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Since 2011 Indonesia has experienced a rise in intra-Muslim sectarian violence, with Shi'a and Ahmadi communities becoming the target of radical Sunni groups. Taking as point of departure the attacks on Shi'a Muslims and the rapid polarization of Sunni and Shi'i identities, this article aims at deconstructing the "Shi'a" category. Identifying examples of how since the early century of the Islamization devotion for the Prophet Muhammad and his progeny (herein referred to as 'Alid piety) has been incorporated in the archipelago's "Sunni" religious rituals, and contrasting them to programmatic forms of Shi'ism (adherence to Ja'fari fiqh) which spread in the socio-political milieu of the 1970s-1990s. This article argues not only that historically there has been much devotional common ground between "Sunni" and "Shi'a", but also that in the last decade much polarization has occurred within the "Shi'a" group between those who value local(ized) forms of ritual and knowledge, and those who seek models of orthopraxy and orthodoxy abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]