Lukman Hakim Saifuddin: Jusuf Kalla's Statement Misunderstood

Former Minister of Religious Affairs of Indonesia, the 22nd, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, has emphasised that Jusuf Kalla’s statement in his lecture at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) was not intended to justify violence in the name of religion, but rather to correct misguided understandings.

“Mr Jusuf Kalla does not hold the belief or conviction that ‘dying or killing non-believers constitutes martyrdom’. He actually wanted to state that beliefs and practices based on such understandings are wrong,” Lukman said in his written statement.

He explained that the expression, which has since been questioned by the public, was delivered in the context of JK’s experience in the peace process for the conflict in Maluku from 1999–2002. In that conflict situation, according to Lukman, misguided religious understandings were indeed held by the conflicting parties and became one of the triggers for violence.

“The misunderstood expression was delivered by Mr JK in the context of him explaining his experience in mediating the conflict in Maluku (1999–2002), where the understanding that Mr JK considers wrong was actually held and became the motivation for violent actions by the two conflicting religious communities,” he continued.

Lukman also highlighted the low literacy of some sections of society in responding to information on social media. He assessed that clips of JK’s lecture circulating online are incomplete and have triggered widespread misunderstandings.

“Our social media literacy is still low for the most part. This is then exploited by certain parties, by clipping full video recordings into partial snippets, to pit religious communities against each other,” Lukman said.

The polemic stems from JK’s lecture at the UGM Mosque in early March 2026, which discussed communal conflicts in Poso and Ambon. In his explanation, JK touched on how each side in the conflict often believed their actions to be religiously correct, including the use of the term “martyr”.