West Nusa Tenggara set to ban Ahmadiyah

---The Jakarta Post

The Archipelago - Thu, 03/19/2009 3:01 PM

West Nusa Tenggara set to ban Ahmadiyah

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara: The West Nusa Tenggara administration plans to officially ban activities by the Ahmadiyah sect in the province in the near future.

Governor M. Zainul Majdi said the proposed policy was agreed upon after several options carried out by his administration had yet to succeed in resolving the Ahmadiyah refugee issue.

“We are studying the ban on the Ahmadiyah. Our basis is very strong because we are implementing the mandate stated in the 1945 Constitution and the Criminal Code to prevent religious sacrilege. The ban will also strengthen the joint ministerial decree on Ahmadiyah,” he said Wednesday in Mataram.

He added the ban would be stipulated in a gubernatorial decree, such as that carried out by the South Sumatra provincial administration to also ban the Ahmadiyah.

The move is widely deemed the right effort toward resolving the Ahmadiyah refugee issue. Hundreds of Ahmadiyah members have lived for the past three years at the Wisma Transito shelter in Mataram, after being forced from their homes in Ketapang hamlet in West Lombok.

Zainul said based on observations by the provincial religious affairs agency and other bodies, the Ahmadiyah refugees tended to be tight-lipped and controlled by the Ahmadiyah organization. -JP

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