Indonesia Clerics Alleging Ahmadiyah Ties Protest Candidates

NEWS

Indonesia Clerics Alleging Ahmadiyah Ties Protest Candidates

Yuli Krisna | January 25, 2011

Bandung. In yet another blow to the beleaguered Ahmadiyah community, a group of Islamic clerics in Garut, West Java, have formally objected to the three candidates for district secretary on the grounds that they may be from the sect.

In a hearing at the district legislature on Monday, dozens of clerics and community elders said the three men nominated for the post by the district head — Iman Ali Rahman, Hermanto and Indriana Soemarto — were “suspected of following Ahmadiyah teachings.”

Ahmad Hidayat, one of the clerics, said this was grounds for the district head to “repeal all the nominations made earlier.”

Legislative speaker Irfan Suryanagara pointed out that there were no provisions forbidding members of the minority Islamic sect from seeking office.

“All citizens are guaranteed equal legal standing. That’s the law,” he said.

However, he conceded to demands that candidates be questioned about their backgrounds.

“If they’re believed to be from a certain element of society, we have to look into whether the allegations are true,” he said.

District head Aceng Fikri labeled the allegations by the clerics questionable, but he declined to comment on whether he would nominate an Ahmadiyah follower to his administration.

“I’m not going to comment on it because I’m bound to be accused of discrimination,” he told the Jakarta Globe.

He stressed none of the candidates were Ahmadis.

“They’ve been accused of being Ahmadiyah, but there’s nothing to indicate this, so we could be dealing with a baseless accusation here,” he said.

He added that one of the candidates, Iman, had even gone so far as to sign a sworn statement before a group of clerics to deny he was an Ahmadi.

He said all three candidates had met the requirements to become district secretary, a post second in command to the district head and his deputy.

“For that reason, I refuse to withdraw their candidacies and will stick with my decision,” Aceng said.

Members of the Ahmadiyah continue to face acts of discrimination and outright oppression by mainstream and hard-line Muslims across much of the country, including West Java.

In October, a mob of 200 looted homes and burned down a mosque and school belonging to an Ahmadiyah community in Bogor.

Similar attacks have also occurred recently in Cianjur, Sukabumi, Garut, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis and Kuningan, while in West Nusa Tenggara, an Ahmadiyah community purged from its village in 2006 has been forced to live in a “temporary” shelter and denied permission to return home.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesia...candidates/418818

Indonesian Prosecutors ‘Dead’ Wrong in Sect Stabbing Claim in Bogor

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Indonesian Prosecutors ‘Dead’ Wrong in Sect Stabbing Claim in Bogor

Ulma Haryanto | January 20, 2010

Ahmad Nuryamin, 35, was arrested and accused of a stabbing he says he was forced to confess to during torture. (JG Photo/ Nivell Rayda)

Indonesia. Prosecutors in Bogor on Wednesday admitted making a big mistake in their indictment of an Ahmadiyah sect member who was accused of stabbing a teenager during a mob attack on an Ahmadi settlement in October.

The indictment against Ahmad Nuryamin, 35, said a forensic test done on the victim’s “dead body” had shown stab wounds. But the defense counsel had argued that the victim, 15-year-old Rendi Apriansyah from neighboring Pasar Salasa village, was alive and only wounded — not dead.

In their response to last week’s defense statement at the court in Cibinong, Bogor, the team of prosecutors on Wednesday admitted to the mistake. “We admit that we were careless,” Prosecutor Nuraeni Aco told the court.

However, Nuraeni said the defendant was carrying a knife at the time of the incident and that the prosecutors would leave it to the court to decide whether he stabbed the victim or not.

“We believe it was suspicious for Nuryamin to have a knife with him at nighttime, because farmers don’t work at night,” she said.

Nuryamin has argued that, as a farmer, he carried the knife every day and that the victim had bumped into him in the confusion and darkness during the Oct. 1 attack by a mob of mainstream Muslims on Cisalada, a village that is home to some 600 members of the Ahmadiyah community. He said his knife had still been in its sheath at the time of the alleged attack.

