Strengthening Muslim–Christian relations is very important for a nation such as Indonesia that has plurality in terms of tribes, ethnicity and religion. This study aims to analyse the role of Muslim women who live in a pluralistic socio-religious situation. This is a qualitative research that uses purposive sampling to determine the informants. The approach used by the Discovering Cultural Themes model is to understand the symptoms of the many themes, cultures, values and cultural symbols. Data analysis was conducted by using software for qualitative research, which is needed in managing data found from the field, in this case, nVivo Basic 12.00 for Windows. The results show that Muslim women translate justice, empathy and rationality in religion by building relationships with other religions. This attitude is part of Islamic teachings that contain moderate, accommodating and tolerant aspects. In addition, culture has encouraged women to blend in and form egalitarian equality in the social and cultural realm. The culture of generosity and mutual help has become a tradition both in religious and customary activities.
This article provides an insight into the contribution of Muslim women in strengthening Muslim–Christian relations. This agenda is very important because Islam and Christianity have the largest adherents in Indonesia. This contribution is very important and crucial in the midst of radicalism issues in Indonesia lately.
Globally, women and men have a very important part in maintaining the balance of life both in the realm of family, community and interreligious relations. Islam and Christianity as big religions in the world teach to protect women’s rights in public (Udoh, Folarin & Isumonah
Several findings from previous studies discover that many Muslim women are actively involved in women empowerment, social entrepreneurship and social welfare (Annisa
Why should women in Indonesia take part in Islamic–Christian relations? Because factually, the violence against religion and belief in Indonesia are still happening: In 2010, there were 81 cases, which were recorded from several regions in Indonesia (Misrawi
The role of women is dominated by gender debates where identities and concepts are individual’s self-definition as female or male, based on their biological gender as interpreted in culture (Wood & Eagly
Meanwhile, the nurture theory suggests that the differences in masculine and feminine are not determined by biological differences but by social constructs and the influence of cultural factors. The existential feeling of self as a woman or a man usually reflects aspects of biological sex (Miller
Empirically, the role of women in socio-religious activities, as well as in building socio-religious relations is very prominent in the ‘Aisyiyah organisation as a Muhammadiyah women’s association. It was founded on 27 Rajab 1335 H/19 May 1917 in Yogyakarta by Nyai Siti Walidah or Nyai Ahmad Dahlan. The first chairwoman of ‘Aisyiyah was not Nyai Siti Walidah, but Siti Bariyah. Siti Bariyah did not only study Islam with Kiai Ahmad Dahlan but also studied at the Neutraal Meisjes School (Muthmainnah
The locus of this research is Tana Toraja, an exotic area in Indonesia, which is world famous. Based on BPS (Indonesia’s central agency on statistics) data, currently it is inhabited by 234 002 people, with details based on religion: Protestant 68.66%, Catholic 17.09%, Muslim 12.25%, Hindu 1.74%, Buddhist 0.22% and Aluk Todolo 0.01%. With this composition, Tana Toraja shows religious pluralism in terms of religion and belief. However, they are actually united by a homogeneous ethnic group and a very high culture of mutual cooperation and become social capital in strengthening Muslim–Christian relations in this area. Toraja comes from the words
Then, what are the basic values that move Muslim women who are members of the Aisyiyah organisation in strengthening Muslim–Christian relations? and how are religious and traditional celebrations used by Muslim women to strengthen Muslim–Christian relations? This is the main focus in this research. The theoretical and practical theme of this research is expected to encourage women to play an active role in strengthening Muslim–Christian relations, which are sometimes damaged by radicalism and fundamentalism issues. Women play a significant role in carrying out their position as social bonder in various fields of life (Ruiter & De Graaf
This research is a qualitative descriptive research. Qualitative research is a research model based on the philosophy of postpositivism, which is used to examine the condition of natural objects. It is very difficult to detect the population, which become the informants of this study, because there is not enough data available on the Aisyiyah organisation. There is no specific standard for the number of samples for qualitative research. Furthermore, the data collection method uses observation, interviews and discussions, which require such a long time so it is not possible to take large samples. In addition, qualitative research has three main components to be observed. Firstly, the place where the interaction occurs in the ongoing social situation, in this case at Bittuang Tana Toraja; secondly, the actors who are playing a certain role. In the context of this research, the actors of the research object are women who are members of the Aisyiyah organisation; thirdly, activities (Tannenbaum
The participants in this study are 21 Aisyiyah women in Tana Toraja. Determination of data sources is performed by purposive sampling, based on certain characteristics (inclusion criteria) that are closely related to the characteristics, which have been known previously, based on the research objectives. The sample is classified into three: Firstly, Aisyiyah’s management who have a decree and membership card. Secondly, women who become regular members. Thirdly, women who are Aisyiyah sympathisers and actively participate in activities.
