Religion in Indonesia

Several different religions are practised in Indonesia and in practice the country is a secular state.
Indonesia is officially a presidential republic and a unitary state. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim populationFrederick, William H.; Worden, Robert L., eds. (1993). ''Indonesia: A Country Study'', Chapte
Islam
and the first principle of Indonesia's philosophical foundation, Pancasila, requires its citizens to state "the One and almighty God". Consequently, atheists in Indonesia experience official discrimination in the context of registration of births and marriages and the issuance of identity cards. In addition, the Aceh province officially enforces Sharia law and is notorious for its discriminatory practices towards religious and sexual minorities. There are also pro-Sharia and fundamentalist movements in several parts of the country with overwhelming Muslim majorities.

Several different religions are practised in the country, and their collective influence on the country's political, economic and cultural life is significant. Despite constitutionally guaranteeing freedom of religion, the government recognises only six religions since 1965: Islam, Christianity (Catholicism, under the label of "Katholik", and Protestantism, under the label of "Kristen" are treated separately), Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. According to a 2017 decision of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia, "the branches/flows of beliefs" ( id, aliran kepercayaan)— ethnic religions with new religious movements—must be recognised and included in an Indonesian identity card (KTP). Based on data collected by the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), there are about 245 unofficial religions in Indonesia.

Indonesian law between 1975 and the 2017 Constitutional Court decision required its citizens to have a KTP that identifies them with one of the six religions. (since 2017 citizens that don't identify with those religions may identify themselves to profess "believe in Divine Omnipotence" or leave that section blank). Indonesia does not recognise agnosticism or atheism, and blasphemy is illegal. In 2018 Indonesian governmental statistics, 86.7% of Indonesians identified themselves as Muslim (with Sunnis about 99%, Shias about 1% and Ahmadis 0.2%), Christianity (7.6% Protestantism, 3.12% Catholicism), 1.74% Hindu, 0.77% Buddhist, 0.03% Confucian, 0.05% others.

History

Until the beginning of CE, the peoples of Indonesia followed the local tribal Austronesian and Papuan ethnic religions and traditions.

Historically, immigration from the Indian subcontinent, mainland China, Portugal, the Arab world, and the Netherlands has been a significant contributor to the diversity of religion and culture within the archipelago. However, these aspects have changed due to some modifications made to suit the Indonesian culture.

Before the arrival of the Abrahamic religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, the prevalent religions in the region were thoroughly influenced by Dharmic religious philosophy through Hinduism and Buddhism. They were brought to the archipelago around the second and fourth centuries, respectively, when Indian traders arrived on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi, and brought their religion. Hinduism of Shaivite traditions started to develop in Java in the fifth century CE. Hinduism had a decisive influence on the ideology of the one-man rule of the Raja. The traders established Buddhism which developed further in the following century and several Hindu Buddhist-influenced kingdoms were established, such as Kutai, Srivijaya, Majapahit, and Shailendra. The world's largest Buddhist monument, Borobudur, was built by Shailendra and around the same time, the Hindu monument Prambanan was also built. The peak of Hindu-Javanese civilisation was the Majapahit empire in the fourteenth century, and is described as a 'Golden Age' in Indonesian history.

Islam was introduced to the archipelago in the thirteenth century. Coming from Gujarat, India (some scholars also propose the Arabian and Persian theories), Islam spread through the west coast of Sumatra and then developed to the east in Java. This period also saw Islam-influenced kingdoms established, namely Demak, Pajang, Mataram and Banten. By the end of the fifteenth century, 20 Islam-based kingdoms had been established, reflecting the domination of Islam in Indonesia.

The Portuguese introduced Christianity in the 16th century, notably to the island of Flores and to what was to become East Timor. Protestantism was first introduced by the Dutch in the 16th century with Calvinist and Lutheran influences. For the Dutch, economic benefit rather than religious conversion were paramount, and missionary efforts avoided predominantly Muslim areas such as Java. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) regulated the missionary work so it could serve its own interests and focused it to the eastern, Animist part of the archipelago, including Maluku, North Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Papua and Kalimantan. Christianity later spread from the coastal ports of Kalimantan, and missionaries arrived among the Torajans on Sulawesi. Parts of Sumatra were also targeted, most notably the Batak people who are predominantly Protestant today.