“Rendi himself could not rightly identify the suspect,” Muhammad Isnur, a member of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) and Nuryamin’s legal counsel, told reporters after the hearing. “First he said it was a long-bearded old man with a white shirt. The police arrested two elderly men, neither of whom carried a sharp weapon,” he said.

Police attention fell upon Nuryamin after a boy’s report that he had overheard him saying that he might have stabbed someone.

Nuryamin was arrested for questioning three days later.

He signed a confession that he had stabbed Rendi during the night of the attack when hundreds of assailants burned and looted homes, schools and a mosque in Cisalada.

But the defendant, who faces up to 10 years in jail for assault on a minor, claims he only signed the confession after being tortured by two police officers.

Nuryamin’s mother, Rohmatika, said that after he had been interrogated by the police, “I saw his face was full of bruises, his lips were bleeding and he had difficulty hearing.”

Judge Eddy Wibisono adjourned the trial to Jan. 27 to hear the prosecutors’ reply.

A different panel of judges at the same court on Wednesday heard the case of three teenagers who allegedly destroyed property during the same attack on Cisalada. Judge Atriwati adjourned their trial until Jan 26.

Authorities have declared the Ahmadiyah religion to be a deviant sect, and its followers have been the repeated target of attacks, especially in West Java and West Nusa Tenggara, by mainstream Muslim neighbors.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian...in-bogor/417964

The Thinker: Faith Talks Silenced

OPINION

The Thinker: Faith Talks Silenced

Nicholaus Prasetya | January 17, 2011

Last week, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali sparked debate when he said “there were no religious conflicts during 2010” in Indonesia.

But it doesn’t take much to see that the minister’s comment was far from the truth.

Last week, for instance, members of a hard-line Muslim group forced 15 people in Surabaya to halt a discussion on religious tolerance.

The Surabaya incident was a continuation of religious tussles from last year, including disputes over permits to worship and the forced closure of churches.

It had the look of numerous conflicts before it, having been perpetrated by intolerant groups whose moves were, in the end, supported by local authorities. In this case, police in Surabaya ultimately forced the meeting to end.

The forum was disbanded for two main reasons.

First, members of the Ahmadiyah community, a minority Muslim sect, were at the talks, according to news portal Detik.com. Their mere presence anywhere is enough for critics to launch protests or other forms of intimidation.

The other reason is an old excuse: The 15 participants apparently lacked a permit to hold such a forum.

The country is supposed to celebrate diversity, even when it comes to religion. Ahmadiyah members have rights that should be protected by the government.

However, many of the sect’s members live in fear — and they’re not the only ones.

The Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace recorded 28 attacks and rights violations against Christian communities across the archipelago in the first seven months of last year, up from 18 cases in 2009 and 17 in 2008.

The Wahid Institute cited 196 cases last year of violence based on intolerance and religious discrimination, an increase of almost 50 percent from a year earlier.

The Moderate Muslim Society, moreover, said at least 81 cases of religious conflict occurred last year — an increase of more than 30 percent from 2009.

In such a country where the government fails to ensure the rights of all its citizens, communication becomes integral to avoiding clashes such as the ones we have seen or heard about in the news.

But is there still room for religious tolerance if criticism is often silenced?

The German sociologist and philosopher Jurgen Habermas theorized that a rational society would evolve through the development of economy, technology or capital.

But he also said communication and information exchange — not the economy, as others such as Marx posited — was the true driving force of society.

Seen in this context, the Surabaya forum’s dispersal is particularly regrettable because participants were trying to engage in discourse on the very subject of engaging in discourse.

Ideally, peaceful communication means no group dominates the dialogue, giving all participants — with the goal of reaching a consensus — the chance to speak their minds, regardless of their status in the community.

Before the breakup of the talks, the Ahmadiyah members at the Surabaya forum were given a fair chance to share their thoughts. For once, they were not silenced by rowdy protests or government sanctions. They were not forced to follow what other groups wanted them to do.

The Ahmadis were there to talk about how to foster a better environment for interfaith harmony in the country.

