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Activists revive calls to revoke discriminatory policies after pope's visit
Following Pope Francis's messages urging interfaith dialogue, upholding tolerance and protecting diversity during his Indonesia visit, rights advocates have called on the government to take up the mantle by revoking discriminatory policies, such as the controversial 2006 decree deemed to restrict the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of minority religions in the country.
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Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque Nasaruddin Umar (left) shakes hands with Pope Francis after an interreligious meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on September 5, 2024. (AFP/Tiziana Fabi)
H
uman rights activists have called for the government to take more decisive action to undo discriminatory and environmentally damaging policies, framing Pope Francis’s push for interfaith dialogue to solve global humanitarian and environmental crises as a wake-up call.
Among the last items on the 87-year-old pontiff’s itinerary for his Jakarta visit was signing the Istiqlal Declaration, which urges religious leaders to take collaborative efforts in addressing humanitarian and environmental crises, including interfaith conflict.
Indonesia was the first stop on Pope Francis’s his 12-day Asia-Pacific tour.
While lauding the declaration as a milestone for improving interfaith ties among Indonesia’s six official religions, activists warned the government and religious leaders to avoid oversimplifying the four points contained in the declaration.
“There is a strong impression that the Indonesian government is trying to downplay the pope’s concern, as if the main problem lies only in pluralism and religious tolerance while everything else is fine,” said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, calling such behavior “too reductionist”.
He argued that the more urgent issue facing the people at present was the state’s continuing engagement in acts of intolerance, including criminalizing people under the draconian blasphemy law.
Among the examples Usman cited was the blasphemy case that resulted in the 2017 conviction of Meliana, a Chinese Indonesian in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, for complaining about the volume of adzan (call to prayer) blasted from the loudspeakers of a local mosque.
