Muhammadiyah Christian Confirmed Not New Religious Flows

General Secretary of Muhammadiyah Central Executive Abdul Mu'ti (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - General Secretary of Muhammadiyah Central Executive Abdul Mu'ti emphasized that Muhammadiyah's Christian term is not a synkretism or a new religious sect, but a sociological variant of closeness between Christians and Muhammadiyah. "Kristen Muhammadiyah is a sociological variant describing Christian/Catholic adherents who sympathize with Muhammadiyah," said Mu'ti as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday 30 May. Previously, there was a lot of discussion about Muhammadiyah Christian terms in social media. This term emerged after Muhammadiyah published the research book "Kristen Muhammadiyah: Management of Religious Plality in Education".This term refers to Christians who are Muhammadiyah sympathizers in religious movements. Muhammadiyah Christians are not religious sympathizers where one mixes Christian/Catholic teachings with Islam (Muhammadiyah)," he said. According to Mu'ti, closeness and sympathy to Muhammadiyah is because of the experience of interacting with citizens and understanding of Muhammadiyah during studies in Muhammadiyah schools/agencies of Muhammadiyah education. Until now, Muhammadiyah social institutions have touched the area where Islam is a minority. Muhammadiyah Christian term, he said, shows the role of Muhammadiyah Christian education in establishing inter-religious harmony and national unity." They remain firm as Christian/Katholic adherents/Katholics with Islam (Muhammadiyah), "he said. According to Muhammadiyah, closeness and sympathy received Christian religious education/Katholic education taught by Christian religious educators/Katholics as regulated by Law Number 20/2003 concerning the National Education System," he said. Meanwhile, the Chairman of LKKS PP Muhammadiyah, who is also one of the researchers, Fajar Riz Ulhaq, said the published book describes the situation of tolerance in remote areas in Indonesia, especially in 3T (front, remote, remote, and underdeveloped) areas.

According to Fajar, the phenomenon of the emergence of the Muhammadiyah Christian variant can be explained by the intense interaction between Muslim and Christian students in the educational environment in Muhammadiyah schools. "However, it should be noted that these interactions do not eliminate their identities as adherents of devout Christianity," he said.