<Special Feature 2 "Inquiry into Coexistence Based on the Idea of‛Asian Islam'">Interreligious Coexistence and the State: The Problem of the Use of the Word Kāfir in Indonesia

Abstract

One of the problems of a nation state is how to address religious minorities, because such addresses often imply negative images of "others." To that end, Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, decided in the 2019 annual conference that the term kāfir (Arabic for "nonbeliever") should not be used to denote non-Muslim Indonesian citizens in the public space. The subsequent debate on the matter highlights the relationship between Islam and the nation state: while nobody had questioned the equality of all citizens, the decision needed to be justified from a religious point of view. The implementation of such a decision in other Muslim-majority nation states may lead to followers of different religions coexisting together.