Findings by Group 2
Elin, Solveig, Tiri and Sigbjørn
The Lombok people seem friendly and welcoming to us, but also quite conservative and very committed to their religion. Because of the decentralization reforms in Indonesia since 2001, more power has been given to the local leaders in Lombok, who happen to be more orientated towards religion. The leaders give their preference to the pesantren instead of public schools. After interviewing some of the religious leaders, we got the impression that the different religious groups in Lombok were living in harmony.
Our experience, however, was quite different. We got the impression that people with another religion than Islam did not want to make a high profile. They were afraid this would result in conflict. One of the religious leaders we interviewed claimed that when religion and politics are tied together, this will have a positive effect on the development in Lombok. This, he claimed, is because religion teaches a higher moral.
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