Several different religions are practised in Indonesia, without an established state religion. The first principle of Indonesia's philosophical foundation, Pancasila, requires its citizens to state the belief in "the one and almighty God", sometimes called a "public religion". Although, as explained by the Constitutional Court, this first sila of Pancasila is an explicit recognition of divine substances (i.e. divine providence) and meant as a principle on how to live together in a religiously diverse society. Blasphemy is a punishable offence (since 1965, see § History) and the Indonesian government has a discriminatory attitude towards its numerous tribal religions, atheist and agnostic citizens. US State Dept 2022 report In addition, the Aceh province officially applies Sharia and implements different practices towards religious minorities.
Several different religions are practised in the country, and their collective influence on the country's political, economic and cultural life is significant. Despite constitutionally guaranteeing freedom of religion, in 1965, the government recognized only six religions: Islam, Christianity (Catholicism, under the label of "Katolik", and Protestantism, under the label of "Kristen", are recognised separately), Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. In that same year, the government specified that it will not ban other religions, specifically mentioning Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Shinto, and Taoism as examples. According to a 2017 decision of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia, "the branches/flows of beliefs" ()—ethnic religions with new religious movements—must be recognised and included in an Indonesian identity card (KTP). Based on data collected by the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), there are about 245 unofficial religions in Indonesia.
From 1965 to 2017, Indonesian law mandated that its citizens possess an identity card indicating their religious affiliation, which could be chosen from a selection of those six recognised religions. However, since 2017, citizens who do not identify with those religions have the option to leave that section blank on their identity card. Although there is no apostasy law preventing Indonesians from converting to any religion, Indonesia does not recognise agnosticism or atheism, and blasphemy is considered illegal. According to Ministry of Home Affairs data in 2025, 87.15% of Indonesians identified themselves as Muslim (with Sunnis about 99%, Shias about 1%), 10.44% Christians (7.37% Protestants, 3.07% Roman Catholic), 1.66% Hindu, 0.75% Buddhists, Confucians, and indigenous beliefs.
History
Until the beginning of CE, the peoples of Indonesia followed the local tribal Austronesian and Papuan ethnic religions and traditions.
Historically, immigration from the Indian subcontinent, mainland China, Portugal, the Arab world, and the Netherlands has been a significant contributor to the diversity of religion and culture within the archipelago. However, these aspects have changed due to some modifications made to suit the Indonesian culture.
Before the arrival of the Abrahamic religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, the prevalent religions in the region were the Indian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. They were brought to the archipelago around the second and fourth centuries, respectively, when Indian traders arrived on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi, and brought their religion. The Shaivite sect of Hinduism started to develop in Java in the fifth century CE. Hinduism had a decisive influence on the ideology of the one-man rule of the Raja, and was the dominant religion in Indonesia before the arrival of Islam. The traders also established Buddhism which developed further in the following century and several Hindu and Buddhist-influenced kingdoms were established, such as Kutai, Srivijaya, Majapahit, and Shailendra. The world's largest Buddhist monument, Borobudur, was built by Shailendra and around the same time, the Hindu monument Prambanan was also built. The peak of Hindu-Javanese civilisation was the Majapahit empire in the fourteenth century, and is described as a 'Golden Age' in Indonesian history.
Islam was introduced to the archipelago in the twelfth or thirteenth century. Coming from Gujarat, India (some scholars also propose the Arabian and Persian theories), Islam spread through the north and west coast of Sumatra (where, in 1111, first local Acehnese people were converted by an Arab called 'Abd-Allah 'Arif) and then developed to the east in Java. This period also saw Islam-influenced kingdoms established, namely Demak, Pajang, Mataram and Banten. By the end of the fifteenth century, 20 Islam-based kingdoms had been established, reflecting the domination of Islam in Indonesia.
The Portuguese introduced Christianity in the 16th century, notably to the island of Flores and to what was to become East Timor. Protestantism was first introduced by the Dutch in the 16th century with Calvinist and Lutheran influences. For the Dutch, economic benefit rather than religious conversion were paramount, and missionary efforts avoided predominantly Muslim areas such as Java. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) regulated the missionary work so it could serve its own interests and focused it to the eastern, Animist part of the archipelago, including Maluku, North Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Papua and Kalimantan.Encyclopedia of Protestantism: 4-volume Set by Hans J. Hillerbrand, Routledge, chapter on Indonesia, p. 824. Christianity later spread from the coastal ports of Kalimantan, and missionaries arrived among the Torajans on Sulawesi. Parts of Sumatra were also targeted, most notably the Batak people who are predominantly Protestant today.
