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West Kalimantan’s Singkawang most tolerant city, Banten’s Cilegon most intolerant: Setara
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'Toleransi Beragama' (Religious Tolerance) by Suprapto, which took home first place in Lomba Foto Astra 2021's general public category.
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s religious tolerance has stagnated in the past year throughout the country, West Kalimantan’s Singkawang was found to be the most tolerant city in the country while Banten’s Cilegon is the most intolerant, a study by human rights advocacy group Setara Institute revealed.
The 2022 study measured the religious tolerance of 94 cities across Indonesia based on the regional regulations toward religious tolerance, social dynamics, actions by the city administration as well as each city’s social and religious demographics.
Singkawang is ranked first, followed by Salatiga in Central Java in second place and Bekasi in West Java in third place.
While Singkawang and Salatiga have usually been ranked high in Setara’s tolerance index, Bekasi is a success story, as it was ranked 93rd out of 94 cities in 2015, but it improved over time: by 2017, it ranked 53rd.
Setara Institute researcher Ismail Hasani said as Setara’s Tolerance City Index entered its sixth iteration, it had helped to improve religious tolerance in cities as they sought to improve themselves in response to the index.
He pointed out that Bekasi was among the 10 least tolerant cities when Setara first launched the tolerance index, but the city administration kept improving until it reached the top three in the 2022 index.
“This is not just because cities wanted to be assessed by Setara, but they realize Setara’s publications have an impact on the cities themselves; for example, being read by the Home Ministry for evaluation,” Ismail said during the launch of Setara’s 2022 Tolerant City Index on Thursday.
