Catholic Schools In Indonesian Municipality Agree To Give Koranic Education To Muslim Students

The Jakarta Post reported yesterday that six Catholic schools in the Indonesian municipality of Bitar, East Java, have agreed to provide offsite Islamic lessons to their Catholic students in compliance with Mayoral Decree No. 8/2012 issued last year requiring all Muslim students to be able to read and write Koranic verses. City officials had threatened to close down the six schools if they did not comply.  Indonesia's education law provides that every student is entitled to receive religious education imparted by an educator of the his or her religion, and that the government must furnish such teachers if a private school cannot do so. Apparently this provision has not been enforced against Islamic schools that have Buddhist, Christian or Hindu students enrolled.