Surely the meeting in Surabaya was a welcome break from the world where stigmatization, threats and repression are part of their daily lives. They are Indonesians, but strangers in their own land.

This begs the question: Why is it that groups of hard-liners do not participate in such forums instead of cracking down on such peaceful initiatives?

It is clear that, as a country with a Muslim majority, mainstream Islamic groups should be involved in the dialogue.

But resisting the urge to advance their own interests should be a prerequisite before they can take part. Ideal communication eschews the supremacy of one group over another and focuses on finding long-term solutions to conflicts through building consensus.

Interreligious conflicts should be bridged by communication.

They cannot be solved by force.

Thus, it is everyone’s duty to protect open lines of communication wherever they have been established.

Last year, it was clear to all — save perhaps for our religious affairs minister — just how common acts of intolerance were.

Should we expect the same this year?

We will if the rights to free speech and religious freedom are at the mercy of those who shut out ideas and beliefs contrary to their own.

Nicholaus Prasetya is currently a student at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/hard...activists/416885

Hard-Liners, Police Shut Down Tolerance Talk in Surabaya: Activists

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Hard-Liners, Police Shut Down Tolerance Talk in Surabaya: Activists

Amir TejoAmir Tejo | December 15, 2010

Members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) protesting against the Q! Film Festival in Jakarta last year. Pluralism advocates said hard-liners also disrupted a talk on religious tolerance in Surabaya on Thursday. (AP Photo/Irwin Fedriansyah)

Surabaya. Police and Islamic hard-liners on Thursday disbanded a discussion on religious tolerance in Surabaya, said members of a humanitarian watchdog who were in attendance.

Members of the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, a group that advocates for pluralism and freedom of worship, said they were participating in the discussion at a coffee shop in the Inna Simpang Hotel with groups including Surabaya Legal Aid and members of the minority Ahmadiyah sect.

They said the meeting was disrupted by dozens of members of a group calling itself the Warring Defenders of Islam (LPI).

Setara activists said Sasmito, a man identifying himself as the head of the LPI, told the attendees the discussion was illegal and would have to be disbanded.

Shortly afterward, the activists said, Surabaya Police arrived and conferred with the LPI, after which the hard-liners left.

The tolerance discussion resumed, but police returned and ordered an end to the gathering, Setara members said.

“We request that you stop with this discussion, because you have not informed us that you were going to hold it,” a police officer said, according to Setara official Bonar Tigor Naipospos.

Bonar said he demanded police tell them what law required police permission to hold a meeting.

“This was no demonstration which requires a permit. This was a meeting involving 15 people at a hotel. Why were we stopped from meeting?” Bonar told the Jakarta Globe.

He said police told him the meeting could pose a security risk because it was held not far from a building where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would be staying during a working visit.

“This was a fabricated reason,” Bonar said.

“Yudhoyono’s visit anywhere would have extraordinary security. This was just a discussion.” He added that organizers had sent a text message to East Java Police Chief Insp. Gen. Badrodin Haiti informing him of the meeting, but that he hadn’t responded.

“We did not meet to conduct anarchic activities or to attack the country,” Bonar said.

“We met here to find a resolution for an ongoing problem. To find a resolution we must listen to all parties involved. This was meant to be positive.”

Members of the gathering said they believed that the hard-liners were connected to the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a fundamentalist group known for forcibly imposing their religious views on others.

Setara Institute founder Hendardi on Thursday said he condemned the police’s failure in stopping hard-liners from disrupting human rights discussions.

“This is a clear threat to our constitutional rights to freely express our opinion,” he said.

“Police in the regions can no longer be separated from radical Islamic organizations, who continue to persecute and intimidate minority communities, including those organizations that fight for the rights of these communities.”

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/hard...surabaya-activists/416885

Where’s the Public Justification in Ostracizing Ahmadiyah?

OPINION

Where’s the Public Justification in Ostracizing Ahmadiyah?

