Indonesia’s Religious Repression
Jakarta’s official ideology of tolerance is a myth, as persecuted Shias and Christians can well attest.
(The WSJ) – The number of attacks on religious freedom is growing year on year. These include violent attacks on religious minorities, imprisonment of religious leaders, and the closure of Christian churches and of mosques belonging to the minority Ahmadi sect. The Setara Institute, which publishes annual reports on religious freedom, documented 264 violations in 2012, up from 244 in 2011, 216 in 2010 and 200 in 2009.
According to its guiding political philosophy, Pancasila, Indonesia is a land of religious tolerance. The country’s six recognized religions–Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism and Hinduism–supposedly enjoy equal protection under the law and equal right of worship in the Muslim-majority nation. Pancasila is Indonesia’s official ideology: Children nationwide have been taught to believe it since the country’s independence in 1945. Pancasila is also a myth.
Although Islam has never been the state religion, radical Islamism is not a recent phenomenon. Indonesia’s independence year of 1945 saw the near-passage of the Jakarta Charter, which would have established an Islamic state with sharia law. It was only through the improvisations of Indonesia’s founding President, Sukarno, that Pancasila prevailed. Over the past decade, hovever, radical Islamist voices have grown louder and more aggressive, and as a result they have gained influence over policy makers.
The number of attacks on religious freedom is growing year on year. These include violent attacks on religious minorities, imprisonment of religious leaders, and the closure of Christian churches and of mosques belonging to the minority Ahmadi sect. The Setara Institute, which publishes annual reports on religious freedom, documented 264 violations in 2012, up from 244 in 2011, 216 in 2010 and 200 in 2009.
Apologists paint these events as isolated incidents, largely confined to conservative areas such as West Java and Aceh where sharia law has been introduced. The ugly truth, however, is that intolerance has spread nationwide. In West Java, East Java, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, South Sulawesi and Lombok, I hear stories of violence and hatred—not one-off incidents, but patterns of intolerance.
