In the October 2022 issue of the Cornell-based journal Indonesia, I was very pleased to have an article with my colleague Dr. Saipul Hamdi of Universitas Mataram on the process of “reconciliation” in the Islamic organization Nahdlatul Wathan (based on Lombok) and the role of the national government in that process. You can see the full article at https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/255/article/869998/summary
Here is the abstract:
The Islamic organization Nahdlatul Wathan is the most influential religious group on the island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara province, but since the death of its founder in 1997 the group has been split between two factions. This article examines the conflict, its endurance, and especially its supposed resolution in 2021, when the two sides entered into an agreement brokered by the government to operate under different names. This reconciliation is not only important to settle a conflict simmering throughout the Reformasi era, but it also forms an important example of the Indonesian central government being centrally involved in resolving a social conflict, suggesting a new direction for government involvement in 21st-century Indonesia.
This was a fun collaboration to write, because Pak Saipul has long been a leading scholar of Islamic life on Lombok and especially within NW. It is not a complete story, though, because the fall-out from the new arrangement where NW-Anjani and NW-Pancor formally separated into two different organizations with two different names has not solved the animosity between the two sides. It seems that social media sniping and ill will have not abated at all after the so-called “reconciliation” (islah) process.