Why is Indonesia often presented as a paragon of inter-religious dialogue? "First and foremost, because the majority of the Muslims who live in the country are moderates". This was told in today’s issue of L’Osservatore Romano by the bishop and president of the Indonesian bishops Conference, Martinus Dogma Situmorang, in an interview with Alessandro Trentin. "The Islamic leaders goes on the prelate are generally moderates, open and not too bound to the Middle East or to a political form of Islamism. In Indonesia, Islamism is above all a culture: the Muslim religion has imbued people’s culture in very many areas of the country". Inter-religious dialogue in Indonesia is, according to the prelate, also "exemplary", because "generally, Muslims do not monopolise social life": "There are very serious and honest efforts going on he explains to live like brothers with the members of other religions and cultures". "Certainly, dialogue is not simple admits the bishop and it doesn’t always happen everywhere or with the same intensity or the same fruitfulness". What are the risks of fundamentalism for Indonesia? "It depends on Islam if the country can and must be democratic, modern and multiform", answers the prelate: "Fundamentalism per se, religious or otherwise, Muslim or otherwise, is always a threat against communal life, because it is violent in the way it thinks and acts".
