Chapter culture of Spain

Religion in Indonesia

Indonesia is a secular democratic country that has a Muslim-majority population. The Indonesian constitution guarantees all people in Indonesia the freedom of worship, each according to his or her own religion or belief. It also stipulates that the state shall be based upon the belief in "the one and only God" (a condition which also forms the first principle of the Pancasila, the Indonesian state philosophy introduced by Soekarno in 1945).
At first sight these two conditions seem to be somewhat contradictory but Soekarno, Indonesia's first president, resolved this issue by hypothesizing that every religion (including 'soft polytheistic' Hinduism) essentially has one highest Supreme Being to which one subjects oneself.
Although Indonesia is not an Islamic state, Islamic principles do influence political decision making. Moreover, certain hardcore Muslim groups have been able to influence political and judicial decision making through (the threat of) violence.

One peculiarity of the Indonesian government's stance on (freedom of) religion is that it recognizes six official religions only (namely Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism). Every Indonesian is required to embrace one of these religions as it is mandatory personal data that is mentioned in official documents such as passports and other identification cards.
Atheism is not an option and constitutes a socially unacceptable ideology in Indonesia (however there is no law that bans atheism). In recent years it has happened that Indonesians who published atheist worldviews on social networks were threatened by their local community and arrested by the police on charges of blasphemy; charges that can lead to imprisonment.

Composition of Indonesia's Six Official Religions