According to media reports, Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs is poised to toughen the country’s blasphemy laws, expanding the definition of blasphemy. And that does not bode well for religious minorities in the world’s most populace Muslim-majority country. In addition, the government is considering lengthening the maximum sentence for blasphemy to six years in prison from the current five. The ... Read More »

A new survey conducted by the Ministry of Education and Culture found a surprising number of students supported ISIS and the implementation of nationwide Sharia Law. Tolerance is losing ground in Indonesia’s public schools. The Ministry of Education and Culture surveyed students, teachers, and principals in four schools, two public, two private, about their views on pluralism, diversity, and religious ... Read More »

Govt aims to implement measures to ensure Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia members lose hard-line tag, adopt national ideology The Indonesian government says it intends to re-educate members of a recently dissolved hard-line Muslim group that wants to turn the country into a caliphate. Soedarmo, director-general of politics and public administration at the Ministry of Home Affairs, said something need to be ... Read More »

Hundreds of students in Yogyakarta have conveyed their pledge to uphold tolerance and maintain unity amid growing religious tension and sectarianism. In Bantul, a headmaster of a state high school was reported to have refused to support issues related to tolerance and Pancasila. It was also reported that he initially refused to send his school’s students to attend the Declaration ... Read More »

The Constitutional Court (MK) needs to improve its performance in handling judicial review requests to curb potential misconduct,  human rights watchdog Setara Institute has suggested. Ismail Hasani, the watchdog’s research director, said the longer it takes for the court to process a request, the greater the opportunity for collusion between plaintiffs and justices. He cited the bribery case of former ... Read More »