The Sukarno era was characterised by a "distrust" between religion and the state. There were also significant changes to the relationship during the New Order. Following an attempted coup in 1965 that officially blamed the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) and an anti-communist purge, the New Order government attempted to suppress PKI supporters by making it mandatory to have a religion since PKI supporters were mostly atheists. As a result, citizens were required to carry personal identification cards indicating their religion. The policy resulted in a mass conversion, with most to Catholicism and Protestantism. Chinese Indonesians, who were mostly Confucianists, also faced similar circumstances. Because Confucianism was not one of the state-recognised religions, many converted to Christianity.

Islam

Sunni Islam

The history of Islam in Indonesia is complex and reflects the diversity of Indonesian cultures. There is evidence of Arab Muslim traders entering the Indonesian archipelago as early as the 8th century. Venetian explorer, Marco Polo is credited with the earliest known record of a Muslim community around 1297 AD, whom he referred to as a new community of Moorish traders in Perlak, Aceh. Over the 15th and 16th century, the spread of Islam accelerated via the missionary work of Maulana Malik Ibrahim (also known as Sunan Gresik, originally from Samarkand) in Sumatra and Java and Admiral Zheng He (also known as Cheng Ho, from China) in north Java, as well as campaigns led by sultans that targeted Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms and various communities, with each trying to carve out a region or island for control. Four diverse and contentious sultanates emerged in northern and southern Sumatra, west and central Java, and southern Kalimantan. The sultans declared Islam as a state religion and pursued war against each other as well as the Hindus and other non-Muslim infidels.

Subsequently, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, animist communities and unbelievers bought peace by agreeing to pay jizya tax to a Muslim ruler, while others began adopting Islam to escape the tax. Islam in Indonesia is in many cases less meticulously practised in comparison to Islam in the Middle East. In some regions, people retained and continued their old beliefs. They adopted a syncretic version of Islam, while others left and concentrated as communities in islands that they could defend, for example, Hindus of western Java moved to Bali and neighbouring small islands. While this period of religious conflict and inter-Sultanate warfare was unfolding, and new power centres were attempting to consolidate regions under their control, European powers arrived. The archipelago was soon dominated by the Dutch empire, which helped prevent inter-religious conflict, and slowly began the process of excavating, preserving and understanding the archipelago's ancient Hindu and Buddhist period, particularly in Java and the western islands.Taylor, Jean Gelman. ''Indonesia: Peoples and Histories.'' Yale University Press, , pp. 21–83, 142–73.

The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims (about 99%) practice Sunni Islam of the Shafi‘i school. Smaller numbers follow other schools (madhhabs), and the Salafi movement. The main divisions of Islam in Indonesia are traditionalism and modernism. Both are supported by Indonesia's two largest Islamic civil society groups Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, respectively. the orders of Sufism are considered essential.

Concerning the political expansion of Islam after the resignation of Suharto, political parties were again permitted to declare an ideology other than Pancasila. Several Islamist parties formed with Sharia as their ideology and the Crescent Star Party (PBB) came in sixth place in the 1999 elections. However, in 2009 elections, the PBB ranked only 10th, while parties characterised by moderate and tolerant Islamic interpretations had more significant success, such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) coming in 4th with nearly 8% of total votes.

Shia Islam

Shia Islam played an important role in the early period of the spread of Islam in North Sumatra and Java. Currently, there are approximately 1-3 million Twelvers in Sumatra, Java, Madura and Sulawesi islands, and also Ismailis in Bali, which approximates more than 1% of the total Muslim population. Shias form a segment of Arab Indonesians and the Hadhrami people. The main organisation is "Ikatan Jamaah Ahlulbait Indonesia" (IJABI).

