Publication Date

2024

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Thurber, Ches

Degree Name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Legacy Department

Department of Political Science

Abstract

This dissertation studies when, why, and how local religious conflicts escalate to campaigns of terrorist violence. To do so, I examine two most-similar cases in Indonesia: Ambon and Poso. Each experienced significant local conflict between Christians and Muslims in the early 2000s. But while a peace treaty in Ambon in 2002 was largely successful, a similar treaty in Poso failed, and violence actually escalated into an organized campaign of terrorism against Christians. To understand why violence escalated to terrorism in one case, but not the other, I conducted six months of field research, including 98 interviews with original interviews with experts, police officers, government officials, MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, Indonesian Ulama Council), religious leaders, journalists, NGO activists, peace activists, women activists, radical activists, youth leaders, victims of violence, and former combatants. I find that traditional explanations of terrorism that focus on group ideology or local grievances fail to explain the difference between Poso and Ambon. Instead, I argue that social ties between local Muslims and organized armed actors in Poso were crucial in the escalation of violence. The absence of similar connections in Ambon meant that even triggering events, such as the killing of a co-religionist and a village attack, did not escalate to a terrorist campaign. This argument stands in stark opposition to prevailing relational theories of conflict that presume that closer relations between armed actors and civilians might reduce violence. It therefore has important implications for the management of local communal conflicts, not just in Indonesia, but in similar cases from India to Palestine.

Extent

203 pages

Language

en

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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