Aristo Pangaribua | December 09, 2010

In the most recent example of religious intolerance targeting a minority group in Indonesia, an armed mob attacked an Ahmadiyah mosque in South Jakarta last Friday. This was yet another wound for the Ahmadis, who have experienced hundreds of attacks in various places.

Our government seems reluctant to act on behalf of these minorities.

No one is ever convicted for ransacking and destroying Ahmadi mosques or homes.

It is not surprising to me because in 2008 the minister of religious affairs, the home minister and the attorney general essentially “endorsed” such actions by placing the blame on Ahmadis for failing to halt their religious activities.

Cabinet ministers even provided a “solution” to end the controversy by enacting a 2008 joint ministerial decree that prohibits Ahmadis from performing their religious services in public, because Ahmadiyah is considered a deviant sect of Islam.

Furthermore, the government is now discussing strengthening the legal status of the decree by turning it into state legislation (Undang-undang ).

Rights activists claim that such actions violate freedom of religion.

This has become a hot topic. Does the government have the right to interfere with a citizen’s private beliefs?

This kind of dispute does not just happen in Indonesia.

In the United States, the proselytizing of the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect has been restricted, partly because the group bans blood transfusions for its members, which has led to an outcry over children’s health.

The legalization of gay marriage in the United States is another case, as is the ban on wearing the full Islamic veil in public in France.

Nevertheless, I believe that in some cases the state does have the discretion to interfere with private beliefs to promote a broader “good” and to maintain order as a nation in general.

But what our government has forgotten is the role of explaining and justifying a given action that might be for the good of society.

The government, in deciding to restrict Ahmadiya’s actions, is acting on the basis of “good” religious doctrine.

The action was taken merely because Ahmadiyah tenets contradict the majority view of Islam.

The United States and France both use this discretion largely on the basis of health, security, community standards or nationalism rather than religious values.

Is this a sounder public justification?

Professor Gerald F. Gaus, from the University of Pittsburgh (Value and Justification: 1990), argues that in order to create public justification, a state action must be neutral toward different conceptions of the good.

A ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the US state of Ohio was overturned in court because there was no sufficient public justification and it was deemed unconstitutional.

Public justification plays an indispensable role in the practice of democratic citizenship.

For Indonesia, which often goes on about its being the world’s third-biggest democracy, this requirement is extremely important.

If the term “public justification” seems too abstract, just ask the three ministers who enacted the joint decree how they would feel if the state used its power to prevent them from doing something they believed to be essential to their quality of life, without providing an adequate reason.

The use of coercive power itself is suspect in this case.

The “joint ministerial decree” is unknown in our legal hierarchy.

But the government is adamant this action is necessary to maintain “public order.”

Under the doctrine of separation of powers, it is the task of the courts to balance the state’s interest in restricting Ahmadiyah’s actions against the group’s inherent right to practice its beliefs.

It is imperative for the judges to make sure that the state is not acting for the wrong reasons and has provided a public justification for its action.

However, it is also true that in April 2010, the Constitutional Court declined to void the 1965 Blasphemy Law, which serves as the basis for the government entering the domain of religion.

The court rejected a motion for a judicial review, lodged by former President Abdurrahman Wahid and others, on the ground that the state needs to have this discretion to prevent turmoil and anarchy.

What makes it more confusing is that the joint ministerial decree cannot itself be tested in court.

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud MD was quoted as saying that the vague status of the decree makes it hard to challenge.

The bottom line is that our “third-largest democracy” has failed to produce a sufficient public justification for the use of its political power against a minority religion.

From what I understand, in a democracy, the citizen is entitled to an explanation when the state uses its power of coercion.

Where in the world is our principle of due process of law?

Aristo Pangaribua is a Jakarta-based lawyer and chairman of Pemuda Indonesia Progresif. He can be reached at www.progresif.net.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe

URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/commentary/wheres-the-...-ahmadiyah/410838

Jakarta Police Help Repel Attack on Ahmadiyah Mosque

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Jakarta Police Help Repel Attack on Ahmadiyah Mosque

Arientha Primanita, Nivell Rayda & Zaky Pawas | December 04, 2010

Jakarta. A group of about 50 people, dressed in white robes and wielding weapons, attempted to attack an Ahmadiyah mosque in South Jakarta early on Friday morning, but they were chased off with help from police officers.

