What the Pope didn't see in Indonesia

“Fostering religious harmony for the sake of humanity is the path we are called to follow,” declared Pope Francis while visiting Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, on September 5.

Religious tolerance has been the leitmotif of the papal visit to Indonesia, the first since 1989. For many in Indonesia, a nation often embroiled in sectarian strife, the pope’s message of tolerance has been a welcome one.

Indonesia’s leaders are at least symbolically committed to the idea, as seen in the tunnel connecting Istiqlal to the Catholic cathedral opposite it or heard in the national slogan of “Unity in Diversity,” which the pope praised in a speech while meeting with President Joko Widodo.

But while there is much to admire in Indonesia’s rhetorical embrace of tolerance, critics say day to day realities are less tolerant for religious minorities. At the same time, some worry politics is moving in an even less tolerant direction.

On the plus side, the public response to the papal visit in this 80% Muslim nation has been overwhelmingly positive. The pope’s outspokenness on the plight of Rohingyas and Palestinians had already earned him goodwill.

His relatively low-key style went down well with a public accustomed to leaders surrounded by ostentatious luxury. Indonesians were delighted by the pope’s rejection of a fancy car for transport in favor of an everyday Toyota Innova Zenix, where he then sat in the front seat by the driver and waved to crowds from a casually rolled-down window.

Mainstream media outlets and social media users have delightedly dissected everything from Pope Francis’ decision to fly commercially rather than by private jet to his cheap watch and worn shoes.

Near GBK stadium, where the pope held a mass, a handful of Muslims could be spotted accompanying Catholic friends. One woman paired a headscarf with deely-boppers bearing the pope’s face and a message of welcome.

Even a government request that TV channels not interrupt the papal mass by playing the usual evening call to prayer – replacing it instead with a text notice on the screen – failed to provoke much controversy.

The Prosperous Justice Party, Indonesia’s only Islamist party, grumbled. Still, its leaders were careful not to criticize the pope, suggesting it had been the government’s idea and framed their complaints in terms of tolerance.

“Honestly, continuing as usual would show the beauty of tolerance in this country,” said Jaizul Juwaini, the party’s parliamentary leader. “The mass continues and the call to prayer can also still be broadcast and there’s no problem.”

Meanwhile, representatives from other major Muslim organizations firmly said the gesture of courtesy to Catholics was not an issue.

Indonesia has long cultivated the idea of itself as a nation committed to interfaith tolerance and moderate Islam. Islam in Java – where over half of Indonesia’s population lives – has also often taken on a distinctly local twang sitting alongside and even syncretizing with pre-existing Hindu-Buddhist culture and other local beliefs.

Politics has also played a role. The country may be overwhelmingly Muslim, but Indonesia’s leaders, long worried their archipelagic nation could balkanize, are acutely aware that non-Muslims form majorities or large minorities in other areas.

To avoid conflict, the constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Admittedly, the constitution also says the state is based on “one almighty God” – a sop to Islamic groups who wanted to establish an explicitly Islamic state post-independence.

But for administrative purposes, the state recognizes six religions and has recently given some status to other beliefs – stretching one almighty god to somehow include recognition of not just Muslims, Protestants, and Catholics but also Hindus, Buddhists, Confucians and various local religious groups.

While the country saw a worrying spike in religious violence in the early 2000s, tough counterterrorism efforts have brought this once-potent threat largely under control.

Christian – or, for that matter, Hindu, Buddhist and other – communities do not face the sort of persecution that has driven an exodus of minority religious communities from large swathes of the Middle East.

“Still, we can’t just compare ourselves to the Middle East though or other foreign countries – we need to look at how things are here,” says Ihsan Ali-Fauzi, a leading member of the Coalition for the Freedom of Religion or Belief.

For him, the main issue is a desire for social peace and harmony that when necessary can trump liberties. Indonesia’s model basically relies on giving officially recognized religions enough space to coexist, with limited space for intermingling or heterodoxy.