Ahmadiyya

The earliest history of Ahmadi Muslims in the archipelago dates back to the summer of 1925, when roughly two decades before the Indonesian revolution, a missionary of the Community, Rahmat Ali, stepped in Sumatra and established the movement with 13 devotees in Tapaktuan, Aceh. The community has had an influential history in Indonesia's religious development, yet in modern times it has faced increasing intolerance from religious establishments and physical hostilities from radical Muslim groups. In Ahmadiyya organisation ''Jamaah Muslim Ahmadiyah Indonesia'' (JMAI), there are an estimated 400.000 followers, which equates to 0.2% of the total Muslim population, spread over 542 branches across the country; in contrast to independent estimates, the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Indonesia) estimates around 80.000 members. A separatist group, Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam, known as ''Gerakan Ahmadiyah-Lahore Indonesia'' (GAI) in Indonesia, has existed in Java since 1924 and had only 708 members in the 1980s.

Minor religions

Christianity

The government officially recognises the two main Christian divisions in Indonesia, Catholicism and Protestantism, as two separate religions.

Catholicism

Catholicism arrived in the archipelago during the Portuguese arrival with spice-trading over the 14th and 15th century. Many Portuguese had the goal of spreading Catholicism, starting with the Maluku Islands in 1534. Between 1546 and 1547, the pioneer Christian missionary, Saint Francis Xavier, visited the islands and baptised several thousand locals. During the VOC era, the number of Roman Catholicism practitioners fell significantly, due to the VOC's policy of banning the religion. The hostility of the Dutch toward Catholicism is due to its history where the Protestant Dutch gained their independence after the Eighty Years War against Catholic Spain's rule. The most significant result was on the island of Flores and East Timor where the VOC concentrated. Moreover, Roman Catholic priests were sent to prisons or punished and replaced by Protestant clergy from the Netherlands. One Roman Catholic priest was executed for celebrating Mass in prison during Jan Pieterszoon Coen's tenure as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. After the VOC collapsed and with the legalisation of Catholicism in the Netherlands starting around 1800, Dutch Catholic clergy predominated until after Indonesia's independence. In present-day Flores, the royal house of Larantuka formed the only native Catholic kingdom in Southeast Asia around the 16th century, with the first king named Lorenzo.

Other than Flores, Central Java also have significant numbers of Catholics. Catholicism started to spread in Central Java when Frans van Lith, a priest from the Netherlands came to Muntilan in 1896. Initially, his effort did not produce a satisfying result until 1904 when four Javanese chiefs from Kalibawang region asked him to give them education in the religion. On 15 December 1904, a group of 178 Javanese were baptised at Semagung, Muntilan, district Magelang, Central Java, near the border of Yogyakarta.

As of 2018, 3.12% of Indonesians are Catholics, nearly half the number of Protestants at 7.6%. Muslim 207176162 (87.20%), Christian 16528513 (7), Catholic 6907873 (3), Hindu 4012116 (1.69), Buddhist 1703254 (0.74), Confucianism 71.999 (0.05), Other 112.792 (0.04), Total 237.641.326 The practitioners mostly live in West Kalimantan, Papua and East Nusa Tenggara. The province of East Nusa Tenggara, where the island of Flores and West Timor are located, is the only province in Indonesia where Catholics are the majority (about 54.14% of the total population). In Java, next to Javanese, Catholicism also spread to Chinese Indonesians. In the present day, Catholic traditions close to Easter days remain, locally known as ''Semana Santa''. It involves a procession carrying statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary (locally referred to as ''Tuan Ana'' and ''Tuan Ma'' respectively) to a local beach, then to Cathedral of the Queen of the Rosary, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Larantuka, Flores.

Orthodoxy

Eastern Christianity operates in Indonesia under the label "''Kristen''" together with Protestants.

Eastern Orthodoxy is represented by the Indonesian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which until 2019 was part of the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand ( Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia), and then comes under the unified spiritual leadership of the Diocese of Singapore (Russian Orthodox Church).

In addition, there are communities of Oriental Orthodoxy, namely the Syriac Orthodox Church (Indonesian: ''Kanisah Ortodoks Suriah'') and Coptic Orthodox Church (Indonesian: ''Gereja Kristen Ortodoks Koptik di Indonesia'').

Protestantism

Protestantism is mostly a result of Calvinist and Lutheran missionary efforts during the country's colonial period. The Dutch Reformed Church was long at the forefront in introducing Christianity to native peoples and was later joined by other Reformed churches that separated from it during the 19th century.cf. Frederick; Worden. (1993). Chapte
Christianity
The VOC regulated the missionary work so it could serve its own interests and restricted it to the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago. Although these two branches are the most common, a multitude of other denominations can be found elsewhere in Indonesia.

