JAKARTA • A video of Christian nuns singing and dancing with a qasidah (Islamic pop music) group went viral over the weekend. Netizens praised their performance as a heartwarming example of interfaith acceptance amid rising religious intolerance across the country.

The video was first uploaded to the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) YouTube channel last Wednesday and went viral after Twitter user @qasimin, who specialises in making memes out of qasidah music videos, tweeted a clip of the video the next day.

According to the KWI's official website, Mirifica.net, Sister Yunita of the Sisters of Charity of St Charles Borromeo had practised with the group Miftahul Jannah before taking the stage at a celebration to mark the anniversary of the Jakarta Archdiocese's Civita Youth Camp in Ciputat in Banten province.

Her fellow nuns joined in as background dancers.

The song performed by the group was called Jilbab Putih (White Headscarf) and Sister Yunita pointed to her own white headscarf while singing the lyrics.

"White headscarf, symbol of holiness," the nun and the qasidah group sang. "White headscarf, like light that is shining in the middle of a dark night."

Twitter users applauded what they saw in the video.

"As an ethnic Chinese and a Christian who once joined in singing qasidah at school, I like this," Twitter user @jen-l4u said. "It doesn't weaken our faith but strengthens our unity," @benobenyoh said.

"The real face of Indonesia," gushed @dapedwepe.

The popular video comes soon after a cross at a cemetery in a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Yogyakarta was destroyed because residents objected to a Christian symbol in the public burial ground.

Recently, a cross-shaped mosaic in Surakarta, Central Java, was painted over despite denials that it had anything to do with Christianity.

THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK