ICC Note: Indonesia used to be known as a moderate Muslim-dominated nation.  That changed under Indonesia’s previous leadership, which seemed to encourage discrimination against religious minorities.  This article expresses hope that the new presidential administration of Joko Widodo will restore the country’s reputation as a nation of religious tolerance.   

By Ihsan Ali-Fauzi and Ben Hillman

06/08/2015 Indonesia (The Establishment Post)

During the past decade attacks on Indonesia’s religious minorities have cast a shadow over the county’s reputation as a tolerant and moderate Muslim-majority nation. Across the archipelago Christian, Buddhist, Ahmadi and Shi’ite communities have been exposed to increasing levels of discrimination, harassment, intimidation and violence, largely at the hands of Sunni hardliners.

On May 29 2014 seven people were injured during attacks on a Catholic prayer service in Sleman, Yogyakarta. In June 2014, stone-throwing Sunni hardliners attacked a nearby church claiming it did not have a building permit. On August 4, 2013, a bomb exploded in a Buddhist temple in Jakarta, injuring three people. The following day Molotov cocktails were thrown into the yard of a Catholic high school in Jakarta.

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Indonesia’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion but a range of national and local laws undercut the constitutional safeguard and provide a cover for religious bullies. The primary legal enabler of abuse against Indonesia’s religious minorities is the 1965 Presidential Decree on the Prevention of Religious Abuse and/or Defamation (Blasphemy Law) which defines and criminalises ‘deviant’ religious practices.

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The preceding administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) was routinely criticised for its failure to protect the rights and welfare of Indonesia’s religious minorities. At times the SBY government even appeared to encourage intolerant behaviour. In 2006 a Joint Ministerial Decree established the Inter-religious Harmony Forum, a council of religious leaders whose job was to facilitate the permit process for places of worship, but mounting evidence suggests that the Forum often hindered applications for Christian church permits.

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Hopes are now high among Indonesia’s religious minorities that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) will restore Indonesia’s reputation as a tolerant and pluralistic Muslim majority nation.

Jokowi has a record of taking a pluralistic approach. As governor of Jakarta, he defended a Christian district head when radical Muslims attacked her credentials. He was also known for his close working relationship with his deputy governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama who is Christian and of Chinese descent.

Significantly, in his 2014 presidential campaign Jokowi identified ‘intolerance and crisis in the nation’s character’ as one of the three main challenges facing Indonesia.

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