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ost Indonesians insist on rejecting any form of religiously motivated violence and are worried that recent violent incidents against certain minority religious groups threaten Indonesia’s reputation as a tolerant nation, a survey concluded.

Setara chairman Hendardi said that 47.9 percent of the survey respondents believed that the country’s tolerance and religious harmony had declined.

“The recent religious violence, if not stopped, may intensify and threaten [overall] harmony,” he said.

The survey of 3,000 respondents of various faiths, professions and educational backgrounds, took place from July 10 to July 25.

Muslims accounted for 95.1 percent of the survey respondents, while 2.8 percent were Protestants, 1.4 percent Catholics and the remainder Hindus and others.

The surveyed respondents, all aged above 17, lived in 47 regencies and cities spread across 10 of the country’s 33 provinces.

Setara deputy chair, Bonar Tigor Naipospos, said that the survey result inclined him to believe that violence by extreme religious groups would eventually fade to zero, despite a minority of the survey’s respondents who approved of the use of violence to defend their religion.

He further explained that the fact that 69 percent of the respondents said they disagreed with hard-line groups that often used violence to “defend” their religion must be seen as a key indicator that Indonesians are actually content to live harmoniously with others of different backgrounds.

He cited a part of the survey that saw 22.9 percent of respondents saying they believed that the Cikeusik attack was “orchestrated” or “driven” by certain parties whose interests were actually not religious at all.

“It shows that many believe the attack was not purely driven by religious motives,” Bonar said.

A group of residents attacked an Ahmadi residence in Cikeusik village, Banten, in February, killing three Ahmadis and injuring another five.

The Serang District Court convicted 12 men for assault.

An Ahmadi was also convicted of disobedience and assault in the case.

None were proven guilty of murder.

The Cikeusik case culminated a series of acts of intolerance towards minority groups in Indonesia.

There had previously been attempts to hinder Christian religious activities in several regions.

The recent survey also showed that most of respondents disagreed with religious leaders who delivered hate speeches during sermons.

The majority, 37.4 percent, of respondents said they would leave a sermon if it was used to spread hate.

As many as 43.1 percent of respondents said the government should warn any religious leader who preaches hate, while 14.3 percent said law enforcement officials must disband any forum used to spread hate and arrest the speaker.

In April, a survey by the Institute for Islam and Peace Studies (LaKIP), which questioned more than 600,000 high school students in Greater Jakarta, ended up with a conclusion that contradicted the Setara study.

LaKIP’s survey showed that 48.9 percent of students were willing to be involved in acts of religious violence and that 41.1 percent of students were willing to vandalize the houses of worship of other religions.

Last month a survey by the Pantau Foundation showed that 64.3 percent of 600 Indonesian journalists surveyed by the study agreed that the religious sect Ahmadiyah should be banned.