Abubakar Ayyub, Ahmad Nuruddin, and Zaini Dahlan who initially
planned to study at Cairo altered their study destination to India after being
advised by their teachers who considered the need of having an alternative source
of study . They were all alumni of Sumatra Thawalib in Padang. Not only did they
study Islam at the Madrasah of Ahmadiyah for a few years, they also converted
into Ahmadiyah. In their return to Padang, they campaigned for Ahmadiyah and
only few years later, they successfully converted about 23 new Ahmadis, all of
them were students or alumni of the Sumatra Thawalib.
The fast growth of Indonesian followers had assured the supreme leader of
Ahmadiyah, Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II, about the importance of Indonesian
position in the framework of expanding Ahmadiyah beyond India. In 1925, he
sent his envoy, Maulana Rahmat Ali, to Indonesia. However, the envoy did not
directly go to Padang where the followers had already waited him but stayed in
Tapaktuan, Aceh for some time to also support the propagation of Ahmadiyah
carried out some Ahmadi there. Since opposition to his teachings was widespread
among Acehnese, he then went to Padang where he later made some successful
efforts following the massive conversion of local Muslims to Ahmadiyah. As the
number of followers expanded, Rahhmat Ali set up the Ahmadiyah branch in
Padang in 1929.
In 1931, he then decided to go to Jakarta where he also successfully
recruited new pupils through whom Ahmadiyah expanded to other areas around
Jakarta and West Java, such as Bogor and Garut. To lead all of those already set
up branches, Rahmat Ali sponsored the foundation of the coordinating body. To
do so, he then organized the first National Conference of Ahmadiyah in 1935 in
which the first organizing body named as Ahmadiyah Qodiyan Departemen
Indonesia (AQDI) was set up and R. Muhyiddin was appointed as the first general
chairman. The name of this organization had been changed at least twice. The first
was in 1937 under the name of the Anjuman Ahmadiyah Departemen Indonesia
(AADI) and the second as well as the last name was Jemaat Ahmadiyah Indonesia
or JAI that was launched in 1949. But only in 1953, the JAI was legally accepted
by the government of Republic of Indonesia. In terms of the number of members
of both groups, the JAI that claimed to have seven hundred thousand members is
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far bigger than the GAI with only three thousand members. Moreover, from these
two streams was only the JAI that finally reached the land of Manis Lor in 1954.
Ahmadiyah firstly came to Manis Lor in 1954 when Haji Basyari was sent
to Cirebon in a response to the request coming from Juandi, the then chairman of
Ahmadiyah of Cirebon branch. Basyari who was from Garut, one of the first and
main centers of Ahmadiyah in West Java in addition to Bogor since the last 30s,
firstly came to Cirebon to preach Ahmadiyah there. Unsatisfactorily with the
outcome since only a few Ahmadi converts, Basyari decided to expand his
preaching to Kuningan where he firstly visited Cilimus, well known as one of the
main basis of santri communities in Kuningan. Thus, it was understandable that he
in fact found him under the fierce attacks of Muslim leaders there. Under this
desperate circumstance, he met Sutardjo who was also from Garut as well as
Ahmadi. Sutardjo who was at that time a Police officer of the Jalaksana Sub-
district office invited Basyari to Manis Lor, the place that Sutardjo considered as
the perfect place to introduce Ahmadiyah teachings.
Under the strong support of Sutardjo, Basyari started to introduce
Ahmadiyah in Manis Lor where conflicts were at the climax between Bening, the
incumbent Kuwu of Manis Lor, and Kiyai Marjan, the Ketib of the same village
and a graduate of pesantren in Sangkanurip. Bening who was seeking other
sources of supports in facing the Ketib’s challenges welcomed Basyari and
voluntarily converted to Ahmadiyah. Thus, supported by both influential figures,
Basyari preached Ahmadiyah in Manis Lor. Both leaders often highlighted the
danger of ongoing conflicts between the Kuwu and the Ketib and, thus, the need
for an immediate solution was at stake. To do so, they boldly underlined the need
for the villagers to make a clear decision whether they would follow the
instructions of the Kuwu or the Ketib. As the majority tended to support the
Kuwu, it was not surprising that more than 80% of the population soon adopted
Ahmadiyah.
