Religious Conflict Is Normal, Religious Affairs Minister Says

Jakarta Globe, Carlos Paath, November 16, 2013

Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali at the graduation ceremony of a
 Christian high School in Manado, North Sulawesi on September 13. (AFP Photo/
Fiqman Suanandar)

Bandung. Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said on Friday that religious tolerance in Indonesia is among the best in the world, despite some issues he said still needed to be addressed.

“Conflict is normal, as long as it’s not [provoked],” he said at a gathering of religious leaders in Bandung, West Java on Friday evening. “Why? As long as God created humans with anger, then the potential of conflict arising is still there.”

“But remember,” he said, “God gives us anger, but God also guides our anger. In Islam, patient people are loved by God.”

In addition to theologizing, he called on Indonesian religious leaders to be mindful of the possibility of of being provoked by irresponsible parties who wished to harm the country’s religious harmony.

“We have to be cautious about this,” he said. “Why do we have to be harmonious? Because we are [made up of] various ethnicities, cultures and religions. Selfishness sometimes does arise. Do not let pluralism become a weakness.”

Earlier this week, Shiite Muslims in West Java were forced to move a ceremony to commemorate the Ashura holiday from Kana Palace in Bandung to a small school building, causing the loss of thousand of dollars and forcing the group to deny thousands of worshipers entry to the event. The local government, led by the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party’s (PKS) Ahmad Heryawan, have been accused of systematically siding with intolerant groups against religious minorities.

West Java Police initially claimed that the group did not provide sufficient documents to get a permit for the event. Permit disputes had frequently come up in past instanced of religious minorities being barred from worship in the province.

Suryadharma is currently embroiled in a highly-public Rp 1.05 trillion ($90 million) libel lawsuit against a celebrity tabloid that accused him of concealing a third marriage to model and House of Representatives member Okky Asokawati.

In September, he came under widespread criticism after accepting an honorary degree from Thailand’s Princess of Naradhiwas University for his efforts to promote tolerance.

“I cannot believe the Thai government would allow one of its universities to honor him for religious tolerance in Indonesia when we know as a minister instead of promoting religious tolerance he has often made counterproductive statements that have triggered religious violence,” Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) told the Jakarta Globe at the time.

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