Minister of Religion Plans Office of Religious Affairs Can Serve All Religions

Jakarta, MINA – Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas said that the Office of Religious Affairs (KUA), apart from being a place for registering marriages for Muslims, is also planned to be a place for registering marriages for non-Muslims.

“We have agreed from the start that we will make this KUA a center for religious services for all religions. “KUA can be used as a wedding venue for all religions,” said Minister of Religion Yaqut on Friday.

He conveyed this at the Working Meeting of the Directorate General of Islamic Community Guidance (Bimas) entitled ‘Transformation of Islamic Religious Services and Guidance as the Foundation of Sustainable National Development’.

“Now, if we look at our non-Muslim brothers and sisters, they register their marriages in the civil registry. “In fact, that should be a matter for the Ministry of Religion,” continued the Minister of Religion at the meeting held in Jakarta.

By developing the function of the KUA as a place to register marriages from religions other than Islam, the Minister of Religion hopes that marriage and divorce data can be more well integrated.

The Minister of Religion also hopes that the halls at KUA can be used as temporary places of worship for non-Muslims who still have difficulty setting up their own places of worship due to economic, social and other factors.

“I also hope that the halls at the existing KUA will be welcome for our non-Muslim brothers and sisters who still have difficulty having their own house of worship, either because there is no funds to build a house of worship or for other reasons,” explained the Minister of Religion.

“Help our non-Muslim brothers and sisters to be able to carry out their worship as well as possible. “The duty of Muslims as the majority is to provide protection for minority brothers and sisters, not the other way around,” said the Minister of Religion.

Director General of Islamic Guidance Kamaruddin Amin said, in 2024, his party would launch KUA as an interfaith religious service center. “This year we will also launch KUA as a center for cross-functional and cross-religious religious services,” said the Director General.

“The extended family of the Directorate General of Islamic Community Guidance has made KUA a UPT under our guidance to become a place of religious services for all levels of society. “Even though it is only formed in 5,917 sub-districts, it serves people spread across 7,277 sub-districts,” he explained. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)