https://www.persecution.org/2025/01/23/indonesias-minister-of-religion-prepares-curriculum-of-love-for-teachers
*Indonesia’s Minister of Religion Prepares ‘Curriculum of Love’ for Teachers*
1/23/2025 Indonesia (International Christian Concern) — *Indonesian Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar recently announced a new program called the “Curriculum of Love,” a new guideline for religion teachers that promotes tolerance and respect of different religions.*
Currently, many religious teachers teach that their religion is the most correct, while others are considered wrong or heretical, he said.
What would happen if children were taught hatred in a very pluralistic country like Indonesia?
Nasaruddin added that the goal of the curriculum is to teach the values of love and tolerance from an early age. Discussions of religion too often lead to conflict, he said, and even hatred toward other groups.
- Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population.
- Christians, who account for about 13% of the country’s population, endure persecution from Islamic family members and members of the community, as well as Islamic extremists.
- However, there are signs that the country is becoming more tolerant toward minority religions, such as Christianity.
- “True tolerance is how to instill love between fellow human beings,” Nasaruddin said.
- “We are all human beings, and we are all citizens of Indonesia.
- Don’t let hatred be instilled through the culture of education; it is very dangerous.”
My Comments :
Well I wish them well. This is a major step for Indonesia. What is more important is that their elected leaders are not afraid of losing votes by promoting understanding and tolerance among religions. Yes the right word is tolerance. Some people say that 'religious tolerance' is the wrong word. The proper words should be 'respect and regard for religion'.
I beg to differ. How on earth can you tolerate a really stupid religion? Or really stupid religious beliefs and practises? And dear reader you must know which religion I am talking about. It is your neighbour's religion. How can you regard and respect their really screwed up beliefs and practises? So lets just stick with tolerance ok.
Religion is about market share. Like Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola fighting for market share. One consumer less for you means one more consumer for me. They really cannot get along but they just have to learn to tolerate each other.
But there cannot be such things as racial tolerance. You must respect and regard other peoples' race. Because race is what you are born with. You cannot change your race. So we respect the multitudes of races. But religion is acquired. You grow into it. Meaning you can also grow out of it. Which does happen. You can and do follow your neighbour's religion.
My hope for Indonesia is that they will teach Muslims to tolerate differences among Muslims. The hatred that Muslims have for other Muslims who follow different sects or flavours of their religion is quite unbelievable. Muslims are ready to kill other Muslims of different sects. In Indonesia there have been killings and fighting between Muslims of different sects before.
Christians in Indonesia include Catholics, Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses (JV) and Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) or Mormons. Yet the different Christian sects do not kill each other. But the Muslims can kill each other.
As long as Muslims cannot tolerate other Muslims of different sects there will always be trouble among Muslims.
This is where the Singapore Model works very well for Muslims.
There is actually no such thing as the 'Singapore Model', I just made it up, to make it easier to focus on the solution. In Singapore, which is a South East Asian country with a racial and religious profile very similar to its neighbours Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei they have made it totally illegal to persecute or prosecute anyone because of their religious beliefs. This has especially made life much easier for all the Muslims in Singapore. No single Muslim sect is allowed to persecute, prosecute, harass, torment, oppress or discriminate against another Muslim sect because of sectarian differences. So in Singapore the Shias, Sunnis, Qadianis, Wahabis all live peacefully beside each other. The Muslim cemeteries in Singapore are open for burial for all Muslim sects - regardless of whether a sect is even recognised as Muslim or not by another sect.
Sectarian violence is not tolerated at all. Whoever shows violent tendencies will be prosecuted by the Law and thrown in jail - usually for a very long time.
This is what Indonesia and all other Islamic countries should follow. They must make sure that no Muslim sect is prosecuted or persecuted by another sect just because of their sectarian differences. The law should protect each and every sect from suffering any prosecution or persecution by another sect.
As long as they do not do this, then there will be trouble in the land.
