Indonesia, with the principle of unity in diversity or Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, accommodates all citizens originating from diverse ethnicities and religions, spread across 34 provinces, and numerous islands. Diversity in Indonesia is supposed to be a great national asset, leveraging the coexistence of all differences. This impacts the creation of pluralistic circumstances that can be the national identity and character, as stated by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Martin Natalegawa (Antara, 2021). He continued that diversity in Indonesia preserves the national unity and cohesion, therefore leading to the cultivation of peace and more democratic lives.

Additionally, this country ranks first in the world in terms of Muslim population, with approximately 245,168,323 people, or 87.06% of the total population. This supposedly reflects how this country might be one of the Islamic countries in the world; however, historically, many Islamic political parties, despite gaining more popularity among their constituents, have been unable to construct this country’s political system from a democratic system to an Islamic one, in order to maintain the constitutional democracy.

Despite the failure of favouring the Islamic system in the country’s politics, the embrace of Islamic values in political and societal lives evidences the rising Islamic conservatism, particularly its integration into public policies, which influence the lives of “considered” religious minorities, such as the Ahmadiyya and Christians. Furthermore, this impacts the lives of most Indonesian societies, such as the hardship in establishing other religious worship houses, and some disbandment against other religious-minority activities nearby. In education, particularly in some primary to public high schools, discrimination against religious minority students often occurs, compounded by various bullying practices.

Bullying Based on Religious Hatred

Differences in students’ religions and beliefs often trigger bullying practices by student peers, besides discrimination caused by teachers and other school authorities. One story by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) research reveals that a Catholic student in one of the public schools in Banyuwangi was often restricted from sports activities by one teacher. Meanwhile, in Padang, West Sumatra, the enforcement of wearing a veil or jilbab for Muslim female students in public primary to high schools has been in effect since the establishment of Padang Municipality’s Instruction No. 451.442/BINSOS-iii/2005, even though non-Muslim female students, particularly Christians, were also mandated to wear veil or jilbab according to the report of Setara Institute and HRW. Additionally, a similar case was experienced by a female student of local beliefs, Budi Daya Local Belief, who was requested to wear a veil by her teacher to respect other Muslim friends in her school, SDN Cimenyan, Kabupaten Bandung, with Muslims as the majority. Additionally, she perceived some bullying with a harassing tone in her public school by her peers.

Currently, the publics are shocked by the death of a student at a public primary school in Indragiri Hulu Riau, on 25 May 2025. He was still 8 years old, experiencing bullying by some of his seniors allegedly due to differences in ethnicity and religion, based on his parents’ information. From the investigation based on the visum, he was found dead after a series of physical violence due to blunt objects. In addition, another important cause of his death was a systemic infection due to a ruptured appendix.

This case has been brought to public attention, leading to various and deep sympathy, particularly recognizing the previous bullying actions by his seniors, due to religious and ethnic issues, and resulting in an intense investigation from the police and local authorities, including the national ones. Nevertheless, hatred based on religion and ethnicity is often common in Indonesia, constantly occurring. Unfortunately, minor groups, such as children and primary school students, are allegedly exposed to religious hatred and become perpetrators of various hate crimes, causing many bullying practices to undermine those considered religious minorities.

What Causes Them to Be Exposed and How to Halt Them

Counselling Connect underscores that children are exposed to hatred due to their circumstances under a series of disorders, conflicts, turmoil, strife, and injustices. Hatred develops in the child’s early life, extends during the adolescent period, and is often based on an indifference between people. In addition, Paupedia underscores that the source of religious hatred relies heavily on segregation created by teachers and school authorities, as well as parents, such as restricting students’ and children’s friendship, interactions, and activities with those of different religions and beliefs. This embraces the thought of other groups as enemies, leading to students’ and children’s negativity against them, and the feeling that a certain group is the most correct and righteous, while the others are often wrong. This may be caused by a dislike or hatred cultivated by parents or educators, as well as other adults, to their dissatisfaction with the current government authorities’ behaviour in public, along with their public policies that seem unsupportive for people’s lives.

Teachers and school authorities play a significant role in preventing their students from bullying acts, particularly those based on religion and beliefs. This reminds us of the past event based on Sarjoko’s story on Islami.co.  He underlined that some kids in one of the Quranic Learning Centres for Children in Jogjakarta often began their lessons with “tepuk anak saleh” or “clapping for faithful kids”. What shocked him that time was that the clapping embraced the words “Islam YES,  No Kaffir!”. This demonstrated the teacher’s instruction to stay away from those who were different from the kids. As well, this could compound into more negativity and hatred inside the kids’ minds, seeing different religious groups.

In many schools, a counselling service provided by special counsellors is required not only to improve students’ skills and their future prospects after graduation, but also to address the issue of bullying among students. Often, we find out that these counsellors have no idea how to tackle bullying, causing concerns for parents, as some bullying ends with the deaths of students; moreover, sometimes school authorities cannot even determine what the most proper or firm actions should be applied to bullies at schools. At this point, school teachers and authorities are supposed to be a bridge to introduce tolerance and diversity values, as Indonesia itself comprises various religious and ethnic communities. Diversity should be seen as an important point that embraces togetherness and nationhood, and any religion basically never adapts bullying as a way to demonstrate which groups are more proper and righteous to live in this country.