Pancasila

The world's largest Muslim majority country is also a functioning democracy with free elections, a free press, and a constitution that guarantees religious freedom.

The two largest Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, with memberships in the tens of millions, have consistently defended democratic pluralism and Pancasila, Indonesia's founding ideology of national unity across religious diversity.

This is not a small or marginal phenomenon.

It is evidence that Islam and democracy are compatible when the political culture supports that compatibility.

I learned way more on every episode, but that one's going to stick with me forever.

Will I remember all the stuff about Pancasila? Maybe not, but I'll definitely remember the third

world origins.

But

Due to its tremendous religious, ethnic, and regional diversity, the Indonesian state has devoted significant effort to nation building, seeking to forge a unifying national political ideology through Pankasila, the country's official state ideology.

Are you ready to embrace Pancasila, my friend?

I would like to hear before, just in case there's a trap, I'd just like to hear a touch more about it before I agree.

Okay, sure.

You let me know, because, you know, let's just say it's been used for good and for not so good.

Yeah, no way.

Pancasila is based on five foundational principles.

Number one is belief in the one and only God.