As the growth of Ahmadi followers was very fast, in the early months of
1956, the status of Manis Lor was then upgraded from only a sub-branch of the
Cirebon branch into a full pledged branch similar to that in Cirebon. Bening who
occupied the Kuwu office for 19 years from 1949 to 1968 was appointed as the
chairman along with Ahmad Soekrono as the vice chairman and a number of
secretaries including Tisnaprawira, the father of the current influential leader,
Kulman Tisnaprawira, Suama, Mardi Al-Qomar, Sutadasin and Mihardja
Nendra10. From the creation of the board up to present, there have been 14
leadership changes from which the last chairman is Abdul Syukur, a government
employee.
Besides continually strengthening their influence in Manis Lor,
Ahmadiyah activists of Manis Lor also propagated their new belief to other areas
in Kuningan as well as Majalengka. They successfully recruited new followers
from such areas as Cipicung, Ciawigebang, Sinduherang, Ciporang and Manis
Kidul where sub-branches of Ahmadiyah board were then set up. It was also
reported that one of the Ahmadiyah preacher named Sujinah was able to attract
more than 80 new Ahmadi converts in the village of Sadasari, Majalengka.
The successful stories of Ahmadiyah in Manis Lor had put it on the
highlight at the national level. Just in 1967, Manis Lor was chosen as the host for
the Annual National Religious Meeting or Jalasah Sanah. From 1979 up 1982,
this branch again became the venue of this event for three years consecutively.
This showed how important the position of this branch at the national level was. It
is then plausible to see that in 2004, the supreme caliphate of Ahmadiyah made a
historic visit to Manis Lor, in spite of strong resistance coming from Muslim sides
in the village.
The Search for “an Authentic Islam”
As being mentioned above, the fast growth of Ahmadiyah in Manis Lor both in
the form of organization and the number of followers could be considered as the
successful story of the tabligh (propagation) of Ahmadiyah. Many conclusions
have been exposed to analyze this development. Some believed that the
hierarchical system of power in the village was to be the most important factors
10 Zainal Masduki, Gerakan Ahmadiyah Qodiyan di Manis Lor Kuningan 1953-1985, p. 115.
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that drove the villagers simply adopt what the elites said, did and acted.
Other say, that in addition to that of the unequal system of power sharing,
the methods used to convince people were considered to be effective since it fully
involved local people who could explore the teachings of Ahmadiyah in their own
daily language. For example, Ahmadiyah’s early leaders took every possible way
to invite people to support Ahmadiyah movement. They applied the door-to-door
method when they came to the houses of villagers. As the villagers tended to be
loyal to their leaders, Ahmadiyah’s early leaders, who were also the leaders of the
village, exploited their influence in attracting people’s attention.
The vast growth of the Ahmadi converts within a short time in Manis Lor
still gave more questions rather than answers. One of the questions might be how
important Ahmadiyah as a set of religious teachings was for new Ahmadiyah
followers since most of them were previously known as believers of Jangjawokan
instead of an established religion like Islam. To answer this question, we may
refer to the statement ever made by Jakan, Bening’s father-in-law and originally
from Padang, West Sumatra, before performing in one Friday prayer in 1954. In
the midst of preparing for a Friday prayer, Jakan stood up before the audience and
declared that “it (Ahmadiyah) is a religion that I was looking for since I was still
in Padang up to now (Inilah agama yang saya tunggu-tunggu dari Padang
sampai sekarang).”
