Jakarta (Antara) - Chairman of the Nation Awakening Party (PKB) Muhaimin Iskandar has categorically denied a rumor that the Religious Affairs Ministry will be scrapped from the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla cabinet. The rumor is very misleading, he said here on Wednesday. He expressed belief nobody had the guts to propose the dissolution of the Religious Affairs Ministry without consulting PKB, which along with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), the National Democratic (Nasdem) Party, and the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party have nominated Jakarta governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo for the presidency. "I believe Mr. Jokowi will not do that. I also believe if someone proposes (the dissolution of the Religious Affairs Ministry) Mr. Jokowi will be opposed to it," he said. The presence of the Religious Affairs Ministry is a form of compromise that Indonesia is neither a religion nor secular state, he said. Therefore, PKB will stand firm against whoever intends to dissolve the ministry, he said. "We will face whoever will dissolve the Religious Affairs Ministry, either at the parliament or on the street, no matter who they are," he said. The rumor also has received a reaction from the executive board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organization. The presence of the Religious Affairs Ministry is inseparable from the long history of the Indonesian nation, particularly with regard to the battle for national ideology in the wake of Indonesian independence, NU Deputy Secretary General Muhammad Sulton Fatoni said. (*) Reporting by Sigit Pinardi

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