Istiqlal Mosque: Indonesia's National Church

My tour through the religious landmarks of Central Jakarta.

Greetings,

About two weeks ago, I accompanied my dad with his church group on a tour through the three religious landmarks of Jakarta: the Jakarta Cathedral, the Istiqlal Mosque, and the Immanuel Church. In that order.

As the title of this post suggests, I will focus on the Mosque. But I will also cover the Cathedral and the Immanuel Church.

Since the Cathedral was first, I had the opportunity to study the history of Catholicism in Indonesia early in the morning. After we finished our tour of the Cathedral, we took an underground route to the Mosque.

The path that connects the Cathedral to the Mosque

One of the cool things about the three places we visited is how they are all very close to each other, especially the Cathedral and the Mosque:

I recorded the above video in the Mosque’s courtyard, right after we concluded our business in the Cathedral.

Now on to the Mosque. This was only the second time I ever stepped foot inside of a mosque¹, so I didn’t really know what to expect. It’s hard to tell from the above video, but this mosque is huge. Wikipedia states that the Istiqlal Mosque has the capacity for 200,000 people. I understand that Wikipedia’s not the most reliable of sources, but having been in that mosque myself, I believe it.

Image from the Virtual Tour of Istiqlal Mosque’s Official Website

Inside the mosque, the staff gave us a short video presentation. It showed us the history of the Mosque, the community activities they are undertaking (like education), and some notable events like a visit from the then US President Barack Obama². But the video also included some unexpected things like how the facility is “eco-friendly” and uses green energy.

I wish I can show the actual video in this post since I don’t think my description is doing it justice.

But anyways, I realized that this video is the Indonesians’ attempt to show their best foot forward to an international audience. I gathered that from the the fact that the video is in both English and Indonesian.

This is why I call the Istiqlal Mosque “Indonesia’s National Church”. I’m sure neither the Muslims nor the Christians will be happy with such a moniker, so I will explain myself.

By “national church”, I don’t necessarily mean Christianity. Rather, I mean a religious organization that serves as the icon for a nation’s identity. For example, the national church of Russia is the Russian Orthodox Church. With the United States, it’s the Episcopal Church.

Being the “national church” doesn’t necessarily mean a religion will have the most adherents in said country. In the United States, Episcopalianism³ is on a free fall; Catholicism and Evangelical protestantism now have more adherents than it. A lot more. That said, the Episcopal Church still has a special place⁴ and history within America. Four presidents have been buried in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and many funerals of prominent American figures were held there⁵.

Going back to Indonesia, it’s clear that Istiqlal is the country’s national church from its name alone. Istiqlal in Arabic means ‘independence’, and the mosque was named in honor of Indonesia’s independence. But it’s more than the name itself; Istiqlal itself was built as an expression of Indonesian independence.

Istiqlal began construction in 1961, and was opened to the public in 1978. This means that of the three religious landmarks of Central Jakarta, Istiqlal was easily the youngest. For comparison, the Cathedral was completed in 1901 while the Immanuel Church was completed in 1839.

The idea of building a “national mosque” building had been thrown around almost as soon as independence was proclaimed in 1945. Whether or not it was intended, the building of Istiqlal was Indonesia’s act of replacing one national church with another. This brings me to the third building I visited, the Immanuel Church.

(Source)

If the Istiqlal Mosque serves as the national church of independent Indonesia, then the Immanuel Church served as the national church of the Dutch East Indies. My first clue was when I stepped inside, it felt like I was in a building that was teleported over from Amsterdam.

And my theory of the Immanuel Church being the Dutch East Indies’ national church was further solidified by the presentation I heard from the tour guide. He told our group a story about how the church was built as a way to merge together the different protestant denominations in the colony. Also, the church was originally named Willemskerk, in honor of the Dutch King William I.

But speaking of history, I want to go back to both the Cathedral and the Mosque. Remember when I mentioned the history of Catholicism in Indonesia? It was very extensive, dating back to the Portuguese in the 1500s or so. But then everything changed when the Dutch arrived. The Dutch Protestants persecuted the Catholic Church, forbidding the Catholics from practicing their religion. Apparently, Reformation politics was not just limited to Europe, it bled over to Southeast Asia also.

But the persecution ended, thanks to (of all people) Napoleon Bonaparte. After the Emperor of the French conquered the Netherlands, he installed his brother to be king. And this king allowed the practice of Catholicism in the Dutch East Indies.

So that was the early history of Christianity in Indonesia. I didn’t expect the Reformation and the Napoleonic Wars to have such an influence in Indonesia. It was quite the surprise.

So where am I going with this history?

Let’s go back to Istiqlal. The presentations for both the Cathedral and the Immanuel Church gave us history before 1945, but not so for the Mosque. In fact, with Istiqlal it felt like the world began with Sukarno’s proclamation of independence. And it did for Istiqlal in a sense, as the mosque was constructed after independence.

It’s not a coincidence that the Istiqlal Mosque’s presentation focused more on the modern/future side of things, like green energy and Barack Obama.

In terms of Indonesia itself, the presentation has a lot of emphasis on religious tolerance. This isn’t a surprise to anyone familiar with the Mosque. For example, the designer for the mosque was actually a Christian: Friedrich Silaban⁶. Then there’s one of the leaders of the mosque, Nasaruddin Umar. I checked his Wikipedia article, and… something tells me he’s not a strict Islamist:

Not that I’m complaining.

This is the direction that Indonesian Islam wishes to go. Whether or not the people will go along with it remains to be seen. In any case, I appreciate the staff of the mosque for welcoming us. And my dad’s church group feels the same way, as they gave the mosque’s tour guide the gift of ulos:

Hopefully the beginning of a friendship.

But regardless of what kind of Islam Indonesia wishes to preach, it is still Islam. And it’s clear that Istiqlal is an attempt to put something big that is unmistakably “muslim” in the heart of Jakarta. When I toured around the mosque, I was surprised by how I could practically see all of Central Jakarta from the building. The interior of the building was also impressive. Naturally, I took photos:

Left to right: The Cathedral, Monas, and the Mosque interior

And of all the pictures I took in Istiqlal, nothing spoke to me more than this picture below. I took it on one of their giant terraces. There, inside this gigantic mosque, I saw the Cathedral at a distance. It’s small and seemingly overshadowed by the huge dome by its side, but it’s there.

If this picture isn’t an allegory for Christianity in Indonesia, then I don’t know what is.

Until next time,

Michael P. Marpaung

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1. The first time was for a community service thing when I was in high school. And I barely remember it since it was late at night and I was super sleepy.

2. Who grew up partly in Indonesia and had an Indonesian stepfather.

3. Along with the rest of mainline protestantism.

4. Though unofficially.

5. I can think of former President Ronald Reagan off the top of my head.

6. He’s also a Batak, so shout-out to my people (lol).