Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post,
Most Indonesians insist on rejecting any form of religiously motivated violence and are worried that recent violent incidents against certain minority religious groups threaten Indonesia’s reputation as a tolerant nation, a survey concluded.
Setara chairman Hendardi said that 47.9 percent of the survey respondents believed that the country’s tolerance and religious harmony had declined.
“The recent religious violence, if not stopped, may intensify and threaten [overall] harmony,” he said.
The survey of 3,000 respondents of various faiths, professions and educational backgrounds, took place from July 10 to July 25.
Muslims accounted for 95.1 percent of the survey respondents, while 2.8 percent were Protestants, 1.4 percent Catholics and the remainder Hindus and others.
The surveyed respondents, all aged above 17, lived in 47 regencies and cities spread across 10 of the country’s 33 provinces.
Setara deputy chair, Bonar Tigor Naipospos, said that the survey result inclined him to believe that violence by extreme religious groups would eventually fade to zero, despite a minority of the survey’s respondents who approved of the use of violence to defend their religion.
Categories: Indonesia