T

he word kafir (infidel) has been entrenched in the mind of senior high school student Ursula Aletta Mannauli ever since her former neighbor called her by the term in the Muslim-majority area of Cilangkap subdistrict, East Jakarta, in 2012.

The 16-year-old voiced her regret that nothing much had changed since then.

She would be scrolling through Instagram posts of Catholic teachings only to find inappropriate comments about her religion below the posts.

“Many comment on how their religion is better than mine. I feel hurt and offended,” she said.

The encounter, however, did not dissuade her from joining the interfaith tour program Wisata Bhinneka in Cilincing district, North Jakarta, on Wednesday.

Held by tour operator Wisata Kreatif Jakarta in support of social foundation Indonesia untuk Kemanusiaan, the program was held for hundreds of high school and university students for two days, Wednesday and Thursday, in East Jakarta and Central Jakarta respectively.

Ursula was one of the 55 students from four senior high schools in East Jakarta; SMK Strada 3 Catholic vocational school, SMK Al-Miftahiyyah Islamic boarding vocational school and state schools SMAN 13 and SMAN 36, who participated in the tour on Wednesday.

The tour invited students to learn about other religions by visiting places of worship in Cilincing, including a Javanese Christian Church, the 400-year-old Al-Alam Mosque and Vihara Lalitavistara, and lastly Pura Segara temple.

About 119 students from five senior high schools and two universities participated on Thursday, visiting the Immanuel and Cathedral Church, Istiqlal Mosque and Vihara Sin Tek Bio in Central Jakarta.

The tour aimed to promote interfaith tolerance among millennials, which according to Ursula played an important role in giving room for people of different religions to understand each other.

“This is my first time participating in an interfaith program and I am excited about it. I have, for a long time, felt the need to learn about other religions as various religions exist in Indonesia,” she said.

By learning about other religions, people could refrain from claiming their religious views were the only right ones, Ursula said.

Putri, 19, another tour participant from SMK Al-Miftahiyyah, echoed the statement, although she conceded to feeling afraid at the beginning of the tour.

Growing up in a Muslim environment, Putri never got the chance to befriend students of other religions at school. Although she went to a state elementary school in Subang regency of West Java, everyone else was a Muslim. She spent the following years studying at Islamic boarding schools.

“I told my teacher I was afraid once we entered the church. I could not help but feel afraid because it was my first time visiting the place,” she said.

However, as time passed, she found herself enjoying the tour, especially after she got to learn about other religions that she had never encountered before.

“I made new friends, had new experiences, and gained a lot of new knowledge about other religions,” Putri said.

She added that interfaith tolerance was one of the main Islamic teachings, citing a Quranic verse, and thus should be applied in everyday life.

“Lakum dinukum waliyadin. To you be your religion, and to me my religion.”

Another participant, Jeriko William, 16, from SMK Strada 3, said the interfaith tour program could help overcome the growing intolerance in Indonesia.

He said religions had been turned into political tools and that disagreements over religious views had led to unnecessary catfights on social media.

“The interfaith tour is important, so people of different religions can learn about each other’s views and ways of worship. More interfaith programs need to be held to unite the people,” he said.

As a Buddhist who goes to a Catholic school, Jeriko found it hard to learn about another religion at first. However, the process has allowed him to become more accepting of differences.

“I have always gone to Buddhist schools, so it was quite a shocking experience to learn about the Catholic religion in senior high school. However, it has helped me respect people of other religions,” he said. (ars)