Data were collected through observation, in-depth interviews and documentation was conducted from June to September 2019 in Tana Toraja. The observation used is participant observation with base snowball method. The details of the observation activities are (1) observing women’s activities at Christmas and Eid; (2) observing women’s activities at the
The approach used by the Discovering Cultural Themes model is to collect various themes, cultural focuses, values and cultural symbols in each domain (Spradley
Muslim women in Tana Toraja adhere to religious values as a guide in interacting with other religious communities, including Christians and the Aluk Todolo. Implemented religious values is middle character (
From the observation of the researchers, women become effective family mediators of different religions to meet and unite. Women are quite dominant in various socio-religious activities. They cook, serve guests and break the ice in a strong brotherhood. In other places, this kind of relationship is probably considered extreme, because it touches the spirit of mutual cooperation and kinship in religious traditions, building places of worship, both Muslim and non-Muslim. The role of women in peace building is multidimensional, and the issues are sufficiently representative and can bring a gender perspective to the main content of a negotiation. Women can contribute a lot to the recovery of post-conflict social, cultural, economic and political conditions. This is the flexibility of women who can enter peaceful spaces that men may not be able to do.
Based on interviews and discussions with informants, researchers conducted coding and interpretation to obtain conclusions about values and religion applied by women in interacting with adherents of other religions. The religious values used by Muslim women to strengthen Muslim–Christian relations are presented in
The religious value of women in Muslim–Christian relations.
No. | Statement/theme | Interpretation/conclusion |
---|---|---|
1 | Everyone has the right to practice their own beliefs (Informants 1, 9, 5, 13) | Justice and/or moderate |
2 | We help each other and support religious events but do not participate in worship activities (Informants 7, 8, 9, 3) | Empathy and/or accommodative |
3 | We may attend non-Muslim invitations as long as it is not related to worship (Informants 11, 17, and 20) | Rational and/or tolerant |
4 | Your religion is for you and my religion is for me, we apply this by not participating in Christmas celebrations, but we do |
Empathy and/or accommodative |
5 | Respect other people’s religious teachings, without sacrificing my religious principles (Informants 8, 12, 20, 21) | Rational and/or tolerant |
In
Moderation in Islam is the implementation of the teachings of the holy book in the Qur’an Surah Al-Baqarah: 256 ‘There is no compulsion in believing the religion of Islam’. which means giving other people the opportunity to practice their religion. Likewise, the accommodative and tolerant aspects are the implementation of the Qur’an Surah Al-Kafirun: 6 ‘your religion is for you, and my religion is for me’. Theologically, it means that Muslim women make religious values dominate strongly in the sociological realm concerning adherents of other religions.
At the micro level, the type of mechanism in the socio-religious area played by women has succeeded in preventing internal and interreligious harmony between religious communities and encouraging constructive cooperation. Such a mechanism forms a pattern of functional harmony for a particular geographic area. Socio-religious mechanisms must receive adequate attention in turning off the symptoms of social disintegration. That way, the Muslim minority group can be said to be safe from outside interference, because anyone who wants to disturb Muslims does not only deal with the Muslim community, but also deals with non-Muslims.
Through the role of women, the issue of food in a different theological context which Muslims can and cannot eat becomes clear and becomes a common understanding. Therefore, when Christian families invite them to religious or traditional events, Christian families prepare food that does not contain pork or food that is forbidden in Islam (Interview, female informant; 1, 3, 5, 7). According to one food ingredient informant, the containers used and the cooking were handed over to their Muslim neighbours or relatives so that the food they provide is guaranteed to be halal, and all done by women (Interview, female informant; 9, 12, 19, 21). Likewise at the time of slaughtering sacrificial animals on Eid al-Adha for Muslims, the rest of the meat which have been given based on Islamic law were cooked by women from different religions, Muslim and non-muslim and are eaten together on the
Seen from the religious aspect, Muslim women in Tana Toraja who are a minority in quantity, have high religious enthusiasm, especially those related to relations between communities of different religions. Women naturally in doing internalisation on religious and cultural values related to strengthening Muslim–Christian relations. When they are together, the discussion never leads to theological differences in each religion, but rather to universal issues related to the future of the family. Family members remind each other to do their obligations and to not forget to ask for prayers so that their lives are safe and their family is given sustenance and health (Interviews, female informants; 2, 6, 9, 10). Another quite sensitive theme in inclusive education is joint prayer between Muslims and non-Muslims. In a pluralistic society, praying together is an activity that cannot be avoided both at family events and traditional activities in their family environment. The joint prayer carried out by people of different religions is not led by one person, but the praying is carried out based on their respective religions and beliefs (Interviews, female informants; 1, 6, 5, 11). The choice to choose this way of praying is to respect the differences in religion and beliefs between them and avoid debates related to joint prayer led by non-Muslims.
