Social Injustice and Problem of Human Rights In Indonesian Bahá'í Community

Abstract: This paper will explore the issue of human rights as well as social injustice dealing with religious life in Indonesia. As a new religious movement started in 1920s, the Baha'i community, as also one of the minority religions in Indonesia, engages with social and political dynamic vis a vis with Muslim majority group. Marginalization circumstance embedded to Baha'i community becomes a questionable phenomenon especially since Sukarno's collapse. For instance, in 1970s there were many Baha'i followers in-prisoned because it is claimed as a misleading faith in Indonesia. The five principle points so-called PANCASILA in this position finally invites several matters, for example the first principle which is declared as 'believe in one God' to unite all different religious groups is problematic for some non-official religious groups such as Baha'i and other indigenous religions. The dynamic religious life in Indonesia recently has been experiencing change in term of religious freedom. Since Suharto's fall, religious conflicts have increased in several places like the case in West Java between Muslim and Ahmadiyah, Poso-Moluccas between Muslim and Christians, etc. In this context, human rights, as the agent of humanity issue, tries to look at the matter of discrimination faced by minority group particularly Baha'i community regarded as a misleading religious group. Furthermore, this paper will examine how human rights is applied into social and political reality. Finally, it will focus on exploring two prominent questions: firstly, what kind of social and political discrimination faced by Baha'i community after Sukarno's collapse is. Secondly, what is the political and social consequence faced by Baha'i follower, and how do the survival strategy among majority groups. (from academia.edu)