Alfitri from Law and Sharia Faculty of National Islamic University Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris became the speaker in the 4th panel session in the 2021 ICCIS virtually, Wednesday (15/09). Photo: PR/Ilham.

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Wednesday, 15 September 2021 | 18:35 WIB

BANDUNG, PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT – Constitutional Court held “The 4th ndonesian Constitutional Court International Symposium (also known as 2021 ICCIS) on Wednesday and Thursday (15-16 September 2021) both virtually and on-site from Bandung, West Java with the theme of “Constitutional Court, Religion and Constitutional Rights Protection”.

Speakers from Austria, Indonesia, and Hungary shared their perspectives on the issues of religious freedom during the 4th panel session of the international symposium.  Researcher from the Centre for Social Sciences Institute for Legal Studies, Boldizsár Szentgáli-Tóth highlighted some negative side effects of the religious freedom where mostly the main problem lies on the dispute in determining which claims should be protected and whose interest should be put above others all while avoiding the restriction of people’s rights.

“In every theories of religious freedom, there should always be some restricitions. Without any restricition, those who kill for the sake of religion, or someone who considers slavery is acceptable based on his faith, are eligible for complete protection while they have obviously violated the rights and freedom of others,” Boldizsár shared.

Boldizsár’s paper mentioned that each country had the solution to the rising side effects of religious freedom. For example, in Europe, they had a broad interpretation on the negative side effects of the religious freedom and therefore such side effects were readily anticipated. Force in any form that was causing an individual to act against their beliefs was categorized as a restricition of religious freedom. On the other hand, in America and Africa they were leaning towards a narrower interpretation in comparison with the European jurisprudency. In the United States, the law that applied to the general public should fulfill certain constitutional requirements, such as having and practicing a personal belief should not be unfairly restricted.

On the same occasion, Alfitri, Lecturer of the Law and Sharia Faculty of Islamic National University (UIN) Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris shared his thought on “Constituting Islamic Law through Judicial Reviews in the Indonesian Constitutional Court” stating that despite judicial reviews related to Islamic laws and religious aspects had been frequently done in Indonesia, there was a change that some of those might not be done thoroughly. For example, the judicial review on the law related to a child born out of wed-lock and the criminal sentence for amil zakat (person entrusted to deal with zakat, a charity obligation for certain people according to Islam), both were decided using the normative approach combining doctrine and social laws.

“Constitutional Court of Indonesia should have accommodated the authority and doctrines of Islamic laws by fulfilling the people’s constitutional rights. Failure in balancing both matters would result in the rebellion of the Constitutional Court’s Decision which was supposed to be final and binding,” he said.

The next speaker, Anis H. Bajrektarevic representing the International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies shared his perspective on “Indonesia – Pivot to Asia Three Fundamental challenges for the Republic of Indonesia in the Age of Technobiological Disruptions” highlighting that Indonesia faced 3 (three) challenges now: Islam and modernity, diversity, and rising of the new middle class.

method (virtual and on-site) in Bandung, West Java. Previously, the Court had hosted similar programs: 2017 ICCIS in Solo, 2018 ICCIS in Yogyakarta, and 2019 ICCIS in Bali. Due to the pandemic, the program was halted on 2020. ICCIS itself was a global academic forum held annually to discuss on the matters, ideas, and challenges of the constitutional law, human rights, and democracy. This year it focused on the religious issues in the context of constitutional rights. The Center of Case Research of the Constitutional Court opened the chance for academics to send out their articles and selected articles would publish in the Court’s journal called Constitutional Review.

Writer: Lulu Anjarsari
Editor: Tiara Agustina
Translator: WA

Translation uploaded on Sept 17, 2021 at 10:51 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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