Historically, the Torajanese had an encounter with Islam starting when they were in contact with the Kingdoms of Sidenreng, Bone and Luwu. Although at first the relationship was more dominated by economic interest, especially the coffee trade. Until the end of the 19th century, after more than 230 years of establishing power in South Sulawesi by defeating the Gowa-Tallo Kingdom, it seems that the Dutch have not shown any interest in occupying the Toraja region which is far in the middle of the Sulawesi region (Waterson
This research found that the communal lifestyle of the Torajanese is reflected in the Tongkonan traditional house philosophy. Tongkonan cannot be owned by individuals, but is owned communally and from generation to generation by the family or clan of the Tana Toraja Tribe (Pakan et al.
To this day, the Torajanese consistently maintain the customs inherited from their ancestors. Torajanese recognise two main ceremonies related to the life cycle, namely
The culture value of women in Muslim–Christian relations.
No | Statement/theme | Interpretation/conclusion |
---|---|---|
1 | Accommodating and/or empathy | |
2 | The educational value in |
Mutual cooperation and/or empathy |
3 | All families of different religions are given the same opportunity to participate in the |
Egalitarian and/or democratic |
4 | Women’s activities in |
Women’s participation |
Culturally and sociologically, Muslim women in Tana Toraja also collaborate with people of other religions based on cultural values. Muslims– and Christians interact without questioning their religious identity. They establish relationships with relatives or other people of different religions. They show active relationships in everyday life; friendly relations, mutual assistance in social activities, agriculture and even involvement in both traditional and religious meetings outside of the sacrament. There are even some residents who live in the same house with different religions, some whose father is Hindu (
Women’s activities in building interfaith relations are essential, apart from being shown in the realm of religion and culture. The form is simple but has complex implications for maintaining brotherhood between Muslims and Christians. Brotherhood in the
At another locus in Indonesia, women have succeeded in creating a meeting room for women ranging from housewives in activism roles in the smallest environmental units to those involving interfaiths’ female religious leaders (Wahyu et al.
In Buginese who inhabit South Sulawesi, the basic element in gender formation is the division of gender roles, which is formed because of the construction of culture and customs. In general, gender roles are a set of behavioural patterns that become social expectations to be displayed differently from both men and women according to their gender (Ramli & Basri
From a leadership point of view, Islam views humans from the aspect of the caliph (
This study finds essential facts related to the interaction of culture and religion and the role of women in Muslim–Christian relations. Of course, it is a characteristic of a particular community that cannot be generalised but can be replicated in areas with the same characteristics and socio-religious environment as the locus of this research. It can be seen based on the nVivo analysis shown in the Venn Diagram in
Venn diagram of religious and cultural values in Muslim–Christian relations.
Based on the Venn diagram in
It is an interesting blend of religion and culture that reinforce each other, especially for empathy and accommodation. However, this does not mean that tolerance touches the realm of religiosity when it comes to fundamental teachings in religion (
Muslim women have an essential role in strengthening Muslim–Christian relations. This role is a manifestation of the noble values of religion, which instruct its adherents to compete in helping each other in goodness. It is also sourced from the local wisdom of the Toraja people, which has been preserved from generation to generation by their ancestors. The Muslim–Christian relationship in this research shows a positive direction with collaboration in various religious, social and customary social activities. It can be a model for areas with the same characteristics as the locus of this study. This contribution will further strengthen religious moderation in various fields to further strengthen Muslim–Christian relations as the two largest religious entities in Indonesia. The limitation of this study is that the locus and samples were taken from a particular and small area, so generalisations cannot be made. Nonetheless, it is possible to replicate it in regions with the same socio-cultural situation.
The author would like to thank the Chancellor of the University of Muhammadiyah Palopo for his support in carrying out this research. The results of this study are entirely the responsibility of the author.
The author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
H.P. is the sole author of this article.
This article followed all ethical standards of research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.