Human Rights Without Religions: The Polemic in Establishing Churches and The Dilemma of Implementing Human Rights in Aceh Singkil

Abstract

The house of worship development raises problems such as the destruction and closure of churches that took place in Aceh Singkil from 1978 to 2015. The conflict does not grow from religious sentiments but rather was the contestation of ethnic identity and economic interests. The problem of church burning conflicts is always addressed with the conclusion of religious intolerance and discrimination that creates identity traps’ between Islam and Christianity. Whereas, historically, Islam and Christianity in Aceh Singkil are from the descendants of the same ancestor (marga). This research is based on literature studies with qualitative methods. To see how the constellation that occurs in religion and politics defines local rituals in minor communities in Singkel, this study uses a developmentalism theory and religious discourse on human rights analysis in order to be able to see religious rituals and ethnic segregation in the discourse of economic circulations.