Although most young Indonesian Muslims see religion as a salient identity emphasizing Islamic values and attitudes, they approve democratic values, a survey shows.
The survey came amid increasing concern about radicalism among young Muslims, as students are reportedly the primary targets of radical Islamic movements.
An Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) poll found that 47.5 percent of the 1,496 Muslim respondents, aged between 15 and 25 years old and distributed across all 33 provinces, felt they were Muslims first and Indonesians second. Only 40.8 percent answered otherwise.
However, it was not a cause for concern, Burhanuddin Muhtadi of LSI said. “A similar survey recently conducted in Malaysia saw even more surprising numbers. About 80 percent of the respondents said they saw themselves as Muslims before Malaysians,” he told a press conference at the German culture center, the Goethe-Institut, in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Categories: Indonesia
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