Every state manages religion in one way or another, and religious violence often justifies state intervention to control how a religion should be presented, preached and, most importantly, limited. This paper examines the state management of religion in Indonesia with focus on state regulations promulgated during the New Order period. The Indonesian state has managed religion by making religious practices less focused on spirituality but more a matter of state administration. Four regulations in particular exemplify the state's attitude toward religion, namely the Presidential Decree in 1965 on the state-recognised religions, the Joint Ministerial Decree on Houses of Worship in 1969 and 2006, the National Marriage Law in 1974 and the Ministerial Decrees on mission activities in 1978.In brief, this state management of religion has been enabling Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, to be governed as neither an Islamic state like Saudi Arabia nor an outright secular state like Turkey among the Muslim countries.

Although Indonesia is generally considered to be a Muslim state, and is indeed the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, it has a sizeable Christian minority as a legacy of Dutch colonialism, with Christians often occupying relatively high social positions. This book examines the management of religion in Indonesia. It discusses how Christianity has developed in Indonesia, how the state, though Muslim in outlook and culture, is nevertheless formally secular, and how the principal Christian church, the Java Christian Church, has adapted its practices to fit local circumstances. It examines religious violence and charts the evolution of the state’s religious policies, analysing in particular the impact of the 1974 Marriage Law showing how it enabled extensive state regulation, but how in practice, rather than reinforcing religious divisions, inter-religious marriage, involving the conversion of one party, is widespread. Overall, the book shows how Indonesia is developing its own brand of secularism, neither a full-blooded Islamic state like Saudi Arabia, nor an outright secular state like Turkey.

Religious conversion is often regarded as a matter between God and the individual concerned, with little direct link to the state management of religion. This article argues that in Indonesia, the state has managed religion by making religious practices less focused on spirituality and more a matter of state administration. A special interest is given to the 1974 Marriage Law, the greatest motivation for religious conversion to Christianity from Islam in contemporary Indonesia, in order to explore how the state embarked on a secular legal intervention into the private religious life of the nation.

Fashionable hijab is a trend in Muslim societies worldwide. In Indonesia, hijab commercialization has been especially prominent. This study used consumer socialization theory to examine the relationship between hijab influencers (HIs), religious factors, attitudes toward fashionable hijab, and commodified hijab-style choices. In particular, we examined involvement with HIs, HIs' influence on hijab consumption, religiosity, and religious community involvement to investigate the mechanisms of consumer socialization. Structural equation modeling revealed that hijab influencers, as consumer socialization agents, reinforced positive attitudes toward fashionable hijab, whereas religious community involvement, as a social structural variable, had a negative effect. Finally, positive attitudes toward fashionable hijab positively influenced the pursuit of commodified hijab-style choices. These findings have practical implications for vendors targeting the Indonesian market by distinguishing commodified hijab styles from conservative hijab styles and identifying the factors influencing consumers.