As reported by the Jakarta Post on 31 July 2020, Pew Forum published a
study in July 2020 entitled "The Global God Divide": "The‚ results of the survey, which covered 34 countries,‚ places Indonesia alongside the Philippines as the two countries with the highest percentage of citizens (96 percent) who equate‚ belief in God with having good values." In a separate development, Singaporean thinktank RSIS reported on 28 August 2020 a growing number of Indonesian supporters of Islamic State group (IS) ideology are resorting to homeschooling to raise a generation of
IS militant "cubs".
Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "As the Jakarta Post report says, it is not so surprising that 96% of all respondents in Indonesia were convinced that in order to have good values, a belief in God was necessary. It is far more the fact that 98% of all respondents said that religion played a very important or important part in their life which highlights how religious Indonesia is. However, the various religions in a country are all lumped together by Pew and the challenge remains to work out how the different forms of religious life can best live side by side in a given country. According to data from the
World Christian Database (accessed February 2020), Indonesia, for instance, has a Muslim population of 79.5% and a large Christian minority of 12.2%. This is a challenge Indonesia has been dealing with for the last 75 years - with varying degrees of success."
Thomas Muller adds: "On the Islamic side, much of the country"s religiosity is channeled through the two largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah. Both are struggling to keep their vision of moderate
Islam in a pluralist society central and young people engaged (New Mandala, 24 August 2020). Some are turning to more radical Islamic ideology; with IS supporters increasingly homeschooling their children, this not only makes government supervision difficult, in the long-term it is likely to boost intolerant attitudes towards both non-Islamic minorities and moderate Islam in the country. Indonesian Christians and other minorities will therefore continue to have to deal with a plethora of Islamic approaches, some of which are potentially hostile."