The Sukarno era was characterised by a "distrust" between religion and the state; an example of this was the passing of a presidential edict in late January 1965 (still completely in force today and will be partially repealed starting 2026) which alongside attempting to ban religious blasphemy also explicitly declared in its explanatory memorandum that:
The religions professed by citizens in Indonesia are: Islam, Christianity [Catholicism and Protestantism], Hinduism, Buddhism, and Kong Fuzi (Confucianism).
This can be proved in the history of development of Religions in Indonesia. Because these 6 religions are the religions that are professed by almost all Indonesian citizens, thus unless they received guarantees as stated in article 29 clause 2 of the Constitution, they also receive aid and security [...]
This does not mean other religions, such as: Jew [Judaism], Zarasustrian, Shinto, Taoism are banned in Indonesia. They are given full guarantee as granted by article 29 clause 2 [of the Constitution] and they are free to develop, as long as they don't violate the terms of this regulation and other regulations.
For spiritual bodies/streams, the Government attempts to direct them to a healthy viewpoint and to the direction of the Belief of the One and Only God. This is as stated by the Resolutions of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly Number II/MPRS/1960 [on the Broad Outlines of the First Stage National Overall Planned Development Plan 1961–1969], appendix A, segment I, number 6.
There were also significant changes to the relationship during the New Order. Following an attempted coup in 1965 that officially blamed the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) and an anti-communist mass killings, the New Order government attempted to suppress PKI supporters by making it mandatory to have a religion since PKI supporters were mostly abangan (agnostic Muslims). As a result, citizens were required to carry personal identification cards indicating their religion. The policy resulted in a mass conversion, with most to Catholicism and Protestantism. Chinese Indonesians, who were mostly Confucianists, also faced similar circumstances. Because Confucianism was not one of the state-recognised religions, many converted to Christianity.
Islam
The history of Islam in Indonesia is complex and reflects the diversity of Indonesian cultures.Frederick, William H.; Worden, Robert L., eds. (1993). Indonesia: A Country Study, Chapter Islam. There is evidence of Arab Muslim traders entering the Indonesian archipelago as early as the 8th century. Venetian explorer Marco Polo is credited with the earliest known record of a Muslim community around 1297 AD, whom he referred to as a new community of Moorish traders in Perlak, Aceh. Over the 15th and 16th century, the spread of Islam accelerated via the missionary work of Maulana Malik Ibrahim (also known as Sunan Gresik, originally from Samarkand, at the time part of the Persian empire) in Sumatra and Java and Admiral Zheng He (also known as Cheng Ho, from China) in north Java, as well as campaigns led by sultans that targeted Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms and various communities, with each trying to carve out a region or island for control. Four diverse and contentious sultanates emerged in northern and southern Sumatra, west and central Java, and southern Kalimantan. The sultans declared Islam as a state religion and pursued war against each other, including on non-Muslim communities.
Subsequently, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, animist communities and unbelievers bought peace by agreeing to pay jizya tax to a Muslim ruler, while others began adopting Islam to escape the tax.Morgan, David; Reid, Anthony. The New Cambridge History of Islam. Vol. 3: The Eastern Islamic World. Cambridge University Press, , pp 587–89. Islam in Indonesia is in many cases less meticulously practised in comparison to Islam in the Middle East. In some regions, people retained and continued their old beliefs. They adopted a syncretic version of Islam, while others left and concentrated as communities in islands that they could defend, for example, Hindus of western Java moved to Bali and neighbouring small islands. While this period of religious conflict and inter-Sultanate warfare was unfolding, and new power centres were attempting to consolidate regions under their control, European powers arrived. The archipelago was soon dominated by the Dutch empire, which helped prevent inter-religious conflict, and slowly began the process of excavating, preserving and understanding the archipelago's ancient Hindu and Buddhist period, particularly in Java and the western islands.Taylor, Jean Gelman. Indonesia: Peoples and Histories. Yale University Press, , pp. 21–83, 142–73.
Sunni The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims ( 99%) practice Sunni Islam of the Shafi‘i school. Smaller numbers follow other schools (madhhabs), and the Salafi movement. The main divisions of Islam in Indonesia are traditionalism and modernism. Both are supported by Indonesia's two largest Islamic civil society groups Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, respectively. Many Indonesian mosques asserted their particular attachment to these two organizations. The orders of Sufism are considered essential.
Concerning the political expansion of Islam after the resignation of Suharto, political parties were again permitted to declare an ideology other than Pancasila. Several Islamist parties formed with Sharia as their ideology and the Crescent Star Party (PBB) came in sixth place in the 1999 elections. However, in the 2009 elections, the PBB ranked only tenth, while parties characterized by more moderate and tolerant interpretations of Islam achieved greater electoral success; the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), for example, placed fourth with nearly 8% of the vote
Shia