Indonesia is an interesting phenomenon where Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists can live in one house or get along side-by-side peacefully.
An irony to religious tolerance
It has been years of agony for GKI Taman Yasmin Protestant church congregation members as Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto has defied a Supreme Court decision to allow them to attend Sunday mass in their place of worship.
Budiarto’s bureaucratic move reflects the failure of not only law enforcement in the city, but also of the country’s civil justice system.
A number of civil society groups under the Bhineka Tunggal Ika Forum, which also includes Muhammadiyah Student Association and Nahdatul Ulama’s Indonesian Islamic Student Association, have tried to resolve the issue to no avail. The Asian chapter of Human Rights Watch and the World Church Conference have also stepped in, but their efforts did not work either.
My research on Christian-Muslim Dialogue in Indonesia has come up with a unique Christian-Muslim relationship in Hunitetu land (negeri) in Maluku. Hunitetu is a predominantly Christian society with only one Muslim member of its population. Fascinatingly, the current Raja, the traditional leader of the area, is a Muslim. The only Muslim leads the Christian community.
Culturally speaking, the example of the negeri shows that unprejudiced relations are possible. The collective memory narrates that they are more Hunitetu people than Christians or Muslims.
Editor’s Note:
Unfortunately there is no acceptance for Ahmadiyyah Community and no accommodation for their right to religious freedom as permitted under the Pancasila of Indonesia