TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A statement saying that religious should be separated from politics continues to spark debates among the public amid the legal proceedings of the blasphemy case involving Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok. In response to the matter, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said that it would be difficult to separate religion and politics.
“What must be prevented are the effects of bad political activities on religious affairs,” Lukman said on Thursday, May 4, 2017.
Lukman explained that religion and politics are difficult to separate in Indonesia, considering that the majority of Indonesians are fairly religious and basing their lives on towards religious values.
In order to make religion and politics go hand in hand, Lukman suggested, negative political practices must be prevented from slipping into religious affairs.
“However we must understand that political activities often create a negative excess,” Lukman concluded.
ISTMAN M.P.