Indonesia’s Home Affairs Minister is speaking out against a new bylaw that would force residents of Bengkulu Province in South Sumatra to pray five times daily and visit the mosque on Friday or face punishment. The Religious Affairs Ministry of the province claims this falls within their jurisdiction, while the federal government disagrees. In November, nineteen district government employees in a separate part of Indonesia were fired for failing to attend 5 a.m. prayers. Indonesia publicly claims to be one of the most tolerant nations in the world when it comes to religious diversity, but recent years have seen a spike in church closings and attacks on religious minorities by hard-line Islamic political groups.
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