Clerics play important role in dealing with sectarrian issues

Jakarta, NU Online
Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin at a meeting president Jokowi and regional clerics in Jakarta recently said the clerics had played their important role in dealing with sectarian issues plaguing the Jakarta election maintaining harmony across the country.

“They (clerics) told the President that religious harmony should not only be established through the implementation of law and human rights principles, but what is the most important thing is that we use empathy to build religious harmony,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jakarta State Islamic University (UIN) analyst Adi Prayitno said President Jokowi had made the right move in embracing regional clerics, because people across the country had been polarized along sectarian lines due to the Jakarta election.

By inviting clerics to the State Palace, Adi said, Jokowi wanted to tell Muslims that the government was not “criminalizing ” clerics and that the arrests of several figures believed to have orchestrated the anti-Ahok rallies were not politically motivated.

“The meeting with the clerics is part of Jokowi’s attempt to prevent sectarianism [in Jakarta] from spreading to the regions,” he said. “It is meant to calm down the situation ahead of the second round of Jakarta’s election.”

He added that the move also sent a message to the public that the anti-Ahok protesters did not represent the majority of Muslims in the country. (Masdar)