"The use of the term 'Islamism' by Greg Fealy is not quite right, especially to exemplify it with hanging pants and veils (niqab)," Zainut told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.
He said the government fully supports all forms of religious activities that lead to strengthening the understanding, practice, and appreciation of religious values, not only for Islam, but for all religions.
Fealy argued by citing “discriminatory” regulations and policies in institutions owned by the Indonesian government, for instance, the ban on the veil and hanging pants (locally known as celana cingkrang ) in civil apparatuses and the removal of several Islamists from strategic positions or their being denied promotion.
Refuting these charges, the deputy minister said Indonesia is not a religious state, nor is it a secular state. Indonesia is a country whose people are known to be very religious, he noted.
Religious values and expressions, he continued, truly color the relationship between religion and the state in the life of the nation and state. "It is impossible to limit it, let alone deny and repress it," he remarked.
"The state continues to make efforts to improve religious life through the Ministry of Religious Affairs, in synergy with mass organizations, assemblies, and religious institutions,” he noted.
He said that Indonesia and several countries are facing the challenge of infiltration of transnational understanding, be it liberalism, secularism, or extremism.
The infiltration of values that have the potential to destroy the religious order of Indonesian society needs to be anticipated, he added. One of the efforts made by the government to this end is strengthening tolerance and the mainstreaming of religious moderation, he pointed out.
“So, it is not Islamism. What we are mitigating and anticipating is the development of an understanding with three characters, namely anti-Pancasila (the five ideologies) and the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), extremists, and anarchists so as to (curb) insult (of) human values and (promotion of) intolerance, trapped in truth claims and group fanaticism," he said.
The deputy minister said that a survey conducted by the Ministry of Religious Affairs' R&D and Education and Training Center had shown that between 2015 and 2019, the average reading of the Religious Harmony (KUB) index had remained above 70, or the high category. In 2019, the KUB index stood at 73.83.
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Translator: Anom Prihantoro/Aria Cindyara
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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