Religion and Nation Building

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Abstract

Religion is a social institution that offers meaning and direction for human behavior. Especially in the context of the establishment of the Indonesian state, Islamic struggle and sentiment became the motivation and inspiration for national unity, which later became political capital for the establishment of a sovereign Indonesian nation-state. This study explains the extent to which the state accommodates religion as a collective identity and makes it one of the considerations in regulating access to economic, social, and political resources. The results of the study indicate that normative religious values are the philosophical foundation for the formation of the Indonesian state, as outlined in the Pancasila and the Constitution of Indonesia. However, at the level of implementation, the state has not become a religion as a consideration in regulating access to the economy and social and political resources so that inequality between religious communities in this aspect has the potential to trigger social conflict.