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129 chapter 5 Guru Nahum and Uncle Olo + National Proximities Despite a crowd of hundreds, on March 21, 2013, a komatsu excavator and a few recording cameras were likely the only unbiased witnesses to a performance of ethnicity, religion and the stubbornness born of conviction. the cameras recorded the demolition of the toba hkbp taman sari church in Bekasi, West Java. the solid white concrete building had been erected without a permit, and it was destroyed on the order of local officials following months of protests by Muslim organizations. Judging from camera footage and ethnographic hearsay, few people were present who had not already taken a side, although many indonesian virtual witnesses on youtube1 —christian and Muslim—expressed their disgust at the dissipation of religious tolerance in both the video and the comments below it. indeed, it is difficult to explain the details of the case without moving toward an interpretation. Describing Bekasi as a West Javanese community accesses a past before the modern nation in which people knew their neighbors from the mosque. Describing Bekasi as a city enriched by suharto-era manufacturing, or a suburb of the indonesian capital, highlights its national membership and validates the presence of christian sumatrans in its neighborhoods. a few facts are indisputable, though again the interpretations vary. the church was undeniably built without a permit. local officials admit that they refused to issue one, claiming lack of support for a church in the community, although hkbp members counterclaim that the church has had quiet support for over fifteen years, and congregants had gathered enough signatures of Muslim neighbors to make the refusal technically illegal. national newspapers covered a series of escalating attacks on three hkbp churches in the region, including the stabbing of a pastor and a congregant.2 the timing of the conflicts—between 2009 and 2013— corresponds to the increasing power of the fpi, Front Pembela islam antiphonal histories / 130 (i: islamic Defenders Front). fpi is ostensibly a community organization, though many claim it is closer to a religiously motivated gang. and to many the fact that it has operated unchecked suggests a government complicit with its rise. indonesian christians feel that religious tolerance is slipping away with the rise of islamic legislation, national and regional. Muslims, on the other hand, feel free to finally shape national politics, after being sidelined for years by the new order regime. the camera footage clearly shows why there is no middle. the combat is not just religious, it is cultural, and in a very loud way. in the center of the church compound, a group of toba women raise their laments to the sky. tear-streaked faces look dramatically up; appeals to God are delivered in toba, using the traditional mourning cadence;3 exaggerated breaths highlight the weeping. in any normal hkbp funeral, this group mourning would be tamped down, as it is perceived as uncomfortably close to the precolonial treatment of the dead. But in this case, the dead is the house of God, and the bereaved widower, the pastor. he stands out in his black robe and clerical collar, surrounded by women who weep onto him, stroke his head and face, comfort him in their mutual loss. in contrast, the onlooking crowd on the perimeter is mostly male, and judging from the loud cheer that comes forth when the first wall is flattened, overwhelmingly Muslim. cries of “Allahu akbar” sound, reverently uttered. the onlookers are not militant, nor outsiders—they are wearing normal clothes and flip-flops, not the white and green of the fpi. For them the histrionic mood, the unintelligible local language, and the keening serve to bracket the women’s grief. the public performance distances them in a way a conversation behind closed doors may not have. yet for the toba congregants, the performance is the point. aware that their voices will not change anything, they are performing their persecution: to the onlookers of the nation, to God, but above all to themselves. Generally, tobas occupy a secure place in indonesian society. in Jakarta they are lawyers, pastors, and journalists, bus drivers and restaurant owners, but also military commanders and supreme court judges. in Medan tobas regularly hold office and are regarded as a key constituent group of the city’s population, though its land was originally part of a Malay sultanate. they are so well integrated as to have made their difference an emblem; secure enough in their ethnic identity that they move to highlight it, rather...

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