The impacts of the arrival of Ahmadiyah were soon apparent. People
started practicing religious rituals, which were previously unfamiliar to them. The
number of attendants in the mosque doubled. However, following the provocative
statement made by Jakan before the audience in the Friday Prayer occasion,
Muslims were then split into those who supported Ahmadiyah and those who did
not, because of that leaders of Ahmadiyah to accommodate the rising enthusiasm
of new Ahmadiyah converts built a new mosque on the land endowed by Kuwu
Bening. At the same time, women Ahmadis also started learning and practicing
religious obligations. One of the most conspicuous features of these changes was
when they bought headcovers in the market and wore them in public. Religious
topics became the dominant discourses among people. Whatever the image people
prefer might be, observing these newly religious developments, one may say that
Ahmadiyah had successfully “Islamize” the population of Manis Lor.
These newly religious phenomena not only surprised Muslim communities
in Manis Lor but also in other areas around the village. Muslims on the one hand
were happy with this new development. On the other hand, they hardly accepted
the fact that it was Ahmadiyah that people followed. One of the most referred
differences was the status of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad wethere he was a prophet or
not. Ahmadiyah in this case Qodiyan affiliated sect explained that Muhammad
was the last prophet who brought and taught doctrines, while Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad was the promised prophet (Al-Mahdi) but without bringing new doctrines.
Thus Qur’an and Hadits of the Prophet Muhammad were and are still the prime
sources of religious teachings and, thus, all Ahmadis should totally fulfill all
obligations taught by Muhammad including prayers, fasting and even going to
pilgrimage.
In spite of some similarities in principle, Ahmadiyah that Muslims
believed to have deviated from the principles of Islam by lifting Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad as a prophet was then under attacks of Muslim scholars in Manis Lor. The
provocative speech made by Jakan before the Friday prayer as being mentioned
above could be seen as the beginning of open and direct competition, or you may
say conflicts, between the Ahmadis and Muslims. Following the event, people
frequently came across with the attacks. Both of them also attacked against each
other by accusing the others as practicing infidelity. Debates on some of religious
doctrines dominated the religious discourses in Manis Lor from the very early
time of Ahmadiyah arrival.
A decade later, the methods of propagation changed and a new group of
propagandists rose to the surface. Ahmadiyah set up new organizations for the
youth, Khadamul Ahmadiyah (the Guide of Ahmadiyah) for boys and Nashirotul
Ahmadiyah (the Helper of Ahmadiyah) for girls. Since their creation, they had
been active in strengthening the solidity of Ahmadiyah as a group as well as in
campaigning the Ahmadiyah teachings to public. For example, in 1967, the
Khodamul Ahmadiyah circulated brochures and pamphlets among the villagers
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regardless their different doctrines and religious affiliations. In these brochures,
they stated that “the Imam Mahdi had come and thus who ever did not believe in
it would die like those in the Jahiliyah age, a term used to describe the pre-Islamic
age in Arabia”. The distribution of brochures and pamphlets was to be the follow-
up action following the organizing of the Jalsah Sanah, the Annual Religious
National Conference, hosted by the Ahmadiyah branch of Manis Lor in 1967.
Against this action, Muslims coming from many parts of Kuningan gave
strong reactions. In Jalaksana, Kamiluddin set up the Ikatan Pelajar Nahdlatul
Ulama (Nahdlatul Ulama Pupil Association or IPNU) at the Islamic Junior High
School (Madrasah Tsanawiyah or MTs) in Jalaksana. Likewise, in Cilimus,
Ustadz Udin took the same action when he initiated to set up the Islamic Students
Union (Persatuan Pelajar Indonesia or PPI) but not IPNU like that done by
Kamiludin at the Pendidikan Guru Agama (Islamic Teachers’ Training or PGA).
The creation of both student organizations was aimed at preparing young cadres
that would be ready to reject every claim made by Ahmadiyah. Through these two
organizations, Muslims also circulated brochures and pamphlets downgrading the
claims made by Ahmadiyah. The rise of reactions coming not only from Muslims
in Manis Lor but also from other parts of Muslims showed the widening
escalation of conflicts. It was to be the first time that Muslims outside Manis Lor
took part in the conflicts.
