How Indonesia’s model of inclusion and religious tolerance can root out extremism in the region

In Southeast Asia – where religious conflict had traditionally been limited – the past few years have seen a dramatic rise in extremism, along with a serious threat to regional stability and the previous spirit of tolerance.

In Myanmar, Buddhist nationalists have successfully pushed for the passage of discriminatory laws targeting minority religions, particularly Muslims. Meanwhile, in the context of a brutal military campaign of ethnic cleansing against the minority Rohingya Muslims in the country’s west, the wider Myanmar population has embraced a religious-nationalist chauvinism that threatens the country’s shaky democratic transition.

In Malaysia, hardline Islamic groups have become increasingly aggressive in their policing of the public sphere, and leaders have embraced the politicisation of religion as a way of securing votes and maintaining power.

In many cases, Southeast Asian politicians are responding to a bottom-up development: extreme religious views embraced by larger and larger swathes of the population, with no countervailing narrative or movement to push back against this tide.