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Article: Indonesian pluralism should be guided by principles not politics.
- Article from:
- Daily News Egypt (Egypt)
- Article date:
- August 9, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Al Bawaba (Middle East) Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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JAKARTA: Muslims in Indonesia have long been accustomed to religious diversity. But such diversity is accepted merely as fact, not as a guiding principle. The future of pluralism in Indonesia is, unfortunately, still determined by political negotiations between religious and state elites, not by principles recognized by all religious followers. Consequently, religious tolerance in Indonesia stands on fragile ground.
As a country with more than 17,000 islands, its diversity is not only reflected in its natural resources, but also in the ethnicity, language and religion of its people. Before Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and other world religions arrived in the ...