Constitutional Court’s Researcher Irfan Nurachman moderated the final session of 2021 ICCIS with Muzayyin Ahyar, Prof. Ni’matul Huda and Zaenal Muttaqin as speakers virtually on Thursday (15/9). Photo: PR

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Thursday, 16 September 2021 | 15:03 WIB

BANDUNG, CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA - Constitutional Court’s Researcher Irfan Nurachman moderated the 7th and final session of 2021 ICCIS with Muzayyin Ahyar, Prof. Ni’matul Huda and Zaenal Muttaqin as speakers virtually on Thursday (15/9).

Prof. Ni’matul Huda from the Law Faculty of Indonesian Islamic University (UII) shared that the first clause of Pancasila already encompassed all religions and that it was not only for the Muslims. Despite some movement emerged to establish an Islamic state, it failed to reach the compromise to be one. She believed that mutual respects and inter-faith tolerance were essential. The majority should not oppress the minority and vice versa, the minority should not be excessively favoured resulting in the oppression of the majority.

Taking a look at history, there were indeed some countries officially declaring the religion of the country. Indonesia, however, had never specifically mentioned a certain religion due to the diversity and there was no need to force a certain inclination in the context of a country. When the 1945 Constitution was ammended, there was an idea to make Islam as the ideology however it was not realized.

Meanwhile, Muzayyin Ahyar from Islamic National University (UIN) Sultan Aji Muhammad Idris shared his thought that Indonesia was considered lucky as there had not been any social conflict post-democratization as it happened in other Islamic countries. He argued that Indonesia had 3 (three) Islamic elements that were always in remain in central position: religious organisations such as Nadhatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, as well as Pancasila that kept us away from going to the extreme point.

Matter of Acceptance towards Believers/Followers

Zaenal Muttaqin highlighted the Court’s Decision in which the Court returned the constitutional rights and acceptance of the customary beliefs. These customary beliefs later on became legally stronger post-Court’s Decision Number 97/PUU-XIV/2016 in the Judicial Review of the Law Number 23 Year 2006 concerning the Population Adminstration. In the review, petitioner consisted of some followers of the customary beliefs questioned the unavailability of ‘customary belief’ in the list of options to be written in the National ID Card causing them to face certain challenges and difficulties in getting proper administrative service in various divisions. Furtheremore, he also mentioned about the difficulty on getting any data regarding the customary beliefs followers due to the Central Bureau of Statistics (Badan Pusat Statistik) having no data on them in 2020 census.

He also revealed that until now there was still a stigma attached to the followers of customary beliefs as being an atheist or communist resulting them in receiving some sort of persecussion and discrimination in daily life. Unfortunately, the Coordinating Board of Customary Beliefs Supervision or Badan Koodinasi Pengawas Aliran Kepercayaan Masyarakat (Bakorpakem) still saw this community as being particularly strange.

On a side note, the international symposium would be held on 15-16 September 2021 using the hybrid 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: Ilham
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: WA

Translation uploaded on Sept 16, 2021 at 15:08 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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