Marriages, for example, remain religious affairs in law. So interfaith unions are not allowed in law – with a Supreme Court ruling last year closing a loophole of trying to get courts to register the marriages. The best option for couples is usually one party converting – and sometimes then reverting – or marrying abroad.

Another major issue is a 2006 ministerial decree requiring local approval to build new houses of worship, making religious minorities dependent on the will of the majority for permission. The result can be an effective veto in some areas.

Just south of Jakarta, for instance, the John the Baptist Catholic parish has been waiting for such permissions since 1993. Churches that receive permission often might find themselves subject to restrictions like not displaying crosses in places visible to passersby.

Even Muslims can find themselves affected by these regulations, mostly the Ahmadis, Bahais or even Shia who are viewed as heretics by some Sunnis, who represent the majority of Indonesia’s Muslims.

But, in 2018, a mainline mosque in Jayapura in the Indonesian province of Papua found itself subject to demands to dismantle its minaret because it stood higher than the steeples of all the churches attended by local Christians, who formed a majority in the area.

Intriguingly, the Indonesian Ulema Council, an influential Muslim body, actually argued Christian demands should be respected provided that they were “appropriate.”

With political devolution post-democratization in 1998, dynamics are often hyper-local. Christin Rinawati, an Indonesian Catholic, described the stark difference between living in the province of Yogyakarta, in southcentral Java, and Bekasi, West Java, just a few hours away.

In the former, her Muslim neighbors are happy to receive a courtesy Christmas visit. In the latter, some responded coldly to this and local Catholics even feared complaints about gathering for choir practice in private homes.

Even in Yogyakarta dynamics can vary starkly as some neighborhoods have only one cemetery for Christians and Muslims alike. Others segregate burials or even object to Christian residents moving in.

On a national level, some worry that Indonesia is slowly becoming less tolerant. “Things may have been easier for religious minorities under Suharto’s dictatorship,” says Ihsan.

“This isn’t necessarily because mentalities have changed. But because then we were ruled with an iron fist. Democracy has given hardline groups the opportunity to promote their views and agitate,” Ihsan adds.  

Indonesia’s strict blasphemy laws, which ban insult to any religion, have become a rallying point for Islamic hardliners. People who have fallen afoul of such accusations include a Muslim influencer who filmed himself trying pork on social media and a bar that unwisely courted publicity with an offer of free drinks to anyone named Muhammad.

More gravely, in 2017, Indonesia was rocked by accusations that the Chinese Christian governor of Jakarta, Basuki “Ahok” Purnama, then running for reelection, had committed blasphemy.

Mass protests ensued, and while some Muslim leaders spoke out against the demonstrations, other key leaders threw their weight behind them, either out of genuine belief or fear of being outflanked in piety.

Purnama would go on to lose the election and be convicted of blasphemy, for which he served two years in prison.

“These religious tensions are often caused by political factors,” argues Father Baskara, a senior Jesuit in Indonesia. “As long as politicians don’t use religious issues as their way of getting things, then we are ok.”

Indeed, the priest takes an optimistic view of tolerance in Indonesia, saying he feels things have improved over the past few years. Even the resurgence of the Israel-Palestine conflict hasn’t had repercussions for religious harmony in Indonesia in the same way it has in the past, he claims.

A clash between Islamic groups and pro-Israeli evangelical Christians did occur in North Sulawesi, but the government stepped in swiftly to tamp down the situation.

A government crackdown on hardline Islamist groups since 2017 may have also helped keep the calm, though the measures used against them raised certain hard questions about religious freedom.

Others, however, take a gloomier view. “You have to look at the number of discriminatory regulations,” says Andreas Harsono, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.

These, he argues, are slowly proliferating with regulations affecting not just houses of worship but also limited the right of Ahmadis to practice openly or pushing Muslim girls to wear headscarves at school regardless of their personal wishes.

Within the strictures of these regulations, communities negotiate innumerable minor conflicts and can suffer small injustices, of which few actually make the news.