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The GKI Yasmin congregation in Bogor has been prohibited by the local administration from holding services in its church for years. The Supreme Court has ruled that revoking the church’s permit is illegal. However, GKI Yasmin and many other churches in Indonesia have not been protected from a small but vocal minority that has tried to prevent them from receiving permits to build and worship — a minority that in some cases has even organized mobs to attack them.

The case of GKI Yasmin is troubling, but it is not representative of the status of all churches across the country. Throughout Indonesia, there are churches that do successfully receive building permits and congregations that can worship peacefully in religiously diverse neighborhoods. People working to resolve the problems in Bogor can look to the positive examples of interfaith relations in communities that have overcome religious tensions.

A 2011 research report, “The Controversy of Churches in Greater Jakarta,” sheds some light on the factors that result in constructive interfaith relations and situations where churches successfully receive permission to build. The report was developed by a team of researchers from the Paramadina Foundation, a Muslim civil society organization focused on religious tolerance, along with several civil society organizations with similar missions. The success stories for half of the 13 church-building cases studied show three crucial factors for congregations to build without fear.

The first factor is support from the local government and police, who have the power to accept or reject building applications and to stop mobs that want to disrupt the construction process. In the case of the GKI Terang Hidup church in Jakarta, for example, the local police facilitated dialogue between the church building committee and the groups resisting the church’s construction. The police also provided security and informed the surrounding communities about the process.

The second factor is support from religious elites in the surrounding area. For example, with St. Mikael church in Bekasi, West Java, the church building committee approached a local Muslim leader with strong support in the community, initiating good relations and persuading him to support the church.

The third factor is successful dialogue with the local Muslim community. This is important to avoid misunderstandings and emphasize that the church is not being built to proselytize to Muslims, but rather for the use of church members. All of the successfully-established churches studied convinced their communities that they were not trying to convert Muslims.

For instance, when the St. Albertus church in Bekasi was being constructed, the church building committee invited nearby communities, local government officials and police to several discussions. This repetitive approach gradually won support.

These three strategies can help preserve good relations between religious majority and minority groups, and they should be publicized more widely. They can also be applied to help ensure the successful establishment of mosques in Christian-majority communities.

It is also important for committees to anticipate the responses from conservative religious organizations, which in many cases have rejected the construction of churches. These organizations, though small in number, have consistently voiced their opposition in certain places and relied on mobilizing community members to oppose the construction of churches – often through violent means.

Fortunately, mainstream Muslim organizations such as Nahdlatul Ulama — the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia — and its youth wing have always supported the right to establish houses of worship. Building a church with the support of the local branch of these mainstream organizations usually deters radical organizations from violently rejecting the project. These mainstream groups should keep demanding that local governments and police guarantee the right to build houses of worship, and they should educate Muslims to actively support that right.

The central government should learn from this research so it can mitigate conflicts caused by church construction and uphold Indonesia’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom.

Common Ground News Service

Testriono is a researcher at the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) at the State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta, as well as an assistant editor of its journal, Studia Islamika.