Sensitive investigations: Police ignore court’s ruling on blasphemy cases

Pakistan Punjab

Sensitive investigations: Police ignore court’s ruling on blasphemy cases

By Rana Tanveer
Published: June 27, 2011

All accused will be given full right of defence by the board of inquiry.

LAHORE: Provincial police is either ignorant or dismissive of Lahore High Court’s instructions regarding the investigation of blasphemy cases, piling misery on those accused of the offence.

A division bench of the Lahore High Court comprising Justice Ali Nawaz Chawhan and Justice Rustam Ali Malik, while deciding a murder reference in offences under section 295-A and 295-C in August 2002, directed the inspector-general of police (IGP) Lahore “to ensure that whenever [a blasphemy] case is registered, it be entrusted for purposes of investigation to a team of at least two gazette investigating officers, preferably those conversant with Islamic jurisprudence.”

In the event that the officers are not conversant with Islamic law, “a scholar of known reputation and integrity may be added to the team … [to] investigate whether a [blasphemy] offence is committed or not,” the ruling added.

The ruling conceded that cases of blasphemy are on the rise and at times, “elements of mischief have also been observed to be involved.”

Since the passing of this ruling, however, not a single case has been investigated by a panel of two gazette officers and one religious scholar, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The cases are usually investigated by assistant sub-inspectors, or in the event of a high-profile case, the inspector in charge of investigation.

Neither the deputy superintendent police (DSP) nor an SP get involved in such cases owing to their sensitivity, sources say.

Guilty until proven innocent

Shahid Butt, a blasphemy accused presently on bail, told The Express Tribune that despite his struggle, the SP concerned refuses to be involved in the investigation.

Inspector Aftab Shah of Batapur police station had been investigating into his case, he added.

Because of incompetent investigators, I spent five months in prison, said Butt, adding that he was released when his case was taken up by the court.

LHC judgment ‘not mandatory’

Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Capt (r) Liaqat Ali Malik told The Express Tribune that all cases of blasphemy are investigated by an SP.

An inspector, or any official below this rank, does not have the authority to investigate such cases according to law, he said.

When asked about the LHC judgment which made two SPs mandatory to investigate blasphemy cases, Malik said that they follow the Pakistan Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.

Any judgment besides those was not binding upon them, he added. Advocate Muhammad Anis Saadi, however, told The Express Tribune that the LHC judgment was binding upon the police officers.

If the LHC had issued instructions to the IGP in this regard, the IGP must have conveyed the message to all SPs concerned to ensure its implementation, he added.

An SP, on condition of anonymity, said that no such instructions had been received from the IGP office.

He added that most SPs are ignorant of the issue and adopt the conventional methods in investigating blasphemy cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27th, 2011.

URL: http://tribune.com.pk/story/197202/sensitive-investigations-police-ignore-courts-ruling-on-blasphemy-cases/

Ahmadi gets 9 months in prison

CITYTue, 04/19/2011 10:29 PM

Ahmadi gets 9 months in prison

The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

BOGOR: A devotee of the religious sect Ahmadiyah, Ahmad Nuryamin, has been sentenced to nine months in prison for attacking a fellow resident of Cisalada, Bogor, West Java.

Nuryamin was found guilty by a panel of judges at Cibinong District Court of stabbing Rendy Apriyansah, who had been part of a mob that had previously attacked the Ahmadiyah compound in Cisalada.

Nuryamin said in his defense statement that he had been protecting himself.

Nuryamin’s defense team said their client would appeal the decision.

The stabbing incident prompted a mob attack on the Ahmadiyah compound, in which a mosque and houses in the neighborhood were torched.

Supporters of Rendy said the defendant should have been given a harsher punishment.

“It should have been nine years instead of nine months,” Cisalada local Jubaedah said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. — JP

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/04/19/ahmadi-gets...html

Young Attackers of Cisalada Ahmadiyah Sent to Prison

HOME

Young Attackers of Cisalada Ahmadiyah Sent to Prison

Vento Saudale | April 14, 2011

Dede Novi, left, and Aldi Afriansyah were handed six-month jail terms by the Cibinong District Court on Wednesday. (JG Photo/Vento Saudale)

Bogor. A court in Bogor sentenced three people charged in a mob attack on an Ahmadiyah community to prison terms of between four and six months on Wednesday.

In the first hearing at the Cibinong District Court, judges ruled that Dede Novi, 19, and Aldi Afriansyah, 21, were guilty of attacking a mosque belonging to the minority Muslim sect in Cisalada village on Oct. 1, 2010.

The attack in Cisalada, home to about 600 followers of Ahmadiyah, also targeted homes and schools of the group, which has come under increasing attack by Islamic hard-liners in Bogor and other parts of West Java.

Dede and Aldi were ordered jailed for six months and given a year’s probation. The sentence handed down was lighter than the nine months prosecutors had sought.

