Rita Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
The sound of the muezzin echoes on a chilly February morning.
In many areas of the nation where Muslims are a majority, such a call to prayer is commonplace. This is not the case, however, in Bali.
This particular prayer is issuing from a small mosque in Banjar Kwanji, Dalung district, some 15 kilometers north of Denpasar. Most of the residents living around the mosque are Balinese Hindus.
Alongside the mosque is a church, which is always full every Saturday and Sunday for services. Ten meters more to the north, there is a beautiful Hindu shrine.
Unsurprisingly, the sounds of the muezzin, the ringing of church bells and the rhythmic Hindu chanting fill up the sky in this small village surrounded by green paddy fields and new housing complexes.
""We have created a harmonious environment for our villagers, some of them who come from Java and other areas outside Bali,"" said Nyoman Karyasa, a long-time resident of Banjar Kwanji. People of different faiths respected and helped each other here, he said.
About 90 percent of Bali's estimated 3.5 million population are Hindus, while the remaining 10 percent comprise Muslims, Protestants, Buddhists and Catholics.
Non-Hindu minorities, however, have found no difficulty establishing places of worship on the island of the gods.
Halidi, a Muslim leader from the Al-Muawatul Hariyah Mosque in Kampung Bugis, one of the largest Muslim enclaves in Bali, said that Muslims had a long history here. ""We were given this plot of land by the King of Pemecutan, a devout Hindu royal.""
""We have long had good relations with the royal family of Pemecutan. If they have a big ceremony, we immediately lend a hand. The royal family has been so generous,"" he said.
In Bali, places of worship are constructed through mutual religious consultation rather than by a piece of paper issued by a government institution.
And Baby, a Catholic priest who lives in the area, believes the new ministerial decree regulating places of worhsip is against universal human rights and the state Pancasila ideology.
""This planned decree is a form of interference into the private life of citizens in terms of religious issues,"" Baby said.
""In the last 10 years, Bali set up an interfaith communication forum in which religious leaders work closely to share and solve any problems between groups that might arise,"" Baby said.
According to Baby, providing space for communication and cooperation among religious groups was much more important than issuing a rigid policy that in the end would only harm relations.
Protestant minister and Bandung Churches Association head Wayan Sudira Husada said the people of Bali openly welcomed ""guests from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds.""
Despite their openness, Bali's ""guests"" or non-Hindus, still had to respect the culture and religion of their hosts, he said.
The island's provincial government has issued its own regulation on the establishment of places of worship. It requires the approval of at least 100 families in the area before a non-Hindu place of worship can be built.
""Such a regulation may discourage people from constructing a place of worship, but with the right 'heart-to-heart' approach, the local people would likely give the plan the nod,"" Wayan said.
Regular meetings with Banjar officials and members also eliminated misunderstandings between non-Hindu and Hindu populations, he said.
""We need to set up a bottom-up approach -- from the Banjar people to the government. Not the other way around,"" Wayan said.
""In the forum, Hindu religious and community leaders together with leaders from other faiths work together to create a peaceful Bali.
