Jakarta – People in the world's most populous Muslim nation have been facing Africa – not Mecca – while praying.

Arientha Primanita, Ulma Haryanto & Zaky Pawas – Peace is a word defined differently by certain religious communities and the Bogor administration, according to controversial Islami

The chief of Nahdlatul Ulama organization, or NU, has called on its members not to conduct sweepings on entertainment venues throughout Indonesia ahead of the Islamic fasting month.

Pontianak, West Kalimantan – The number of Chinese Muslims in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta, Surabaya and Semarang, has experienced rapid growth, a Chinese Muslim leader said.

Dessy Sagita – The country's highest Islamic authority is refusing to take the blame for issuing an incorrect edict in March, which stipulated that worshipers had to face westward in or

Zaky Pawas & Ulma Haryanto – In the latest attack on the rights of minority religions, hundreds of public order officers in Bogor on Monday demolished the foundations for a planned

Indonesian statesman and Muslim cleric Dr. Idham Chalid passed away on Sunday at his home at the Darul Ma'arif education complex in Cipete, South Jakarta.

Jakarta – Muslim group the Islam Defender Front (FPI) has admitted the role of local military in its raid on a health bill familiarization program in the East Java town of Banyuwangi la

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The National Police recently commemorated its 64th anniversary amid controversies and criticism from the public over many issues, including a lack of transpa

Niniek Karmini – A banner with a picture of a young, bespectacled Christian man is draped in front of a mosque, a fiery noose around his neck and the words, "This man deserves the death

Erwida Maulia and Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – A specter is haunting Indonesia – the specter of communism.

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – The imposition of sharia-based bylaws is a political maneuver designed by aspiring regional heads who want to garner votes, politicians from the countr

Anita Rachman – Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Muslim organization, has stopped short of denouncing hard-line groups committing acts of violence in the name of Islam, and in

The Indonesian Council of Ulema say they have reminded the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front not to resort to violence and intimidation but say they have no authority to take action aga

Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – Residents, politicians, activists – and at least one actor – in Depok and Tangerang urged their cities to reject sharia-based bylaws.

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – The public cannot count on the government to overturn sharia-based bylaws and should push for controversial laws to be reviewed through "people power",

Dicky Christanto and Hasyim Widiarto, Jakarta – "If we support one movement advocating religious-based policies, others will want them too," Nahdlatul Ulama secretary-general Iqbal Sula

Hans David Tampubolon and Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The police are reluctant to get tough with the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) group because of its ties to the Indonesian Mi

Anita Rachman – The youth leader of the country's second-largest Islamic organization has called on the group to choose a new chief at the weekend who can instigate changes and reform.

Ulma Haryanto – What is the real agenda of the Islamic Defenders Front and have its members been allowed to get away with their strong-arm tactics because they are backed by powerful fo

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Farouk Arnaz – The National Commission for Human Rights said on Monday that it would establish a special team to investigate allegations of attacks carrie

Bagus BT Saragih and Hans David Tampubolon – Legislators and activists have called for the banning of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), a hard-line group known for its violent, vigilante

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) says that there is no need to ban the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) despite the latter's continuous violent methods i

Farouk Arnaz& Ulma Haryanto – The National Police have denied allegations that they were lame ducks when it came to dealing with hard-line Muslim organizations, including the Islami

Ulma Haryanto – A new move by hard-line Islamic groups in Bekasi to push for the creation of Islamic militant units to fight the "Christianization problem" and serve as morality police

Farouk Arnaz – Lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, filed complaints with police on Monday after a meeting intended to discuss free health care in Banyu

Hasyim Widhiarto, Bekasi, West Java – A group of several Islamic organizations in Bekasi is planning to establish a joint center in all mosques in the city as an attempt to watch the on

Ulma Haryanto – Several religious organizations in Bekasi have recommended that every Mosque in Bakasi on the outskirts of Jakarta form militia units and called on all local Muslims to

Anita Rachman & Ulma Haryanto – Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmakers on Friday demanded the president take action against hard-line Islamic groups, after a meeting betw

Banyuwangi, East Java – A public meeting on free health care services sponsored by the House of Representatives here on Thursday was rudely disrupted by a crowd that considered it to be

Ulma Haryanto, Zaky Pawas & Made Arya Kencana - A day after the Bekasi government sealed another Protestant church because of constant pressure from hard-line groups, the Islamic De

Ulma Haryanto – In a sign of increasing religious tension in Bekasi, members of hard-line groups gathered on Sunday to discuss a coordinated response to bring the city neighboring Jakar

Peter Gelling, Jakarta – Indonesia's Constitutional Court held dozens of hearings and heard testimonies from more than 50 religious experts of all stripes during its six month review of

Armando Siahaan – The country's various Islam-based political parties must consolidate their splintered ideologies and find a strong figurehead if they are to bounce back from their poo

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Indonesia may face disintegration if its national ideology, Pancasila, is replaced by sharia, said politicians and historians Monday.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Activists rejected a government's plan to centralize the collection and management of alms or zakat, arguing the move would end privately run alms inst

Amir Tejo, Dessy Sagita & Anita Rachman – Transvestites on Monday lambasted a religious ruling banning them from cutting or styling Muslim women's hair unless they were spouses or b

Surabaya – A preacher and former chairman of the Reform Star Party (PBR), a splinter of the United Development Party (PPP), Zainuddin MZ, said politics was "no place for clerics".

One hundred and twenty-five Islamic boarding schools or pesantren from Java and Madura island issued a fatwa banning transvestites from cutting and/or styling Muslim women's hair unless

Ulma Haryanto – Hard-line groups that convinced or intimidated Bekasi authorities into ordering the destruction of an imposing statue of three women in a private residential complex hav

Nurfika Osman – The number of divorces registered by the country's Islamic courts has been rising sharply in recent years, despite a costly ongoing government program that provides coun

Nurfika Osman & Ismira Lutfia – As Indonesia called for calm, Muslim scholars expressed outrage over a page on the social networking site Facebook that encourages people to draw ima

Rofiuddin, Semarang – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali lamented the growing misconception of unlimited freedom that has entered the minds of Islam's followers.

Camelia Pasandaran – In some of his strongest comments against terrorists yet, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday called on all Indonesians to join the government in combating

Zaky Pawas & Ulma Haryanto – Three statuesque women carved in steel and an incident involving the Koran have both caused an uproar amongst conservative and hardline Islamic communit

The recent spate of attacks against Christian places of worship could be blamed on a culture of intolerance fostered over the past decade, according to observers.

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – Muslim intellectuals are urging lawmakers at the House of Representatives to take steps to revise the controversial 1965 Blasphemy Law.

Ulma Haryanto – A top government official has condoned the mob attack on a Christian-affiliated building site near Bogor, even as a church council called it symptomatic of the weak law

Muhammad Nafik – The Constitutional Court has upheld the controversial Blasphemy Law, turning down a request for it to review the 45-year old law.

Mohammad Yazid, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court (MK) ruled Monday to uphold the 45-year-old Blasphemy Law after a judicial review request was filed last October by human rights group