Muara (Indonesia) (AFP)

Indonesia wants to develop halal tourism to attract more Muslim tourists but several regions of the archipelago are rebelling against this project: the residents of Lake Toba, mostly Christians, have launched a pig festival in protest.

If for Muslims, pork is an impure animal, for the Bataks, the ethnic group that lives near the largest volcanic lake in the world on the island of Sumatra, pig farming has been a tradition for generations.

Last weekend they organized pig races, games, and other activities in the Muara district during a pig and pig festival to affirm their traditions.

This region with breathtaking landscapes, is one of the priority areas of the government for the development of new tourist destinations, other than the island of Bali.

But the plan to promote halal tourism - guaranteeing Muslims access to prayer rooms, halal food, no alcohol, and sometimes separate pools for men and women - sparked the wrath of non-Muslims. , who see it as a sign of an Islamization of society.

While 90% of the 260 million Indonesians are Muslim, making it the largest Muslim country in the world, the country also has significant Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities.

But Indonesia's reputation for religious tolerance has been undermined recently by the development of conservative Islamist currents.

Developing halal tourism in areas with a large non-Muslim population is risky, said Ali Munhanif, an expert on political Islam at Syarif Hidayatullah, an Islamic public university in Jakarta.

"This phenomenon reflects an effort to institutionalize conservatism," he says.

Bali, an island mostly Hindu, "manages its tourism successfully without using a label + Hindu +," he says. The governor of the island has also excluded this year the development of a halal tourism offer on the island popular with Western holidaymakers.

But its promoters emphasize that the concept of halal tourism is poorly understood.

This is not an "Islamization". "It's about providing the necessary conditions for Muslim visitors, like prayer halls," said Zainut Tauhid, Indonesian vice minister of religious affairs.

- "Divide people" -

This opinion is not shared by everyone around Lake Toba.

Most of the inhabitants of the region are Bataks, a predominantly Christian ethnic group that places great importance on pork in its traditions and for whom pig farming is an important source of income.

The project announced last month by the governor of the province Edy Rahmayadi to develop halal tourism, and to ban the slaughter of pigs in public, triggered strong reactions.

This idea "will divide people". "It's a step back for tourism here," Togu Simorangkir, the organizer of the festival, told AFP.

The festival attracted a thousand visitors, who came to see various attractions, including a pig fashion show, or a game to catch pigs blindfolded, while the children were coloring images of pigs.

"Pork is part of Batak culture". "We have been raising them and we have been living there for generations," says high school student Edo Sianturi.

Sabrina Singarimbun, a Muslim student visiting the area, came to see the swine fashion contest.

"I do not agree with the idea of ​​halal tourism because here the culture is batak and most people are not Muslims," ​​says the young woman wearing the hijab.

- A profitable niche -

Halal tourism, an offer that exists in Turkey, the Gulf countries, Thailand or Taiwan, is seen by the Indonesian authorities as a potentially very profitable niche. The sector is worth $ 300 billion, according to a 2017 study.

But putting it into practice creates tensions in the country.

This summer, authorities in Lombok, a predominantly Muslim island near Bali, had to clear their planned separate men's and women's campgrounds in Mount Rinjani National Park in front of a protest concert.

In Makassar, on the island of Celebes, two restaurants had to close after a Muslim association complained that the smell of their pork-based cuisine was spreading in surrounding mosques and halal restaurants.

In Muara, the organizer of the pig festival, Togu Simorangkir, wants to dramatize: "Muslims have always come to festivities here in North Sumatra and there is no problem".

© 2019 AFP