Indonesia has Largest Number of Islamic Education Institutes

Jombang - Indonesia is unique with regard to Islamic educational institutes and has the largest number of them as compared to other countries, religious affairs minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said here Saturday.

"Indonesia has long been known as a religious nation because of its Islamic educational institutes, which numbers the largest in the world," the minister said at the commemoration event marking the 15th anniversary of Roushon Fikr Foundation in Jombang, East Java.

Indonesia is unique because it is not a religion-based state such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or the Vatican, he said.

Although it is not a religion-based state it is also not a secular state, he added.

"Indonesia officially does not use religion as a formal foundation but it also does not separate religion and state," he said.

Indonesia has been inseparable from religious values for a long time. Its predecessors have never separated religion from their daily lives as shown by the huge number of various religious activities carried out by communities in the country, he said.

"They are traditions from the ancestors. They have deliberately created them to make the Indonesian community closely connected with religious values. It could happen because many Islamic organizations continued to develop religious institutions that have numbered up to hundred thousand," he said.

Religion in Indonesia must become the national strength to preserve good values to prevent the negative impacts of current globalization, minister Lukman said.