Jakarta – Almost half of Jakartans object to the establishment of other religions' houses of worship in their neighborhoods, an NGO survey revealed.

"49.5 percent of our respondents disagreed with the establishment of other religions' houses of worship. That percentage is quite high for plural Indonesia. Meanwhile, 45 percent had no problem accepting them and the remaining 5.5 percent did not answer or did not know," Setara Institute researcher Ismail Hasani said Wednesday.

For Central Jakarta, Tangerang, Depok, Bogor and Bekasi, the percentage of those who disagreed with other religions' houses of worship was between 62 and 74 percent, while other parts of Jakarta were between 51 and 60.5 percent.

The Setara survey was conducted between September and October 2010, with 1,200 respondents. 89.2 percent of the respondents were Muslim, 5.2 percent were Christian, 3.7 percent were Catholic, 0.2 percent were Hindu, 1.2 percent were Buddhist and 0.1 percent Confucian.

Most Jakartans also thought the regulation of places of worship should not be done solely by the government or religious leaders. "53.4 percent of respondents said the establishment of houses of worship must be regulated in accordance with collective agreements between the government and religious leaders," Ismail said.

He said the that finding was in accord with the Interfaith Communication Forum (FKUB), in which governments and communities decide together on the establishment of houses of worship.

"Residents hoped this could help increase tolerance when building houses of worship, even though the ministerial decree is still discriminative," Ismail said.

A 2006 joint ministerial decree on places of worship stipulated that a new house of worship must obtain a recommendation letter from the provincial religious affairs office and the FKUB before gaining final approval from the local administration.