‘Defending Religious Rights’: The Critical Analysis of Religious Minority Discourse in Indonesia

Abstract

Freedom of religion, as the main part of human rights, has been one of the main discourses in traditional and modern Indonesia. However, its current development reveals that such a freedom is still far from its final agreement, especially in guaranteeing the religious right of minority. By using the approach of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA), this article investigates the religious freedom discourse as defended and disseminated by one of the NGOs in Indonesia, namely the Setara Institute, to identify how the Indonesia Ahmadiyya sect is discursively discriminated against. The study is carried out by analysing multiple texts in various genres produced and disseminated by this NGO when defending the Ahmadiyya minority sect. The sect has been the target of religious discrimination and violent attacks perpetrated by Islamic majority groups in the country. The data used in this study are annual reports, books, interviews, and public debates. The analysis reveals that freedom of religion is still not properly established and Ahhamdiyya followers are not treated equally both in religious or political matters. This can be seen in four discourse constructions, namely discourses of democracy, unrestricted freedom of religion, impartiality and the weakness of leadership.