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Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia: Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas. By Sumanto Al Qurtuby. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2016. Hardcover: 215pp.
Between 1999 and 2001, rival ethnic and religious communities fought violent conflicts in five Indonesian provinces which led to large-scale loss of life, displacement and destruction. In the decade and a half since then, a series of in-depth quality academic studies have given us a good understanding of the causes and dynamics of most of these conflicts. However, among these conflicts the one in Maluku Province - perhaps the most severe of the five - has been relatively understudied. With Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia, Sumanto A1 Qurtuby has done an excellent job of helping to fill that gap. Indeed, he has written one of the best studies of the Maluku conflict.
By synthesising previous literature and adding new insights from his own extensive fieldwork among both Muslims and Christians in Maluku, A1 Qurtuby provides a detailed account of the origins, distinctive evolution and resolution of the conflict. Much of the book is riveting, containing new and important information which will be very useful for scholars of Indonesia, conflict, peacebuilding and religion. One main focus is on the role of religion - "religious networks, organizations, discourses, and practices" (p. 5) - in provoking the violence and in facilitating its end. Unlike many polemical studies...