The Religious Affairs Ministry has released a new translation of the Koran in an effort to reduce Islamic radicalism. However, the ministry refused to consider the new translation as state product.
“It is a joint product, between the state and the Indonesian people,” director general of guidance to Islam community Nasaruddin Umar said Wednesday during a national forum on radicalism and terrorism in Jakarta, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Nasaruddin said the newest translation of the Koran aimed to better communicate the Islamic teachings to Indonesian Muslims.
“The [previous] Koran translation has the potential to breed radicalism. That is because the Indonesian vocabulary is very limited,” he said.
Nasaruddin took “love” in Arabic as an example.
“In Indonesian, there is only one word for ‘love’. Yet, the Koran has 14 different words for varying degrees of love,” he added.
Nasaruddin said he hoped the new translation would not be interpreted as a state product because it might lead to resistance. He confirmed that some organizations had expressed resistance toward the new translation.
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