Like in 1967, from 1979 up to 1982 when the Ahmadiyah branch of Manis
Lor became the host of the Jalsah Sanah, the war of words between Ahmadis and
Muslims through brochures, pamphlets as well as public sermons dominated the
religious discourses in Kuningan. Particularly, in 1979, in addition to organizing
the Jalsah Sanah, Ahmadiyah also held a book fair located just outside the Grand
Mosque in Kuningan. At the same time, they also distributed books on
Ahmadiyah principles and teachings freely to every visitor. More than that in
1967, the last conflicts involved wider Muslim communities in Kuningan and
even the Majelis Ulama Indonesian Pusat (MUI Pusat) at the national level. In
Kuningan, a number of Muslim youth organizations came to the venue of the
book fair and seized books and finally forced the committee to immediately close
down the fair. One year later, the MUI issued a fatwa on the falsity of Ahmadiyah.
The decree had also advised ulama in all parts of Indonesia to inform people that
the teachings of Ahmadiyya fell outside the bounds of Islam and to redirect the
members of Jamaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) to go back to the “correct form of
Islam.”
Another effort aimed at hampering the development of Ahmadiyah was
the establishment of a new pesantren in the neighbor village, Manis Kidul, in
1994. Five Muslim leaders led by Haji Sahal and Haji Ibrahim and supported by
the Kuwu of Manis Kidul, Haji Junaedi, founded the Pesantren named Husnul
Khotimah. K.H. Achidin Noer, a Master graduate of the University of Madinah,
became the supreme leader of the pesantren. He was also successful in attracting
donors from Middle East. In the years to come, he became the vocal figure in
launching attacks on the falsity of Ahmadiyah teachings.
Attacks over the falsity of Ahmadiyah intensified in the years to come.
These attacks also came from a variety of corners of Muslim communities.
Muslims did not only focus on the falsity of Ahmadiyah doctrines but also tried to
find out to wipe the Ahmadiyah out from Kuningan. The last goal was started in
2002 when Department of Religious Office in Kuningan with Muslim mass based
organizations made a Joint Decision stating that Ahmadiyah had deviated from
Islam and, therefore, should be get rid out from Kuningan altogether. Muslims’
early seemed to be fruitful as the Pengawas Aliran Kepercayaan Masyarakat
(Pakem), a body specially assigned to supervise people’s religiosity outside
formally recognized religions, issued a letter instructing all government offices
not to give Identity Card (Kartu Tanda Penduduk or KTP) for Ahmadiyah
followers and legalized their marriage.
One year later, the MUI of Kuningan reiterated the falsity of Ahmadiyah
in its circulated letter sent to all of branches at the sub-district levels. Again, the
Joint Decision on the falsity and prohibition of Ahmadiyah in Kuningan was again
issued in 2004. In this second decision, the formal support through giving
signatures also came from the local government and people’s representative.
Furthermore, the Bupati, who came from PDIP, also put his signature on the letter
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and because of which he was reported to be the only head of the local government
in Indonesia that signed such a decision. Both joint decisions gained more
supports at the national level as in 2005 the MUI made statements pointing out
Ahmadiyya’s deviancy and that its followers were to be treated as apostates.
Moreover, the MUI also declared that the Indonesian government was obliged to
ban the Ahmadiyya movement and to close down its premises.
Demands to ban Ahmadiyah since then were more frequently heard and
voiced by a variety of Muslim groups. These escalated demands forced the
government to take some actions. The first action was inviting the JAI to meet
with some government agencies including Bakorpakem, an ad hoc coordinating
body consisting of the representatives of Attorney General’s Office, national
intelligence body BIN, police, military, and the departments of religion and
education, to discuss the acceptability of the movement’s beliefs and practices.
The meeting was ended by some recommendations aiming at how to make
Ahmadiyya “correctly Islamic” again. For three months Bakorpakem teams
observed Ahmadi mosques and JAI premises, but in April 2008 the body
concluded that JAI had not followed its twelve recommendations.
A joint statement by the Ministry of Religion, the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, and the Attorney General’s Office was considered necessary. According
to the law on religious deviation and offence (No. 1/PNPS/1965), such a statement
can recommend the President to ban a religious organization or sect. Yet, up to
now, no significant actions have been made by President to ban Ahmadiyah that
continue to thrive around the country.
