An Important Step Forward for Religious Freedom in Indonesia

In a surprise advance for religious freedom in the world’s most populous Muslim country, Indonesia, the nation’s top court has overturned a law that denied recognition and legal rights to followers of indigenous native faiths.

The old law, enacted in 1965, recognized only six religions—Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism—depriving basic rights to millions of people who worship in other local faiths.

These discriminatory articles required people either to list one of the recognized six religions on their identity cards or to leave the religion category blank. The latter choice left open the possibility of being accused of atheism, an offense under Indonesian blasphemy laws. A blank religious category also resulted in difficulty even obtaining an identity card, which would hamper access to education, to the justice system and to other civil rights.

The November 7 Constitutional Court ruling, which was unanimous among the nine-judge panel, was a surprise and welcome advance to people like Dewi Kanti, a follower of the Sunda Wiwitan faith that venerates the power of nature and the spirit of ancestors.

“The most important thing is the restoration of civil rights, especially for those who have been stigmatized,” said Dewi. “I was stigmatized as [a member of] a deviant sect. This is a realization on the part of policymakers that there has been an abuse of our constitutional rights.”

Dewi’s husband, one of 15 million native-faith followers in Indonesia, had been forced to put “Catholic” on his ID card to obtain birth certificates for their children.

In reversing this law, presiding Judge Arif Hidayat of the Constitutional Court stated that the articles requiring the selection of one of these six religions, “are not legally binding as they contradict the 1945 constitution.”

From its beginnings, the Church of Scientology has recognized that freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. In a world where conflicts are often traceable to intolerance of others’ religious beliefs and practices, the Church has, for more than fifty years, made the preservation of religious liberty an overriding concern.

From persecution of religious minorities to issues revolving around religious worship, beliefs, rites, expression, association, dress, symbols, education, registration and workplace discrimination, religious freedom issues have achieved a prominent place in global headlines.