The mobilisation of intolerance and its trajectories: Indonesian Muslims' view of religious minorities and ethnic Chinese

In the wake of the Islamist mobilization against the Christian-Chinese governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (or “Ahok”) in 2016 and 2017, an intensive scholarly ensued about the level and trajectory of politico-religious intolerance among Indonesian Muslims. Had religious and racial prejudices increased ahead of the mobilization, and thus helped to trigger it? Or did the sentiments simply peak as a consequence of the Ahok case, and subsequently subside again? And how do the intolerance levels among Indonesian Muslims compare to other majority Muslim nations? In our presentation, we address these and related questions by looking at multi-year survey data sets on intolerance among Indonesian Muslims. Having access to data reaching back to 2010, and having just completed the newest survey in August 2018, we are able to identify clear patterns of how intolerance among Indonesian Muslims evolved prior, during and after the anti-Ahok demonstrations. This, in turn, allows us to make judgments on the time line, endurance and political significance of these sentiments.