This study concluds that Islamic identity negotiation shown by Minang
people on Nias’ people Christian identity was not merely in the form of stating and
defining it, but also in the form of self-identity changes and supports of other
identities. It was proved by keeping sharing the inheritance with the family members
who had different beliefs, harmony in marriage/custom traditions, non-Muslim
leadership, pig farms, and the most striking was the existence of two churches in a
Nagari. This condition showed that tolerance and respect for diversity are firmly
rooted in the socio-religions life of Minang people though it only appears in family
and community life scales.
This study is against with the study by Saiful Mujani dkk (2005), Robin
Bush (2008), Melissa Crouch (2009, 2012) which shows that the strengthening of
attitudes and Islamic movement in West Sumatera is correlated by the existence of
intolerance feeling, rejections on diversity, and abandonment of women’s and non�Muslim rights. In addition, the findings of this research were different from the that
of stated by Afthonul Afif (2009) and Mina Elfira (2011) who mentioned that moral
and material punishment experienced by their participants (Minang people) due to
different religious marriage or religion convert due to the marriage of different
religions. Further, Delmus Puneri Salim (2015) contended that sharia local
regulatory policy as Muslim fashion and alms were considered as marginalizing and
refusing non-Muslim as the basic identification associated by identity and ABS-SBK
philosophy. In contrast, this study was in line with that of stated by Erniwati (2011)
who argued that there was a strong relationship between Minagkabau ethnicity with
“Padang Chinese.” However, the relationship intended was as a socio-economic
power which was dominant in Padang city. Additionally, a study by Wahidul Kohar
(2008) mentioned that Minang immigrants Ethnicity became a communication
bridge between Minang local people and Javanese Immigrants in Nagari Lunang,
West Sumatera. Yet, the communication was limited to intercultural communication
only, not inter-religion.
This research was descriptive, explanative, and analytical by giving a detailed
illustration on a case or phenomenon, explaining factors and arguments underlying
the topic, and giving analysis from a lot of concepts and theories. The place of this
study is in West Sumatera, Seberang Palinggam Administrative Village, Padang
City and Kenagarian Sungai Buluah, Padang Pariaman Regency. The object of this
research was Minang-Muslim People and Nias-Christian people. The source of data
for this research was observation. Interviews and documentation/archive were as
primary sources; books, journals, articles were the secondary data sources for this
research.
Keywords: negotiation, identity, Minangkabau, Nias