TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs is planning to incorporate prevention of the spread of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) culture within the religious education curriculum.
According to the Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs, Romo Muhammad Syafi'i, this proposal will solidify the ministry's response to the LGBTQ issue into an institutional and systematic one instead of a mere verbal stance. The proposal was announced during an internal meeting within the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
The proposal came after the Prabowo-signed Presidential Regulation No. 111 of 2025 designated "the spread of LGBTQ culture" as a non-military threat to state defense.
Thus, Romo believes that this must be prevented through religious education, religious guidance, and planned socialization.
"How the prevention of LGBTQ culture becomes part of the Ministry of Religious Affairs' duty that is integrated into children's education," Romo said in an official statement in Jakarta on Monday, July 6, 2026.
The ministry is also planning to establish a team to prepare the educational materials, dissemination areas, and overall implementation of the program. Meanwhile, education against LGBTQ culture, he said, could be included in the curriculum of religious education across Islamic schools (madrasah), Islamic boarding schools (pesantren), and religious-based higher education institutions.
Romo also called for state Islamic universities (PTKN) across the country to hail an "anti-dissemination of LGBTQ culture" movement. PTKN, he believed, serves as a space to strengthen religious values, nationalism, and social morality.
Besides formal education, religious counselings are also encouraged to push forward the agenda of preventing the spread of LGBTQ culture in Indonesia.
"Religious counselors, Friday sermons, religious study groups in mosques and prayer rooms, and study groups can be used as channels for education. This approach is considered more practical and reaches people directly," he said.
The ministry will also work closely with other relevant ministries and state agencies, as well as religious organizations, to ensure the success of this program.
President Prabowo Subianto previously designated the spread of LGBTQ culture as one form of non-military threat under Presidential Regulation Number 111 of 2025 concerning the General Policy for National Defense for 2025-2029. The regulation was signed by Prabowo in Jakarta on October 24, 2025.
The classification of LGBTQ cultural dissemination as a non-military threat is outlined in the appendix of the regulation under the section "2. Factors Affecting the General Policy on National Defense," specifically in the "Threat Analysis" section.
Threats to national defense are categorized into three types: military threats, non-military threats, and hybrid threats.
"Non-military threats in the form of unarmed efforts or activities that endanger and threaten the state's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the safety of the entire nation," the regulation reads.
Ervana Trikarinaputri contributed to the writing of this article
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