JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday affirmed the rights of devotees of faiths outside the country’s officially recognised religions, in a move activists welcomed as a “new chapter for religious freedom”.

Against a backdrop of rising intolerance towards minorities in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, the court said Indon­esians would not be required to identify as either Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist or Confucian on their national identification cards. The ruling followed a legal challenge by followers of some of Indonesia’s indigenous faiths.

Bonar Tigor Naipospos from the Setara Institute, a group that advocates for religious harmony, said Indonesians who refused to embrace one of the regulated religions on their identity cards had limited access to education, restricted employment opportunities and were denied legal marriage.

The Court recommended that a seventh, catch-all category be created - “Believers of the Faith” - for ID cards.

“This is a new chapter for religious freedom in Indonesia for both government and followers of indigenous religions,” Naipospos said. “This is a door for the government to recognise their rights.”

A spokesman for Indon­esia’s president Joko Widodo could not immediately be reached for comment.

Indonesia’s founding constitution says the state is based on the belief in the “One and Only God” but guarantees “each and every citizen the freedom of religion and worship”.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2017