Indonesia must engage with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to resolve the strong “resistance” towards them, says its Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin.

Lukman said his government needed to act with “wisdom” in view of mounting pressure by LGBT groups, in order to prevent a more severe reaction from society.

“Almost all religions prohibit homosexuality. Moreover, our (Indonesian) society is religious and so, prone to strong reactions,” he said.

Lukman ( left ) said a greater part of the Indonesian society views the LGBT lifestyle as deviant and was greatly resistant to it.

“In this era of freedom, there are more campaigns for LGBTs and so, the government needs to act with more wisdom and engage these groups to resolve this (resistance) as strong reaction may result in more negative responses,” he said at the ministry’s office in Jakarta this morning.

He was meeting with a group comprising senior Indonesian and international journalists, facilitated by Indonesia’s Alliance for Independent Journalists (AJI) and US-based East-West Center.

Lukman, who was appointed to office in June, said there is also a need to create the LGBT community’s awareness of their “responsibilities and role in this dynamics”.

His statement is in stark contrast to the viewpoint taken by a neighbouring country.

It was revealed in June that a section of Malaysia’s proposed National Harmony and Reconciliation Bill 2014, which is being drafted, to make it an offence for a person to be discriminated based on sexual orientation, may be scrapped following a backlash.