Support for interreligious conflict in Indonesia

Abstract

The study aims to extend knowledge on interreligious conflicts in Indonesia by investigating the extent to which perceived threat, outgroup distrust, and interreligious contact mediate the relationship between majority–minority affiliation and support for interreligious conflict in Indonesia. We employed two modes of support, lawful and violent protests, to represent support for interreligious conflict. We collected survey data, covering random samples of ordinary citizens (N = 2,055, Muslims and Christians) across the archipelago. Our results reveal that perceived threat is the strongest mediator in the relationship between majority–minority affiliation and support for interreligious conflict. In contrast, interreligious contact shows no significance in explaining the relationship of interest. Overall, our study highlights the importance of focusing on support for both lawful and violent protests to describe and explain latent interreligious conflict in Indonesia, while taking into account relevant concepts resulting from prolonged interreligious conflict (namely perceived threat and outgroup distrust) on the one hand and different traits of interreligious contact as highly potential solutions on the other.