RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN INDONESIA: Between Upholding Constitutional Provisions and Complying with Social Considerations

Abstract

Human rights, including freedom of religion, are generally accepted and granted by all governments regardless of their ideology, political, economic, and social conditions. In a Muslim majority country such as Indonesia, ideally freedom of religion is considered to mean that the government allows religious practices of religious minorities or other sects besides the state religion, and does not persecute believers in other faiths. This paper discusses Indonesia's constitutional provisions concerning legal rights of citizens on freedom of religion, whether the government upholds the constitution as a concrete way to deal with human rights protection or it complies with some groups' demand to tighten restrictions on "the Western concept of" religious liberty. This paper concludes that even though there are many provisions in the Indonesia's constitution and in its legal system which is supportive of religious freedom, some governmental provisions were enacted based on social considerations, rather than to strengthen constitutional provisions.

How Democracy Affects Religious Freedom in Muslim Majority Countries

“…Interestingly, this official status of 'six agama' do not come from the 1945 constitution of Indonesia, rather it stems from the presidential decree No. 1/1965 of President Soekarno on the Prevention of Abuse and Disrespect of Religion (Maula, 2013). Interestingly though as mentioned before Islam was not declared state religion but the Article 29 (1) of the 1945 constitution reads that 'The State shall be based upon the belief in the One and Only God'.…”

“…The extensive search conducted for the relevant literature shows a good amount of academic literature is already available on the  129 condition of religious minorities and religious freedom in Pakistan (Mahmud, 1995;Malik, 2005;Ferrie, 2009;Isphahani, 2013;and Majid, 2014). Similarly, so much is written about the religious minorities and religious freedom in Indonesia (Ichwan, 2013;Maula, 2013;and Marshall, 2018). However, interestingly, there is little research available in both countries on the connection of democracy or a regime-type with the religious freedom.…”

“…In the first category, they put countries, which declare themselves as an Islamic-State in their constitution; the countries in the second category declare Islam as the official religion of the state; the countries in the third category declare themselves as a secular-state; and the countries in the fourth category are those, which did not make any constitutional declaration regarding the Islamic or secular nature of the state. They have placed Indonesia in the fourth category because there is no reference to Islam in the 1945 constitution of Indonesia (Maula, 2013).…”

“…The government requires every Indonesian citizen to hold a National Identity Card (ID) where they must mention one of those six official religions in religion column as they cannot mention any other religion. This compels Sikhs to mention Hinduism in the religion column for ID cards and marriages and similarly aliran kepercayaan mostly mention Islam in the religion column (Maula, 2013).…”

Legitimacy of the Dissolution of Beliefs by Community Organizations

“…The concept of freedom itself is very broad in scope. Freedom can mean the authority or the right to do or speak (Maula, 2013).…”