INDONESIA Jakarta blocks the authorization of interfaith marriages

The Supreme Court sent a circular to the lower courts asking them not to accept the registration of unions between people of different religions. The issue had already come up in January this year after a Christian man asked for the marriage law to be revised so that he could marry his Muslim girlfriend. For human rights defenders, it is a step back in jurisprudence.

Jakarta ( / Agencies) – The Indonesian Supreme Court has prohibited lower courts from accepting marriage registration applications between people of different religious faiths. The imposition was published in a circular in which Chief Justice Muhammad Syarifuddin urged all courts to abide by the 1974 marriage law.

For a marriage to be considered legitimate, current regulations require that both spouses belong to the same religion. Muslim citizens can register their union at the religious affairs office. Believers of other religions must apply at a Civil Registry office. Although the regulations do not contemplate interreligious marriages, jurisprudence, based on a 1986 ruling, establishes that the couple can request the registration of their union in the civil registry with prior judicial authorization.

In June, a Jakarta district court approved the marriage request of a Christian man and a Muslim woman. The presiding judge of that court, Bintang AL, had argued that interfaith marriage was a legitimate and reasonable request given the heterogeneity of the Indonesian population.

The Council of Indonesian Ulema (MUI) had opposed the verdict and in recent days praised the Supreme Court’s ban, arguing that it clarifies the jurisprudence on the issue as it fills gaps in the law. “All parties must obey the circular, especially judges who do not understand or pretend not to understand the law on marriage,” said MUI fatwa official Asrorun Ni’am.

Human rights defenders, however, criticized the circular: “It prevents any progress that state judicial institutions have made to guarantee the rights of citizens of different origins,” Halili Hasan, executive director of the Setara Institute, said yesterday. On the other hand, Ahmad Suaedy, a professor at Nahdlatul Ulama Indonesia University in Jakarta, added that several ulama allow interfaith marriages because Islam itself recognizes various interpretations of it.

The issue had already arisen in January this year, when the nine Constitutional Court judges unanimously agreed that they could not accept a lawsuit against the marriage law brought by a Christian man. E. Ramos Petege, originally from Papua province, had called for a revision of the 1974 law as he could not marry his Muslim fiancée due to legislative uncertainty. The lack of legal recognition can cause difficulties in terms of marital rights, inheritance claims and access to social benefits.