In recent years, we have seen a depressing number of stories from Indonesia related to religious minorities being robbed of a place to perform their religious duties. But one mosque in Jakarta shows how that’s not the whole story and why there is still hope for religious tolerance in Indonesia.
Read also: Viral video shows police in Riau shutting down church service as congregation begs them not to
A Facebook post uploaded on Monday has gone viral this week for showing a Christian funeral being held on the grounds of a mosque in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta.
https://www.facebook.com/jeferson.goeltom/posts/2948969551785268
Facebook user Jeferson Goeltom, who posted the photos above, wrote in the caption that his wife’s relative had died. The family wasn’t able to hold a funeral service at their house because it was located in a narrow alleyway, and they weren’t able to fit the coffin through it.
Jeferson then wrote that the local mosque graciously allowed the family use its lawn (which also functions as a public passageway — a common feature for mosques in densely populated neighborhoods in Jakarta and throughout Indonesia) for the funeral.
“Thank you my brothers, the caretakers of the mosque, and the residents of the neighborhood for the assistance and the super high level of tolerance,” Jefferson wrote in the post above.
Not only was there a Christian cross during the funeral, the photos also show that several Muslims attending the service.
Jeferson’s post has been shared close to 10,000 times as of the time of writing, with many netizens praising its illustration of religious tolerance.
The images shown in the post are certainly a far cry from other viral stories that have portrayed Indonesia’s growing religious intolerance in recent years. One notable case occurred in Yogyakarta in December 2018, when Muslim residents in the city forced a family to saw off a wooden cross-shaped grave marker belonging to their recently deceased loved one, on the grounds that they had plans to turn the cemetery into a Muslim-exclusive burial ground.
