ONE MOSQUE, TWO QIBLAHS: Understanding the Difference in Qiblah Direction of the Nagari Suayan Mosque in West Sumatera, Indonesia

The difference in qiblah direction found among the congregation of the Nagari Suayan Mosque in Lima Puluh Kota Regency of West Sumatera began as there was an initiative to remeasure the qiblah direction by a caretaker and imam of the mosque. The difference had turned into a conflict between the Straight Qiblah congregation and the Skewed Qiblah congregation due to the lack of communication and dissemination regarding the change in qiblah direction. While in fact, facing the direction of qiblah during salat is a belief that both groups distinctly hold. This article explains the various contexts that underlie the difference and the idea of intragroup tolerance, which is the most significant finding in this study. Intragroup tolerance in practicing religion refers to the ability or willingness to tolerate differences in the rituals/practices found among varying congregations of the same religion. The research indicates that tolerating differences is part of a journey toward peace between two differing parties, and it may have implication on developing the definition of tolerance

A probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Indonesia

Probabilistic hazard assessments are a fundamental tool for assessing the threats posed by hazards to communities and are important for underpinning evidence-based decision-making regarding risk mitigation activities. Indonesia has been the focus of intense tsunami risk mitigation efforts following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, but this has been largely concentrated on the Sunda Arc with little attention to other tsunami prone areas of the country such as eastern Indonesia. We present the first nationally consistent probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment (PTHA) for Indonesia. This assessment produces time-independent forecasts of tsunami hazards at the coast using data from tsunami generated by local, regional and distant earthquake sources. The methodology is based on the established monte carlo approach to probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) and has been adapted to tsunami. We account for sources of epistemic and aleatory uncertainty in the analysis through the use of logic trees and sampling probability density functions. For short return periods (100 years) the highest tsunami hazard is the west coast of Sumatra, south coast of Java and the north coast of Papua. For longer return periods (500–2500 years), the tsunami hazard is highest along the Sunda Arc, reflecting the larger maximum magnitudes. The annual probability of experiencing a tsunami with a height of > 0.5 m at the coast is greater than 10% for Sumatra, Java, the Sunda islands (Bali, Lombok, Flores, Sumba) and north Papua. The annual probability of experiencing a tsunami with a height of > 3.0 m, which would cause significant inundation and fatalities, is 1–10% in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok and north Papua, and 0.1–1% for north Sulawesi, Seram and Flores. The results of this national-scale hazard assessment provide evidence for disaster managers to prioritise regions for risk mitigation activities and/or more detailed hazard or risk assessment