Firdaus Mubarik, spokesman for the South Jakarta branch of Ahmadiyah, said the congregation was warned by police of the impending attack.

A number of members, along with three police officers, stood guard over the Al Hidayah Mosque off Jalan Ciputat Raya in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta.

“At 12:37 a.m., 50 people came to the mosque wearing white clothing and wielding sharp weapons like samurai,” he said.

Firdaus said the police fired six warning shots, causing the group to scatter. “The whole incident took about 10 seconds. It was recorded on our CCTV.”

The footage showed the group was mostly made up of teenagers armed with wooden canes and iron bars.

One assailant tried to pick up a rock while another attempted to climb the gates before the pack panicked and fled.

Seconds later, police and civilians were seen chasing the mob away.

One man from the group was detained and taken to the Kebayoran Lama Police station.

Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman pledged firm action against the perpetrators.

The damage from the attack was fairly minor, but pluralism advocates are more worried about what the attack means.

“This is proof that intolerance is really happening in the capital,” said Ismail Hasani, a researcher for the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, which recently released a survey showing that 45.4 percent of respondents from Greater Jakarta wanted the Ahmadiyah, a minority Islamic sect, disbanded.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe

URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/jakarta-police-...ah-mosque/410021

Update: Indonesia Police Warn Ahmadiyah of Fresh Attack

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Update: Indonesia Police Warn Ahmadiyah of Fresh Attack

Arientha Primanita | December 03, 2010

An Ahmadiyah congregation in South Jakarta holding Friday prayers after their mosque was attacked early Friday morning. (JG Photo/Arientha Primanita)

Jakarta. Despite warnings from police that a second attack was being planned, members of the Ahmadiyah religious movement in South Jakarta went ahead with Friday prayers.

“We will keep doing our activities because it is only Allah we fear,” said Firdaus Mubarik, spokesman of the South Jakarta branch of Ahmadiyah.

A number of police officers had also been stationed at the Al Hidayah Mosque on Jalan Ciputat Raya in Kebayoran Lama.

The mosque was attacked shortly before 1 a.m. on Friday.

Firdaus said about 50 as yet unidentified people wearing white flowing robes, some of whom were armed with samurai swords and other weapons, before they scattered when police fired six warning shots in the air.

A window in the mosque was broken but no members of the congregation were injured.

One person has been taken into custody for questioning.

Last year, an unknown person or group attempted unsuccessfully to burn down the mosque.

Firdaus said they had only ever conducted their activities peacefully.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe

URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/update-indonesia-...-fresh-attack/409871

Mob Attacks Ahmadiyah Mosque in South Jakarta

NEWS

Mob Attacks Ahmadiyah Mosque in South Jakarta

Jakarta Globe | December 03, 2010

Al Hidayah Mosque on Jalan Ciputat Raya in Kebayoran Lama, Jakart, Indonesia

Jakarta. In the latest example of religious intolerance in Indonesia, a group of unknown people attacked an Ahmadiyah mosque in South Jakarta early on Friday morning.

The sword-wielding assailants smashed the windows of the Al Hidayah Mosque on Jalan Ciputat Raya in Kebayoran Lama and left. No injuries were reported.

Mubarik, spokesman for Jakarta’s Ahmadiyah community, confirmed the attack.

Police are yet to comment.

In October, a mob of hundreds ransacked and burned down houses, schools and a mosque in Cisalada village, home to 600 followers of the minority sect, which is deemed deviant by many mainstream Muslims.

