Religion in Indonesia
Overview of religion in Indonesia / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Several different religions are practised in Indonesia. Indonesia is officially a presidential republic and a unitary state without an established state religion.[2][3] Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population[4][5] and the first principle of Indonesia's philosophical foundation, Pancasila, requires its citizens to state the belief in "the one and almighty God".[6][7] Although, as explained by the Constitutional Court, this first sila of Pancasila is an explicit recognition of divine substances (i.e. divine providence) and meant as a principle on how to live together in a religiously diverse society.[8] However, blasphemy is a punishable offence (since 1965, see § History) and the Indonesian government has a discriminatory attitude towards its numerous tribal religions, atheist and agnostic citizens.[9] In addition, the Aceh province officially applies Sharia law and is notorious for its discriminatory practices towards religious and sexual minorities.[10] There are also Islamic fundamentalist movements in several parts of the country with overwhelming Muslim majorities.[11]
Several different religions are practised in the country, and their collective influence on the country's political, economic and cultural life is significant. Despite constitutionally guaranteeing freedom of religion,[12] the government back in 1965 recognises only six religions: Islam, Christianity (Catholicism, under the label of "Katolik", and Protestantism, under the label of "Kristen" are recognised separately), Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.[13] [14] In that same year, the government specified that it will not ban other religions, specifically mentioning Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Shinto, and Taoism as examples.[13] According to a 2017 decision of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia, "the branches/flows of beliefs" (Indonesian: aliran kepercayaan) - ethnic religions with new religious movements - must be recognised and included in an Indonesian identity card (KTP).[15][16] Based on data collected by the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), there are about 245 unofficial religions in Indonesia.[17]
From 1975 to 2017, Indonesian law mandated that its citizens possess an identity card indicating their religious affiliation, which could be chosen from a selection of those six recognised religions.[18] However, since 2017, citizens who do not identify with those religions have the option to leave that section blank on their identity card.[9] Although there is no apostasy law preventing Indonesians from converting to any religion, Indonesia does not recognise agnosticism or atheism, and blasphemy is considered illegal.[19] According to Ministry of Religious Affairs data in 2022, 87.02% of Indonesians identified themselves as Muslim (with Sunnis about 99%,[20] Shias about 1%[21]), 10.49% Christians (7.43% Protestants, 3.06% Roman Catholic), 1.69% Hindu, 0.73% Buddhists, 0.03% Confucians and 0.04% others.[1]