Page 453 - INDONESIAN ISLAMIC CULTURE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

strengthen national unity. Fostering
religious harmony has thus been
one of the main reasons behind the
establishment of the Ministry of Religious
Affairs. While the MUI is a non-
government community channel it is also
the government’s advisor on religious
affairs. Unfortunately, in some cases,
both institutions donot guard harmony
but rather trigger inter-religious problems.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs, for
example, was unable to meet human
rights activists’view that PNPS Law was
an aperture for the rise of intolerance
against religious minorities. In its turn,
the MUI has become one of the vehicles
for radical-fundamental Islamist groups
and is thus seen to condone their beliefs
that often conflict with the Pancasila and
the 1945 Constitution. In the case of the
Ahmadiyah, to be more specific, the MUI
fatwas and the joined decree signed by
among others the Ministry of Religious
Affairs do not solve religious harmony
issues but rather instigate intolerance,
acts of vigilantism, and even murder
committed by religious majority groups
and thus are clearly contrary to efforts for
the development of religious harmony.

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