Alfian, Jakarta – Despite being the world's most populous Muslim country, Indonesia still suffers widespread corruption and terrorism – so what has Islam contributed to civilization, said Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah.

During a discussion on Islam and the future of Indonesia Din said, "Muslims do not become problem solvers, even though most often they are part of the problem".

"And the problem is rooted in the way Indonesian Muslims perceive their religion," he said. "Islam is only perceived as a ritual religion. It is not yet perceived as a peace and justice religion."

Din said Islamic leaders and scholars should immediately find the solution for this problem.

The discussion was organized by the Center for Information and Development Studies (CIDES) and included Yudi Latif of the Paramadina University and Adian Husaini from the Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council (DDII).

Yudi and Adian said religion had made considerable contributions to civilization. Yudi said adopting religion into politics had been practiced by several countries.

Great Britain had several regulations and laws which required the state to protect Christian religious leaders from villainous slander, Yudi said. And Italy had a system that provided protection for the Roman Catholic Church, he said.

"Religion and politics are not necessarily separated, as long as the state remains neutral and guarantees freedom for all believers to express their religion," Yudi said.

"Secular politics that looks down on religion will create spirituality without social responsibility and politics without soul." Including religion in "the public sphere should not lead to politicization of religion", he said.

"We have to carry a religious spirit into public life, but at the same time we have to avoid fundamentalists that want to use religion for political pragmatism," he said.

Adian said Indonesian Muslims, especially Islamic leaders, "must introspect their internal morality"."Critical approaches toward ideas from outside are still needed, but the most important thing is introspection and internal corrections," he said. "It is important to reform the internal condition of Muslims at the first place," Adian said.