Protests at Israel’s participation in the Under-20 World Cup cost Indonesia its hosting rights. The programme Insight examines whether identity and Islam will also make for a volatile mix leading up to next year’s presidential election.
Beyond that, it shows the mix of politics, religion and identity in a country that has the world’s largest Muslim population and has long been regarded as a bastion of moderate Islam.
The 2019 presidential election — which saw President Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, win a second term — was marked by disinformation that stoked ethnic and religious tensions. Some hard-line groups accused him of being anti-Islam, for example. , although the country’s two largest Islamic organisations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, are known for a moderate brand of Islam.
Extremist groups were banned under former president Suharto, who was in power for 32 years until 1998. “We’ll never reject a caliphate concept. Rejecting the caliphate is apostasy,” declared Novel Bamukmin, a senior member of the Islamic Brotherhood Front, a group viewed by some as the reincarnation of the Islamic Defenders Front.The latter, which Indonesia, was known for raiding bars and brothels during the fasting month as well as for targeting non-practising Muslims and religious minorities.
Indonesia has had diverse cultures even before Islam came to the country, pointed out research professor Dewi Fortuna Anwar. Years earlier, in 2006, a decree issued by the Religious Affairs Ministry and Home Ministry stipulated that a house of worship could be constructed only with the approval of at least 90 worshippers and 60 others living in the area.
“Is conservatism growing? The answer is yes, … but it happens sporadically,” said Jimmy Sormin, executive secretary of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia.
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