Jakarta, NU Onlline
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, was strongly opposed to a plan of the campaign team of presidential candidate Joko widodo to remove the designation of religion on the national identity card to prevent discrimination if he were elected president.<>

Secretary General of NU KH Marsudi Syuhud was of view that if the religion column was removed, under certain conditions people would find possible difficulties. For example, when there was an accident and the victim's family could not be contacted, whereas the victim was killed and should immediately be buried. Not to mention handling all the victims with their different religious background.

''This is related to the interest of ID card holders," he told reporters here on Friday.

As reported by the Jakarta Globe, member of Jokowi's campaign team Musdah Mulia said that Jokowi would remove the religion status on the national identity card to prevent discrimination if he were elected president.

“Jokowi has told me that he agreed to do it for people’s welfare,” Musdah Mulia, member of Joko’s campaign team, said, referring to the Jakarta governor by his nickname. Musdah spoke during a discussion about the future of religious freedom and minority groups in Indonesia on Wednesday.

According to Musdah, Joko considered the faith status as leading to discrimination, such as making it easier for a hardline group to conduct a religious sweep during a conflict.

“Another example is on job applications. A job seeker might be rejected just because the religion is different with the boss. It’s discrimination,” Musdah said.

She said that the faith status should only be recorded for the purpose of collecting data on the population and for civil registry.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi last year said that if it is considered wrong to include the religion status on the ID card, known as the KTP, then legislators should revise the law.

Gamawan said that there are six religions acknowledged by the state. But there are some Indonesians who are atheists or follow religious beliefs that aren’t among those six.

“It’s OK if you want to increase the number of religions to six or nine as long as it’s stipulated under the law,” Gamawan said.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq