Pancasila in Indonesia a "religious laicity" under attack?

Unlike most Muslim-majority countries which, at the time of their independence, had to choose urgently and sometimes painfully between a secularized regime and the adoption of Islam as the state religion, Indonesia is one of the rare cases in which in-depth political debates were held on the relationship between religion and the state. If one were to attempt nonetheless to define the Indonesian approach to the place of religion within the state, one would be tempted to use an oxymoron: "religious laicity." Adopted at independence in 1945, the Indonesian official ideology enshrines as the first of its five principles (Pancasila) the "Belief in One Almighty God" (Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa) as the foundation of the Indonesian nation. This original formula, unprecedented in the history of religious policy of a modern state, is based on both spiritual inventiveness and a keen sense of political pragmatism. Pancasila was inspired by a plurality of spiritual references and founded a religious status quo still in force today in which Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, gave equal recognition to six religions (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism), despite large demographic differences. Defended by religious minorities and enshrined by various political regimes since independence, Pancasila is, however, regularly challenged, in various ways, by militant Islam.

Pancasila in Indonesia a "religious laicity" under attack?

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