Discrimination against Christian Minority in Muslim Societies: A Comparison of Indonesia and Bangladesh

Tampubolon, Manotar (2023) Discrimination against Christian Minority in Muslim Societies: A Comparison of Indonesia and Bangladesh. In: PERSPECTIVES in LAWS. AkiNik Publications, New Delhi, India, pp. 35-51. ISBN 978-93-5570-867-0

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Abstract

This chapter compares Christian religious freedom in two Muslim majority countries with divergent legal systems: Indonesia and Bangladesh. Indonesia's legal system is based on the Civil Law system, while Bangladesh's is based on the Common Law system; both countries are secular. The constitutions and other legal regulations of both states guarantee religious freedom. Nevertheless, the line is drawn there because, while the state guarantees citizens' freedom of religion and protects free practice, religion is treated differently in both countries. On the one hand, Bangladesh declares Islam to be the state religion; in Indonesia, all faiths (six state-recognized religions) are equal before the law, despite differing practices. Even though the constitution guarantees religious freedom, Christian minorities face discrimination and rights violations in both countries. Although Bangladesh provides Personal Law to Christians while Indonesia does not, they both arrive at the same conclusion: violations of Christians' right in terms of religion freedom are common in both countries. It provides to reaffirm discrepancies between the group and the larger society, so it threats entirely alienating the community as a fringe group. Even though there are public or private systemic initiatives to enable religious minorities to engage in the public sphere, this may be the situation. Keywords: Violations, Christian, minority, religious freedom, Bangladesh, Indonesia

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