Last November, a group of conservative Muslims held a rally at an Ahmadiyah mosque in North Jakarta.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe

URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/mob-at...-jakarta/409866

Looking the Other Way When It Comes to Indonesia’s Ahmadis

OPINION

Looking the Other Way When It Comes to Indonesia’s Ahmadis

Firdaus Mubarik | November 21, 2010

On Oct. 1 in Bogor, an Ahmadiyah mosque and 28 houses were destroyed, looted and burned. Fifty Korans were burned during the assault on Cisalada village, home to 600 people. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono scarcely reacted. It was a far cry from several months earlier, when an American pastor made plans to burn the Koran in Florida and Yudhoyono immediately wrote to US President Barack Obama and held a press conference to protest the action.

The problem is that the government never seriously prosecutes perpetrators of violence against the Ahmadiyah.

In one case in 2002, more than 300 Ahmadis fled their homes in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, when their homes were burned down.

The community was taken to Mataram, where they were attacked again in 2006.

On Friday, 50 followers of the sect were chased out of their homes. Now they live in a barracks, denied the right to return home.

Half a million of other Ahmadis in Indonesia live in fear. Attacks by Islamic extremists continue anywhere there are Ahmadis in Indonesia.

In West Java, violence has erupted in several districts: Bogor, Cianjur, Sukabumi, Garut, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis and Kuningan.

The same has occurred in Sumatra, Sulawesi, Maluku and Kalimantan.

In fact, there is no safe place for Ahmadis to worship in Indonesia. Freedom of religion in this country is increasingly threatened.

To legitimize their actions, attackers cite an Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) fatwa — promulgated in 1980 and strengthened in 2005 — which declared Ahmadiyah heretical and dangerous.

In Banjar, West Java, Sobri Lubis, one of the leaders of the radical Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) openly invites his people to kill followers of Ahmadiyah.

Police do nothing in response, just as they have done next to nothing about extremist action against Ahmadis elsewhere in the country.

In the 2006 Lombok case, police freed the people suspected of torching homes of the displaced Ahmadis.

In Bogor in September 2005, Encep Hernawan made the bold statement that he and his organization Gerakan Islam Reformis (Garis) were responsible for an attack on four mosques and 43 homes belonging to the Ahmadiyah community in Cianjur.

The act went unpunished.

In some cases, local governments facilitate the attackers and position the Ahmadis — who, under the Constitution, should be protected — as the cause of the problem.

They also sometimes legitimize acts of violence.

In Bogor, Garut, Tasikmalaya and Kuningan, local governments issued decrees banning Ahmadiyah, often including the MUI fatwas of 1980 and 2005 in their laws.

Religious Affairs Minister Surya Dharma Ali this year campaigned against Ahmadiyah, repeatedly saying that it was not part of Islam and he would ban the sect.

This policy follows similar action in Pakistan in 1974, when that country’s Constitution was amended to explicitly declare Ahmadis as non-Muslim minorities.

Rather than solve the problem, these actions have triggered a rise in attacks, arrests and killings of Ahmadiyah followers.

In recent times 86 Ahmadis died and more than 120 were injured in attack during Friday prayers at an Ahmadiyah mosque in Lahore.

Indonesia in 2005 ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Under the 1945 Constitution, the government should protect the freedom of religious choice and association.

But in fact a 1965 ordinance allows the government to prohibit a particular religion or faith.

This law also underlies a 2008 joint decree that prohibits the spread of Ahmadiyah teachings — said to be contrary to the majority’s understanding of Islam.

A report by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace shows the violence continues to increase. In 2009, there were 33 cases of violence against Ahmadis — up from 15 in 2007.

A National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) team in 2006 thoroughly investigated the violence against Ahmadis on Lombok and in Kuningan.

It spoke of human rights violations, but unfortunately the team’s recommendations were not followed up by commission members.

There has been some progress, though.

This month police stopped 300 FPI members from attacking an Ahmadiyah mosque in Ciamis, West Java.

This strong action from the police clearly shows that the government has the ability and power to stop violence.

The government must revoke all ordinances and regulations that restrict the freedom of religion and worship and take decisive steps to ensure the safety of the Ahmadis.

People involved in violent acts against the community should be arrested and prosecuted.

Consistent, firm government action is the only way to stop the violence faced by minorities like the Ahmadis.

