Introduction

Recent scholarly literature is largely in agreementthat, in light of the diverse and widespreadsignificance of religions today, classicsecularization theories have become obsolete (seeSchlehe & Rehbein 2008a; Cannell 2010). As adriving force behind cultural identity that isembedded and continuously negotiated in the socialprocesses of everyday life, institutions andcommunicative systems, religion is takensubstantially more seriously when itsre-politicization is taken into consideration. Inview of the potential for conflict in emotionallyloaded religious differences that areinstrumentalized by the various parties, a varietyof initiatives have been launched promotinginterreligious dialogue. In this chapter, I willexamine a lesser-known place in the north of easternIndonesia and investigate the relationships betweenpolitics and religion, history and the present,popularization and the power of representation, aswell as between the intentions of the differentactors found there.

In the years around the turn of the millennium, anumber of violent religious conflicts erupted invarious regions of Indonesia. Among other things,this can be traced back to the fact that, after theend of the authoritarian regime of PresidentSuharto's ‘New Order’, a number of radical forces(including hard-line Islamic and other extremistgroups) were able to develop where they had hithertobeen suppressed. On the other hand, it is arguedthat radical Islam, for example, is actually aproduct of this very New Order (Hadiz 2011). In anycase, there was a sudden and surprisingly fierceoutbreak of latently smouldering animosities(Bräuchler 2005; Schröter 2010) that were frequentlylinked to conflicts over resources, imbalances ofpower and problems stemming from resettlement andmigration. Furthermore, a factor that should not beunderestimated is the increasingly bipolar worldviewthat situates ‘the West’, associated withChristianity, in striking opposition to ‘the Muslimworld’ (Adeney Risakotta 2009). Eastern Indonesia,in particular the Maluku Islands and the region ofPoso in Central Sulawesi, has witnessed violentclashes between Muslims and Christians, which haveflared up repeatedly over a longer period.

But such hostilities did not take place everywhere inIndonesia. For example, the Minahasa, a region inNorth Sulawesi dominated by Christians, was to alarge extent spared of religious unrest.