Mosques: A New Religious as well as Social Boundary
As the number of followers of Ahmadiyah grew very rapidly and the relation with
Muslim went worst as an immediate impact of the open challenges exposed by
Ahmadiyah’s early leaders and directed against Muslims’ leaders and the
Muslims’ basic tenets, the need for a special place for practicing Ahmadiyah
teachings was at stake. To facilitate this great number of followers, Bening then
took an initiative by endowing his land in which the first mosque of Ahmadyah
was built. It is located only about 200 meters to the east from the village mosque
site. The construction of this mosque clearly marked a religious division between
Muslims and Ahmadis.
For the first two years of the arrival of Ahmadiyah, all Ahmadis used this
newly constructed mosque to perform their rituals and other non-religious
activities. However, in 1956, they decided to move their activities to a newly built
mosque which is far bigger than the first one. This decison made by Bening and
was claimed to have referred to a Bening’s dream in which he was asked to move
the mosque to another place where the land was covered by the bamboo trees.
Shortly, Bening successfully found the proposed land and then built the new
Ahmadiyah mosque. Unlike the old mosque that was at the eastern side of the
grand mosque, the new mosque instead was located at the western side. From the
grand Mosque, it is about a half kilometers to the west. The name of this mosque
is An- Nur, an Arabic word that means light.
In Manis Lor, the construction of the An-Nur mosque means there two
important mosques by which two big religious groups competed as well as
conflicted. The mosque in other words became the source of social identification
that finally also plays as a social boundary from the other. That is true as the
followers of both mosques have their own label. Those who converted to
Ahmadiyah were labeled as the Orang Kulon (Westerners) wherever their real
houses located might be. This label was because the place of the An-Nur mosque
is at the western side of the village. For instance, Bening whose house was in the
eastern side from the village mosque was considered to be a westerner. Likewise,
those who maintained themselves a being Muslim will be seen as the Easterners in
spite of the fact that their houses might be in the western part of Manis Lor. In
addition to the mosque, there were actually other forms of prayer hall, Musholla
that literally means the place for prayer. Both religious groups have a number of
prayer halls that are mainly used for daily prayers as well as for religious studies
gathering (Majelis Ta’lim) that are usually dominated by old women. However, as
the An-Nur and Al-Huda have become the hallmarks of both conflicting groups,
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the social identification mostly refers to these two mosques.
Both Muslims and Ahmadis viewed their own mosque as a symbol of their
religious and social identity, while seeing those affiliating with others as the other.
Thus, in the time of clashes, the mosques as well as musholla frequently became
the prime target of every attack. Open conflicts that in many times also involved
physical tortures since then frequently occurred. For instance, in 1983 when
Ahmadi activists distributed brochures and books, Muslims in their reaction burnt
the An-Nur mosque, although with only minor damages, and arrested a number of
book distributors. In 1987, as a part of protest against the discriminative policies
made by the Ahmadi head of the village in dealing with the Al-Huda mosque,
Muslims staged protests demanding the resignation of the Kuwu. Their protests
came to fruit when the government took a decision to force the current head to
leave the post and installed Udin Maduri, a devout Muslim with the military
background, as the acting head of the village. Under his leadership from 1987 up
to 1991, Ahmadiyah was controlled and their activities were in general tightly
restricted.
Another example was in 2000 and 2004. In the first example, it was
reported that one rich Ahmadi family at the border between Manis Kidul and
Manis Lor built a small building without giving any clear information about the
function of this building to the people living around the site. When the
construction was completed, people were shocked to know that this building was
finally designed as the mosque for Ahmadi followers who were a minority in that
place. As a reaction, people supported by Muslim leaders of Manis Kidul burnt
down the newly built mosque. The second example was in 2004 following the
issuance of the Joint Decree (Surat Keputusan Bersama or SKB) made by the
local government of Kuningan in 2002. Both Musholla Al-Taqwa and Al-Hidayah
were burnt down. Moreover, the An-Nur mosque was not without any attacks. All
in and exit doors were blocked by woods nailed to the doors due to which the
Ahmadis could not use the mosque to perform their religious obligations. As the
time went out, the Ahmadis after being underground for some time again opened
the mosque.
