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Issues: Letter: RI is not a Muslim country
March 22, p
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strong>March 22, p. 8
I would like to comment regarding the use of the term “Muslim country” to describe Indonesia. Although this is something that is often done by just about every news source I have seen, read or listened to, including occasionally The Jakarta Post, in this case I refer to the repeated use of the term by a senior reporter for an Indonesian TV channel.
It is too personal to say the use of the term “Muslim country” to describe Indonesia is offensive to non-Muslim Indonesians, whose number in recent times has decreased thanks to long-term unjust treatment of East Timor resulting in its separation, or since the 1960s when Indonesians were forced to choose one of only five religions, and especially considering the fact that non-Muslims also fought for our independence.
My objection is simply the fact that constitutionally Indonesia is not a Muslim-country. I believe the correct term is a “Muslim-majority” country. My objection is the fact that the reporter is not someone who no one respects or listens to, and is not someone whose profession does not oblige him to report accurately using accurate terminology.
Using accurate words to describe ourselves is essential to preserving an accurate perception of our identity. (By John Paul, Jakarta)
Your comments:
How is Indonesia not a Muslim country? Isn’t it 90 percent Muslim? Is that not an overwhelming amount of people who culturally adhere
to a certain way of thinking and can thus as a nation be described generally as Muslim?
If you compare Indonesia to a truly cosmopolitan country like Australia, which is made up of an overwhelming number of different ethnicities, religions and belief systems, why bother to specify Indonesia as a “Muslim-majority country”.
Even if Australia was 90 percent white, who would bother to say a “white majority country”? Clearly
it would be white and people would of course know that doesn’t mean everyone.
And please, let’s not pretend that the constitution dominates the socio-political landscape when the police in Surabaya just banned
an international gay and lesbian convention.
Indonesia is a Muslim country. Muslim beliefs guide social consciousness.
Lauren
Palembang
We should not use religious or idealistic terminology to describe any country as it creates a hindrance to people of differing faiths living in RI. RI, like its neighbors Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and even Thailand is mostly multi-racial and multi-cultural.
This is a fact that cannot be disputed. It doesn’t mean that if for example Singapore is majority Chinese that it’s classed as a Taoist or Buddhist country or in the case of the Philippines or even Italy we should classify it as Catholic country.
There is simply no such thing.
And John I agree with your view that RI should be described as “Muslim-majority” country.
Good point!
One last point, majority simply means more than others. It doesn’t mean the majority owns all others!
L Tan
Batam, Riau Island
John Paul is correct! Indonesia is not a Muslim Country. Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country. Indonesia is a pluralist country with peoples of different ethnic backgrounds, beliefs and race.
Daniel Emerson
Indianapolis, US
If Indonesia is not a Muslim country, then why do they have a religious section of the government, why does the government allow a province (Aceh) to operate under Muslim (Sharia) law and why are Muslim groups like the FPI allowed to create havoc in the name of Islam?
To the world, it is indeed a Muslim country.
Exbrit
Probolinggo, East Java
Many times, when there is a news report on Indonesia, the terms “biggest Muslim-majority country”, or the “biggest Muslim country” are mentioned (as if it is a synonym for Indonesia).
I was also a bit bothered by this term, yet not from the same perspective of Mr. John Paul.
This term is being mentioned over and over again, every time there is a report about a terrorist attack, or where there is a report on any sensitive political and religious issue (usually in a negative manner, which could provoke the feelings of one group or the other).
Why do we never hear the terms “biggest Christian country”, “the biggest Buddhist country”, or “the biggest Hindu country” in the
news reported inside, and outside Indonesia?
The irritating factor is that this term is more used by the Indonesian media, addressed to Indonesians, or foreigners who already know much about the country.
Mohamed
Jakarta
The Pancasila, which is the so-called “philosophy” upon which the Indonesian so-called “republic” was founded, starts with something like: Everybody believes in a single god.
That just means Indonesia is a religious state, one that claims its faith in monotheism.
Whether this is an Islamic, Christian or Jewish state does not matter, since the God of all these three religions is the same and was created about 3,000 years ago.
The Jewish religion is not accepted in Indonesia (I wonder why), but basically it is the same as the two other monotheist religions.
The two other official religions of Indonesia are Hinduism and Buddhism, which are not monotheist, in contradiction with principle no. 1 of Pancasila.
This is one of the many contradictions and confusions you should start to think about. My last point is how can a nation based on such confused principles survive?
Filippo Gian Carlo
France
