The dominant culture in the borderlands faces challenges from a variety of unexpected external influences. In Aceh Singkil, the integrity of Aceh’s Islamic identity has not only been under threat from Christianization brought by North Sumatra border crossers but is also confronted by inherited colonial ideas about what kinds of people and religions should exist in a particular territory. It is for this reason that discrimination and violence have often been observed in the border.
When the coastal area of Singkil was merged in the nineteenth century with the highland area, where the Pakpak Batak mostly resided, the Pakpak Batak became the majority population of Aceh Singkil. Most are now Muslim, though some remain Christian adherents. Despite the fact that Christians and Muslims in Aceh Singkil have common ancestors, Christian-Muslim relations in the district are characterized by social discrimination. As noted by Mujiburrahman in his study on Muslim Christian relations in Indonesia, each group feels threatened by the other. On the one hand, Muslims see the increase of churches in the district and the growth of the Christian population as being due to the arrival of border crossers from North Sumatra. On the other hand, the Pakpak Christians consider that a long period of social harmony in Aceh Singkil has been disrupted by the presence of the local radical Muslim group the Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI), a branch of the same organization at the national level, which in early 2021 has been nationally banned.
The discrimination is felt mostly by Christians. This has largely to do with restrictions on permission to open new churches, obligations to conform to Muslim dress regulations, and restricted access to Christian education and community representation in public spaces. The discrimination was escalated and exacerbated by the 2012 election of Aceh Singkil’s head of district. Candidates in the local election are reported to have utilized the rivalry between the Christian and Muslim populations for their own political benefit. Their maneuvers included a promise to approve the establishment of churches in Aceh Singkil.
A license to open a church is very difficult to obtain in Aceh. A 2007 governor’s regulation (no. 25) put even more criteria and prerequisites in the way of obtaining a license than had existed under an earlier national-level regulation. Of more than twenty churches in Aceh Singkil, including undung-undung, or small churches, very few have official licenses issued by the government. Most operate without a proper government permit and thus become targets of Muslim groups that undertake to raid Christian activities or symbols.
The chronicle of churches in Aceh Singkil has been miserable. Since the first incident of religious violence in 1979, when churches were violently attacked and burned down, dozens of church buildings have been closed or even destroyed. Based on the peace agreement that followed a religious riot in 1979, the number of non-Muslim worship places allowed to operate in Aceh Singkil was limited to one church and four buildings of undung-undung (chapels). This consensus was reiterated with the same content in the 2001 agreement.
The arrangement had something to do with efforts to establish the dominant culture along the border. As argued by Ansor, elites of the Aceh Singkil government were approached by the FPI to make a policy restricting the appearance of Christian symbols and influence in the region. In the view of this group, Aceh, as Serambi Mekkah (Mecca’s verandah), must have a prevalent Islamic identity in its borderlands, people with different identities who desire to remain in the region must comply with the dominant culture, and the symbols of religions other than Islam must be controlled. In 2012, the group was able to persuade the district government to form a team to oversee the development of churches of different denominations in Aceh Singkil. In the course of its evaluation, it was discovered that the number of illegal churches in the district had increased. The group insisted that the government take action against those church buildings that lacked a state permit. The result was that more than twenty church buildings were sealed or had their activities shut down.
The most recent attack, an act of arson, occurred in October 2015. Not only were a couple of buildings burned down, but one person died, and others were severely injured. Muslim groups attacked Christian places of worship because they had lost patience with the slow response of the district government in closing down those illegal churches. The aftermath of this incident was a consensus that nine churches must be closed, while the remaining thirteen were to apply for a state permit as outlined in the 2007 regulation. Many Christian leaders were pessimistic that they would be able to afford the state permit or meet the complicated requirements to obtain it. Muslim communities in Aceh Singkil were advised by their leaders not to consent to the construction of church buildings. Because the building of Christian worship places requires the consent of Muslim neighbors, the lack of such approval limits the spread of illegal churches in Aceh Singkil.
(excerpted from chapter 1)
