What do Ethiopia, Senegal and Indonesia have in common? Any idea? 

Give up?

OK, they are the top three countries that consider religion important, respectively at 98, 97 and 95 percent (compared to say, the United States at 53 percent and the lowest, China, at 3 percent). This was the finding of a PEW Global Attitudes survey in 2015, but I don’t imagine it would be much different in 2019. What this means is that in these countries, religion features in virtually all aspects of an adherent’s life. 

The spate of last year’s natural disasters – in Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, Palu in Central Sulawesi and last, the Sunda Strait in December, brought no shortage of religious belief (superstition?) that these disasters were a punishment from God. 

It made me wonder, how do Muslims link religion w...

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.