24968810 Ahmadiyah RTF

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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