Religion in Indonesia

Several different religions are practised in Indonesia. It is officially a presidential republic and a unitary state without an established state religion. 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, the government in 1965 recognised six religions: Islam, Christianity (Catholicism, under the label of "Katolik", and Protestantism, under the label of "Kristen" are recognised separately), Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Quotes about One of the things that I always valued so much about Indonesia, when I was growing up, was people were devout Muslims but they also tolerated to others, other cultures. Barack Obama, Interview with Putra Nababan in the White House (March 2010) The political significance of Indonesian Islam, including Javanese Islam, stems in no small measure from the fact that in Islam the borderline between religion and politics is, at best very thin. Islam is a way of life as much as a religion…. Islam does not recognize the existence of independent, secular realms of life…. Separation of religion and politics, in other words, was, at best a temporary phenomenon of Islam in decline. In an era of Islamic awakening, it could not survive for long, either in independent Muslim lands or in Islamic areas ruled by non-Muslims…. Harry J. Benda, 1958. Benda. The Crescent and the Rising Sun, pp. 13, 29, 57. Like other Muslims, Indonesian Islamic leaders—reformists, hardly less than orthodox—were thus by Western standards not only lacking in political experience, but were, by the nature of their orientation and training, ill-equipped to formulate political goals as such. The santri {Javanese practitioners of a more orthodox Islam} civilization, in other words, is not a political ideal so much as the idealization of a religious community—the ummah—which would subsume within its all-embracing confines all walks of life, subordinating the state to the dictates of the Islamic ethic…. If given political expression in Darul Islam—the so-called “Islamic State”—the political program of Islam is limited to postulating a state which, irrespective of its constitutional form, economic organization, and social composition, is to be ruled by Muslims in accordance with Islamic Law. Harry J. Benda, 1958. Benda. The Crescent and the Rising Sun, pp. 13, 29, 57. External links Category:Indonesia Indonesia