The most dangerous conflict is religious conflict.
Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi (ANTARA) - Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian has encouraged all regional heads to empower the Communication Forum of Inter-Religious Communities (FKUB) in their respective regions to maintain religious tolerance.

"Thus, give them a budget. Ask them to make program proposals for regular monthly meetings, for instance," he remarked while opening the National Coordination Meeting on Economic, Social, and Cultural Resilience here on Tuesday.

Karnavian noted that the local governments should allocate budgets for FKUB to hold regular monthly meetings to discuss and bolster religious diversity in the regions.

If the FKUB are empowered well by the local government, then various potential religious conflicts in the region could be mitigated as early as possible, he emphasized.

"The most dangerous conflict is religious conflict. If it is an economic conflict, it is (only) concerning nourishment; a cultural conflict is (just) about community affairs; but if it is a conflict in the name of God, then it is the most dangerous," the minister remarked.

He also called on all regional heads to establish a Social Conflict Management Team to handle, manage, and mitigate issues that may cause social conflict.

The team should be divided into three smaller groups with different roles, specifically to prevent, cease, and resolve conflict, he stressed.

He remarked that the conflict prevention team will involve the regional State Intelligence Agency (BIN), while police and military personnel will be deployed as a team tasked with ceasing the violence when a conflict occurs since law enforcement is required in such situations.

"The last one, the conflict resolution team, will be divided to handle three further tasks, namely (firstly) reconciling and rehabilitating those who died or were injured,” Karnavian noted.

The other task is to care for and provide assistance to the families of the deceased as well as to treat the injured victims, he stated.

In addition, the conflict resolution team has to make the situation conducive again by rebuilding the damaged public facilities and houses, he remarked.

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Translator: Muhammad Harianto, Uyu Liman
Editor: Anton Santoso
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