The seizure of the An-Nur mosque again occurred in 2008 with even
larger effects. Violence and inflammatory public speeches by radical Muslim
leaders were again used to step up pressure in early 2008 to force the government
to ban the Ahmadiyah. A number of Muslim groups gathered around the mosque
and again blocked all of its doors. Some attackers were even involved in directly
bloody physical clashes with Ahmadiyah followers. Many of both sides were
reported to have been injured. It took months before being re-opened in the early
months of 2009. The visit to the mosque in the last Ramadhan month made by
Hajjah Sinta Nuriyah, a wife of KH Abdurrahman Wahid, gave more boosts to the
Ahmadis. Thus after this visit, the Ahmadis openly started using the mosque for
their religious activities
Seeking a Political Balance or a new society
Since the first Kuwu, the leadership has been in the hand of non-Santri
background leaders except in 1987 up to 1991 when the Regent (Bupati) was
involved in selecting the leader. Bupati appointed Udin who was a devout Muslim
with the police military of background as the temporary acting Kuwu replacing
the old official who was under harsh critics from the Muslim villagers. Yet, in the
1991 Kuwu general election, again the Ahmadiyah candidate, Kulman
Tisnaprawira, won the election to occupy the post for second time.
Realizing the minority status of Muslims, some Muslim leaders strove to
focus on capturing some important positions at the local politics. Since the last
1990s, Muslims led by Haji Salimin attempted to take strategic positions such as
the village people representative or BPD in which all strategic matters elaborated.
In 1999, for example, he started his efforts by staging a huge demonstration in the
front of the Kuwu office. This action was supported by Muslim leaders of Manis
Lor and held amidst the official meeting organized by a newly elected Kuwu,
Prana Imawan Putra (1999-2007), and attended by Camat, the head of the sub-
district office, of Jalaksana, police and military offices of Jalaksana. The
demonstrators underlined the importance of promoting the integration of all Manis
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Lor inhabitants both practicing religious and secular activities. According to Haji
Salimin, the main goal of this demand is the fair sharing of power between
Ahmadiyah followers and Muslims. In other words, Muslims should be given the
same position in the processes of decision making at the village level.
Muslims’ efforts came with unexpected fruits. In the 2007 Kuwu general
election, Muslims were able to send their six representatives at the BPD office.
Since the members of BPD are 11 people, Muslims took the majority status for
the first time. With this stature in mind, Haji Salimin then easily went to be the
chairman of the BPD without any significant opposition. Under his chairmanship,
he was able to put Muslims’ voices heard and their interests fulfilled, although not
without fierce opposition coming from the Ahmadiyah camp.
The failures of Muslims to minimize the influence of Ahmadiyah in spite
of strong supports of Muslims from outside brought some Muslim leaders to
realize that it is only those of Manis Lor that are capable in solving the conflicts.
The involvement of Muslims from outside without having fine knowledge about
the real problems faced by Muslims in Manis Lor often made the matter even
worst. That is why some Muslim leaders started taking steps in campaigning the
idea of integration (pembauran).
Conclusion
From the elaboration deliberated above, the case of Ahmadiyah in Manis
Lor, Kuningan is to be one of the intriguing tests for all factions involved
including the followers of Ahmadiyah themselves, Muslims struggling to keep the
purity of their religion, as well as the government that is very much interested in
maintaining the stability and order to create a harmonious and tolerant society.
The failure of repressive approaches mostly opted in the fast decades should be
learned as to create a new road map in solving this religion based conflicts. The
rise of the integration (pembauran) motion could be made as the promising
starting point for the better future of the tolerance inspired relationship between
both the followers of Islam and those of Ahmadiyah.
References
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