Protestants form a significant minority in some parts of the country. Statistically, 7.6% of the total population declared themselves Protestant in a 2018 census. Seventeen per cent of the population in Sulawesi are Protestants, particularly in Tana Toraja regency in South Sulawesi province and Central Sulawesi. Furthermore, up to 65% of the ethnic Torajans are Protestants. The Batak people from North Sumatra is also one of the major Protestant groups in Indonesia, comprising around 50% out of all ethnic population. Christianity was brought by German Lutheran missionary Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen who is known as the apostle to the Batak people and started the Batak Christian Protestant Church aka HKBP.

Chinese Indonesians are also a significant part of the Protestant population, scattered throughout Indonesia with the majority concentrated in major urban areas. In 2000, approximately 35% of ethnic Chinese were Christian, and there is a continuous increase among the younger generation. In some parts of the country, entire villages belong to a distinct denomination, such as Adventism, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, Lutheran, Presbyterian or the Salvation Army (''Bala Keselamatan'') depending on the success of missionary activity.

Indonesia has three Protestant-majority provinces, West Papua, Papua, and North Sulawesi, with 60%, 68% and 64% of the total population respectively. In Papua, it is most widely practised among the native Papuan population. In North Sulawesi, the Minahasan population centred around Manado converted to Christianity in the 19th century. Today, most of the population native to North Sulawesi practice some form of Protestantism, while transmigrants from Java and Madura practice Islam. Adherents of Protestantism mostly live in North Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, North Maluku, Maluku (province), West Papua (province), Papua (province).

The Communion of Churches in Indonesia is the sole umbrella for most Protestant churches.

Hinduism

Hindu culture and religion arrived in the archipelago around the 2nd century CE, which later formed the basis of several Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms such as Kutai, Mataram, and Majapahit. Around 130, a Sundanese kingdom named Salakanagara emerged in western Java. It was the first historically recorded Indianised kingdom in the archipelago, created by an Indian trader following marriage to a local Sundanese princess. The largest Hindu temple in Indonesia, Prambanan, was built during the Majapahit kingdom by the Sanjaya dynasty. The kingdom existed until the 16th century when Islamic empires began to develop, this period known as the Hindu-Indonesian period.

Hinduism in Indonesia takes on a distinct tone from other parts of the world.cf. Frederick; Worden. (1993). Chapte
Hinduism
Hinduism, referred to as Agama Hindu Dharma in Indonesia, formally applied the caste system. It also incorporated native Austronesian elements that revered hyangs, deities and spirits of nature and deceased ancestors. The Hindu religious epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, are expressed in Indonesian wayang puppetry and dance. All practitioners of Agama Hindu Dharma share many common beliefs, mostly the Five Points of Philosophy, the Panca Srada. These include the belief in one Almighty God (Brahman), belief in the souls and myriad of local and ancestral spirits and karma or the belief in the law of reciprocal actions, rather than belief in cycles of rebirth and reincarnation. In addition, the religion focuses more on art and ritual rather than scriptures, laws and beliefs. In many areas on Java, Hinduism and Islam have heavily influenced each other, in part resulting in Abangan and Kejawèn (Kebatinan) traditions.

According to the 2010 census, Hindus numbered 4 million (1.7% of Indonesians). The Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia has disputed this figure, who estimated as many as 18 million Hindus in the country. The majority of Hindus live in Bali. Sumatra, Java, Lombok, Kalimantan and Sulawesi also have significant Hindu populations; most are Balinese who migrated to these areas through government-sponsored transmigration program or urbanised Balinese attracted to cities in Java, especially the Greater Jakarta area. The Tamil Indonesians in Medan represents another important concentration of Hindus.

There are indigenous religions that are incorporated into the Hinduism (not all followers agree): Hindu Kaharingan of Dayak people; Javanese Hinduism of Tenggerese tribe; Hindu Tolotang of Bugis; and Aluk Todolo of Toraja.

There are also some international Hindu reform movements, including the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Sathya Sai Organization, Chinmaya Mission, Brahma Kumaris

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