Getting around the inter-religious marriage law

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Imagine ... no religion ...", as John Lennon once put it, then Agus would have had no barriers against marrying his beloved girlfriend.

It was back in 1986 when Agus, a native of Magelang, Central Java, had to convert to Islam as it was the only way he could marry his lover and obtain legal status for their marriage.

Agus met his wife in his native village in 1983. He was a Christian. A year later, they decided to try their luck in Jakarta.

Once in Jakarta, Agus took a job as a cab driver and his girlfriend began teaching at a public school. It was not until two years later that they finally decided to marry.

But they were confused as they knew that inter-religious marriage was forbidden by the state.

The Law No. 1/1974 on marriage, stipulates that the state will only recognize marriages between people of the same religion. This means a couple from different religious backgrounds must choose which religious ritual they will follow in order to get their marriage acknowledged by the state.

A number of celebrities and expatriates have had their inter- religious marriage recognized by getting married in Singapore or Australia, countries where the practice is legitimate.

Agus is not one of the well-off people, able to afford such a trip.

"I didn't know anything about the law. All I knew was that I couldn't get married legally if my wife and I didn't have the same religion," Agus told The Jakarta Post.

He decided to convert to Islam in order to avoid all the hassles and get married.

"I told my wife I would convert to Islam for practical reasons. I am a Muslim on paper, but I'm a Christian at heart because I still go to church every Sunday and follow all the Christian principles," Agus told the Post.

As for his three children, the 41-year-old man said he gave them the freedom to choose which religion they felt at peace with. They chose Islam.

Like Agus, Budi experienced a similar situation. Only in his case, his wife converted to Christianity.

"We are just common people with no money. We don't know anything about law. We just wanted to get married as easily as possible. And since I bought the house in my name as a Christian, my wife decided to convert to Christianity," said the 32-year-old trader.

However, he said, he let his wife, who hails from Jakarta, practice her original religion.

"My wife converted for the sake of the legality of our marriage. After that, she is free to practice her belief as a Muslim," Budi, who is also a native Jakartan, said. His four children, however, are Christians and go to Christian schools.

Novi experienced a slightly different story. She was allowed to maintain her religion -- Protestant Christianity, when she married her Catholic boyfriend.

"We moved from one church to another, to find out if they would recognize our marriage," the 33-year-old housewife recalled.

They finally found one, but with some conditions.

"There was a Catholic church willing to accept our inter- religious marriage on the condition that all our children be baptized into Catholicism," said Novi.

Activists have long demanded that the government lift the ban against inter-religious marriage, on grounds that it violated the freedom of religion and belief.

In the case of Budi and Agus, religion has been reduced to a mere tool to obtain legal status.

As Novi put it, "different religions should not matter. To me, everybody has the right to practice their own belief. After all, we worship the same God."