Minister Of Religion Asks Staff To Step In To Overcome Obstacles In The Establishment Of Houses Of Worship

Minister Of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas/ANTARA HO Ministry Of Religion

JAKARTA - Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas asked his staff at the Directorate General to intervene if there are obstacles related to the process of establishing a house of worship.

"The Director General must intervene, talk to the regional head, find out where the problem is, and what the solution will be," said Minister of Religion Yaqut as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, February 21.

The Minister of Religion emphasized this statement when opening a Joint Working Meeting of the Directorate General of Community Guidance (Bimas) Kristen, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Center for Guidance and Education (Pusbimdik) Khonghucu in Jakarta.

The Minister of Religion said that since the beginning of his leadership, he had often received reports about difficulties in establishing houses of worship.

Currently, at the end of the period of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet, the Minister of Religion asked that this would not happen again. Yaqut asked his staff to proactively help if problems with the establishment of houses of worship were found.

"Please help intervene, be advocated. Regulations that are often an obstacle, SKB 2 Ministers, we are raising it to the Presidential Decree, only the President's signature. The Presidential Regulation on the establishment of a house of worship whose enthusiasm makes it easier," said the Minister of Religion.

According to him, the crucial requirements in SKB 2 Ministers which require recommendations from the FKUB and the Ministry of Religion, will be simplified to recommendations from the Ministry of Religion only.

"That way the establishment of houses of worship will be much easier. Hopefully before Pak Jokowi ends his government, this Presidential Decree has been signed and people can feel that life in Indonesia is easy and there are no difficulties in worshiping," said the Minister of Religion.

Yaqut also asked his staff to ensure that the offices of the Ministry of Religion throughout Indonesia could be used for temporary houses of worship.

This condition is taken if there are people who have difficulty worshiping because there is no permit to build a house of worship or other reasons such as social conflict.

"We provide halls in the Office of the Ministry of Religion which are used as temporary places of worship. There should no longer be any brothers and sisters who have difficulty worshiping," said the Minister of Religion.