The Bureaucratisation of Religion in Southeast Asia assess the role of regulatory and administrative framework related to religious manifestation in Southeast Asian countries to evaluate the impact they have on Freedom of Religion or Belief in the region. This report highlights five major features of bureaucratisation of religion in Southeast Asia, using the case examples of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand: 1) the creation of national religious frameworks and administrative structures to oversee religious affairs; 2) existence of quasi-governmental religious organisations to conduct religious outreach; 3) administrative frameworks for religious practices in order to shape the manifestation of religious beliefs; 4) the establish of moral policing institutions and bodies of religious legal rulings; and 5) a system of dual legal jurisdiction to project the influence of the state to the judiciary. Together, these systems have impacted FoRB by creating restrictions on houses of worship and barriers to conversion and proselytisation. Bureaucratisation of religion also served to suppress expression and criticism, discriminate against gender and sexual minorities; and facilitate ethno-religious dominance.
