REPUBLIKA, JAKARTA -- Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia urged government no to delete religion identity in electronic ID card. This mechanism can result unbalanced demographic data in the country.

Chairman of NU, Slamet Efendy Yusuf said that there were other religions outside six recognized religions in Indonesia, namely Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Buddha, Hindu and Confucius. He is afraid if the religion is not written on ID card, people can fill it with particular religion.

"For example, if someone says he is a Muslim but his religion is actually not Islam, so how? It means the existing numbers of Muslims in Indonesia are not valid," Yusuf said on Saturday.

He added that government should liberate its citizens to believe in one recognized religion freely, or it could trigger religious hypocrisy.

Yusuf said that many people did not know that there was also Jews in this country. It happens as they do not show themselves freely. So, if their identities are written on ID cards, so government can map population administration, especially in term of religion in Indonesia. The data is according to its reality.

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