By Ryan Dagur
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Muslim leaders in Indonesia say Pope Francis’ visit next month will be a milestone in building mutual trust between Muslims and Christians and will make the world’s largest Muslim-majority country a better nation.
One of them is scholar, Budhy Munawar Rachman, who says he has personal reasons for liking the leader of the world’s estimated 1.2 billion Catholics.
The pope is scheduled to visit Indonesia Sept. 2-6 as part of his four-nation trip to Asia and the Pacific, which also includes Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore.
“The pope’s messages are relevant to all humanity, including Muslims,” he told UCA News.
Rachman is particularly impressed with two papal documents, Laudati Si, the 2005 environmental encyclical, and Fratelli tutti, a 2020 encyclical on humanism and relations between human beings.
The 61-year-old director of the Center for Religion and Philosophy at the Jakarta-based Paramadina University said the two documents demand study for a deeper understanding of environmental crises and human relations.
“I am taking special classes to study them in-depth, such as those initiated by the Laudato Si Movement,” said Rachman, a promoter of interfaith dialogue.
Laudato Si does not only talk about the ecological crisis but also “a more fundamental aspect, namely the social crisis that must be the world’s concern today,” he said.
On the other hand, Fratelli tutti has an important meaning for Muslims, because it emerged after Pope Francis’ historic meeting in 2018 with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University in Cairo, Muhammad Ahmad Al Thayyib, he said.
The meeting produced the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” also known as the Abu Dhabi Declaration, which stresses “a culture of mutual respect” that can allow different faiths to live peacefully.
“This is very symbolic, which means there is an effort to carry out a joint movement to overcome problems in religious life, which also occurs in Indonesia,” he said.
‘Muslim-Christian ties crucial’
“The visit has an important theological meaning for Muslim-Catholic relations because the pope is visiting the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. This visit will help Muslims pay more attention to issues that the pope prioritizes,” Rachman said.
A highlight of the visit is his meeting with religious leaders on Sept. 5 in the Istiqlal Mosque — Southeast Asia’s largest mosque — opposite Jakarta’s Catholic cathedral.
Minister of Religious Affairs Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, who met Pope Francis at the Vatican in June 2022, said the papal visit will highlight the harmonious and peaceful relations between religions in Indonesia.
In a recent statement, Qoumas, who officially invited the pope, said, “Pope Francis’ visit can inspire all parties that every religion teaches compassion.”
Quomas said he hailed Francis “as a symbol of friendship and interfaith dialogue.”
The minister also acknowledged a rise in intolerance in various regions of the country, which he said challenges harmony among religions.
Therefore, he said, in recent years, he has backed policies to support minorities, something previously overlooked.
Easing controversial policies
One policy Quomas referred to was granting permits for constructing religious worship places.
The government recently withdrew a condition requiring approval from local Forums for Religious Harmony (FKUB), a state-backed body, for the government to issue consent for the construction of worship places.
Leaders of Christians and other faiths have been protesting the law, calling it discriminatory. Some 15 people petitioned the Supreme Court in 2020 after authorities had closed thousands of worship places, primarily Christian churches, under the discriminatory regulation.
The move to relax the regulation has sparked opposition from Muslim conservatives, including Vice President Mah’ruf Amin. Quomas had also condemned the disruption of Christian worship by hardline Muslims.
According to government data, about 85 percent of Indonesia’s estimated 270 million people follow Islam, making it the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. The country has about 24 million Christians, including seven million Catholics.
The world’s largest archipelago, consisting of about 17,508 islands, is home to more than 360 tribes.
Two leading moderate Islamic organizations jointly have 130 million followers — 80 million for Nahdalul Ulama and 50 million for Muhammadiyah.
Despite the government’s 2023 Interfaith Harmony Index showing a high national score of 76.02, rights groups say religious intolerance remains a significant concern.
From 2007-2023, Indonesia recorded 573 cases of disruption of religious worship of minority faiths by Islamic conservatives, according to a 2023 report from the religious freedom advocacy organization Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace.
Such disruptions included the dissolution and rejection of worship activities, rejection of places of worship, intimidation, vandalism, and arson attacks.
‘Wedging divisions’
Recently, President Joko Widodo’s administration’s move to grant mining permits to religious groups triggered a nationwide controversy and division.
Christian organizations rejected the mining offer, but Muslim groups welcomed the move.
Syafiq A Mughni from Muhammadiyah said the papal visit is poised to become a milestone for “building mutual trust” between Muslims and Catholics.
“We do not deny that mutual suspicion exists among faith groups in various regions of the world and our country,” he said.
He said religious leaders need to understand that this distrust among faiths is not only related to religion but also involves various issues such as politics, economics, and social and cultural factors.
“I think we should interpret the pope’s arrival as a momentum to create a common understanding of how we see this situation as a challenge that we must solve together,” he said.
He said, for example, that religious communities need to find common ground to overcome the gap between rich and poor countries and injustices everywhere.
The Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque, Nasaruddin Umar, said he prepared a manuscript on humanity to show the pope.
He said they hope to sign it together with Pope Francis.
He said he was attracted to Pope Francis because “the issues that the pope has popularized are universal and comprehensive.”
“It’s all the same as Istiqlal’s missions. We broadcast humanity, spirituality, and civilization,” he said.
Rachman said the world now needs important collaboration between religious figures, who must walk side by side in a world plagued by conflicts.
Like the Catholic Church, he said Indonesian Muslim scholars launched a Laudato Si-like environmental document in February, Al Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth.
Laudato Si has greatly influenced the contents of this document, he said.
“I hope the visit will bring interfaith relations to a higher level, by working together to address global social issues. The pope can be a driving force for that,” he said.
