Manado-Indonesia is a country known for its various ethnic, cultural, language, and religious differences. The presence of the Forum Kerukunan Umat Beragama (FKUB) is certainly one of the proofs where the Indonesian people strongly support tolerance and harmony between religious people in fellow Indonesians.
The activities of the International Harmony Week and the 6th Conference of FKUB Indonesia in 2021 were opened by the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Ma'ruf Amin. The event was held at Sutan Raja Hotel, North Minahasa, North Sulawesi Province, Friday (November 19, 2021).
"This activity is expected to further strengthen tolerance and harmony among religious people in Indonesia and at the same time provide inspiration for religious harmony in the world," said the Vice President.
Furthermore, the vice president also said that we must always be peace and harmony between religious people because it will not come alone.
"Religious harmony does not come by itself, but we must always take care and maintain it," he said.
Therefore, on that occasion the Vice President also told the religious assemblies with the government that formed the FKUB whose main task was to make various efforts in maintaining harmony between religious people both in the form of dialogue and mediation to prevent conflict or resolve disputes.
"I give appreciation for the role and contribution of FKUB as a medium that is very effective in building harmony and at the same time resolving disputes or conflicts of religious background," he said.
In addition, the Vice President also reminded not to be affected by hoaxes whose nature is negative issues especially in the midst of the sophistication of information technology that is currently moving very fast so that it will very quickly also lead opinions and various views from the people of Indonesia. This is believed to make Indonesian society more divided and of course it becomes a challenge for FKUB to maintain tolerance among religious people in Indonesia.
"Among the information there are positive, but some are negative including issues that can cause conflict between religious communities, among others through conspiratorial narratives and hoaxes," he said.
"In addition, the negative side of digital-based information technology has an ability called algorithmic curation, which leads everyone or group of people to believe only in information supplied from his group as truth, while other groups are guided by truths that are believed by their own groups," he explained.
"This is one of the challenges that must be answered by the FKUB so that religious harmony is maintained and maintained," he stressed.