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Tolerance bill ‘threatens harmony’

Senior priest says petty restrictions on gatherings would be counter-productive
Tolerance bill ‘threatens harmony’
Published: November 15, 2011 06:04 AM GMT
Updated: November 16, 2011 08:24 AM GMT

A religious tolerance bill drafted by the house of representatives threatens inter-religious harmony and must be scrapped, a top Church official said today. “The bill has the potential to destroy inter-religious harmony since it places petty regulations on basic things, such as religious feasts, sermons, burial and building places of worship,” Father Antonius Benny Susetyo said. According to the bill, people have the right to organize religious celebrations based on their own religious teachings and they should only be celebrated by them. “It means good relationships between people from different religious backgrounds can’t be built because people from other faith won’t be able to participate or interact,” the executive secretary of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference’s Commission for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs said. Fr. Susetyo, who is also secretary of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, said the bill goes against what the nation and the state stand for. “Is it urgently needed? Well it is not. Its purpose is not clear,” he continued. He urged the government to guarantee religious freedom for all citizens, instead of trying to introduce such a bill. “If the bill was drafted only with the intention of regulating or limiting innocent matters, then it is against the values of the constitution,” the priest said. At a press conference held yesterday, the head of the Setara institute, Hendardi, maintained that if the bill is passed, parliament would likely legitimize restrictions against minorities at the expense of harmony. “We need a bill to eliminate religious discrimination, rather than this sort of tolerance bill,” he said. END Related Report: Governor calls for religious harmony

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