Firdaus Mubarik is a member of the Ahmadiyah community in Kebayoran, South Jakarta.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe

URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/looking-the-othe...as-ahmadis/407694

Politics Seen in Ahmadiyah Violence

August 1, 2010
Farouk Arnaz & Antara

Politics Seen in Ahmadiyah Violence

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Kuningan, West Java. The forcible closure of Ahmadiyah mosques, which led to rioting in Manis Lor village in Kuningan, West Java, was most likely fueled by the political desires of district head Aang Hamid Suganda, an official from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence alleged on Sunday.

“We found a fact [regarding Aang’s political designs]. We need to confirm it, but we believe it to be true,” said Sinung Karto, a member of the commission also known as Kontras.

“After two years of peace, anarchy occurred last Thursday.

This was triggered by instructions issued by the district head to seal off Ahmadiyah mosques,” he said, adding that the commission had undertaken two days of intensive research and investigations at the scene of the violence.

Sinung said that Aang had promised to close the mosques during his campaign for the 2008 district head election, in which he won a second term.

Aang’s term ends in 2013, and even though he cannot run for a third term, he is believed to be preparing the way for his wife, Utje Ch, to succeed him.

Closing down the Ahmadiyah mosques, Sinung suggested, was an effort by Aang to achieve this by courting public support.

Indra Listiantara, from the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, said that having investigated the case, Setara had come to the preliminary conclusion that Aang had ordered the mosques closed for political reasons.

“We suspect that once his term as Kuningan district head ends, Aang will run in the West Java gubernatorial election,” Indra said.

“He wants to keep his support base intact, and gaining political support from Muslim hard-liners by openly opposing and taking action against Ahmadiyah is key to that.”

Both Indra and Sinung have called on the police to take action and investigate the mosque closures and subsequent violence.

“Even though the police were a little slow in preventing what transpired on Thursday, we have to give them credit for stopping the scuffles from degenerating into a full-blown riot,” Indra said. “They should, however, find the person responsible for the incident.”

Police officers, acting on orders from Aang, on Thursday sealed off Ahmadiyah mosques in Manis Lor after having failed to do so on Monday due to resistance from the group’s members.

But as the protesters blocked police attempts to shut down their mosques, groups of hard-line Muslims flocked to the village and scuffles broke out.

Amid pressure from Muslim groups, the government in 2008 prohibited members of Ahmadiyah from practicing their faith in public or proselytizing, but stopped short of banning the sect.

Many mainstream Muslims consider Ahmadiyah deviant because its members recognize the sect’s founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as a prophet.

Kuningan Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Yoyoh Indayah confirmed that Aang issued an official letter last Thursday to seal off the mosques, “based on the demands of a certain Islamic group.”

“I do not want to speculate about what was behind the letter or those demands. I don’t know about political motivations,” Yoyoh told the Jakarta Globe.

“Nobody was arrested because I prefer to [keep the peace]. Those who sealed off the mosques, by the way, were not locals. They were from Tasikmalaya, Sumedang and Ciamis.”

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) said that if the government did not take action against the hard-liners, it was in effect endorsing further violence.

“We believe that violence against minority religious groups will continue if the government does not do anything,” Erna Ratnaningsih, from the YLBHI, said on Saturday.

Ifdal Kasim, from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said he regretted a recent statement by Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, in which he declared Ahmadiyah haram, or forbidden.

“The government must admit to the existence of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia. It is the government’s job to allow the Ahmadis to hold their prayer services,” Ifdal said, a day after Suryadharma declared Ahmadiyah was haram because it was a misguided sect that did not consider Muhammad to be the last prophet.

Suryadharma urged police to take action against Ahmadis found spreading their teachings, even as he warned residents in Kuningan not to take the law into their own hands.

Hasyim Muzadi, who formerly led Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, also said that even if Ahmadis veered away from mainstream Islamic teachings, Indonesians must not take the law into their own hands.

“Violence will cause those ideologies to turn even more militant, because they are pressured through physical means,” Hasyim said.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe

URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/politics-seen-in-ahmadiyah-violence/388928