Judge Astriwati, presiding over the hearing, said one of the facts in favor of the two defendants was the lights at the mosque had been turned off at the time of the attack, so it was not entirely clear to what extent they were involved in the incident.

However, the judge stressed that Dede and Aldi were definitely in the group of around 30 locals who ransacked the mosque.

“A witness testified to seeing the defendants carry out the vandalism,” she said.

San Alauddin, a lawyer for the defendants, said after the sentencing that he would leave the decision of whether to appeal up to the families of the defendants.

In the second case heard on Wednesday, the court sentenced 13-year-old Akbar Ramanda to four months in prison and eight months’ probation for the same offense. Prosecutors had sought five months in jail for the minor.

For all three defendants, Astriwati said the main mitigating factor prompting the lighter sentences was that “they are all young and have their whole life ahead of them.”

Eviarti, the chief prosecutor in all the cases, said her office would have to consider appealing the light sentences. Prosecutors typically only appeal if the final sentence is less than two-thirds of their demands. The prosecution and defense have seven days to file an appeal.

There was a heavy police presence at the court in anticipation of violence by the defendants’ supporters, more than 500 of whom turned up. Six hundred officers and riot control personnel from the Bogor Police checked everyone going into the courthouse.

Mukhtar, an official from the Bogor branch of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which has repeatedly called for the disbanding of Ahmadiyah, said before the hearing that if the three were not acquitted, “there will be problems later.”

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/young-attackers.../435301

Hesitant government a loophole for radicalism

OPINION Mon, 03/21/2011 9:39 PM

Hesitant government a loophole for radicalism

Al Makin, Yogyakarta

The recent bombs delivered in packages disguised as books sent to Ulil Abshar Abdalla, an activist of liberal Islamic network (JIL), and other prominent figures last week cannot be explained in plain and simple language.

Nor can it be pinpointed what caused someone to intimidate the public with the acts of terror. Although the perpetrators may be arrested, the root cause of the problem remains unaddressed.

The answer to this issue is complex. After a series of assaults on minority groups, Ahmadiyah, in many parts of Indonesia, the Christian minority in Temangung, Central Java, and the Shi’ite group in Pasuruan, East Java, and apparently now the liberal news network is being harassed. Who is next?

Just get ready, in case your group becomes the next target. In fact, with their blind dogmatic jihad, the radical perpetrators will never rest in their pursuit of finding new enemies.

Indeed, the series of these atrocities unfolded systematically, even though the perpetrators are most likely not the same group or people. But why did the radicals boldly intimidate the Indonesian public?

Do not look only at their conservative and radical theological dogma, according to which the last Prophet Muhammad is uncompromised in truth and liberalism is poisonous. The victims were blamed. After all, the alibis are just unfounded.

Attention should be given to the background against which their actions are executed. The weak central government is perhaps the first chief factor.

True, since the reform period, Indonesia has never seen a strong ruling government from the era of BJ Habibie to the current period of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Indonesians appear to learn well from the traumatic experiences under two authoritarian presidents —Sukarno and Soeharto.

They will not tolerate strong figures exercising excessive power, as in the case of Indonesian Soccer Association chairman Nurdin Halid. The nation is sensitive to any signs of dictatorship.

The wavering government, however, cannot effectively control both political and social development.

In response to many serious issues, the current SBY government has often been in limbo between many opposing views. It seemed that the government would like to please everyone. Satisfaction for all parties, unfortunately, is hard to achieve.

Ideally speaking, SBY, who was reelected with a landslide victory, should have high self-confidence to assume the presidency. In fact, SBY’s steps were compromised by many interests.

Look at the issue of the cabinet reshuffle, a hesitant consideration—back and forth and from side to side—based on political interests rather than the performance and achievement of the ministers.

Government’s hesitation is also visible in dealing with Ahmadiyah. The joint ministerial decree and Attorney General shows how the government opted for a compromise rather than taking decisive steps.

The decree is unable to fulfill the demands of both common reason and radical logic. Ahmadiyah religious practices are banned, whereas those who attack the “deviant” groups will be punished. The ambiguity lies in the fact that the decree can be interpreted as either banning or protecting the minority. However, both interpretations rest in weak ground.

The cautious government can also be interpreted as cowardly. The judicial review of the outdated 1965 blasphemy law also failed. Common sense and reason were easily defeated.

Recently, the taunt by the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leaders to topple SBY remains unanswered. The group grossly manipulated the democratic euphoria in the Middle East as an Islamist movement. Of course, the Indonesian public does not want to buy this falsehood.

As the government is indecisive, the law is not enforced firmly. Corruption scandals involving some important figures in the government cannot be brought to justice. Worse still, some graft cases have become political commodities and bargaining chips.

To illustrate, we are not sure the degree to which accusing someone of corruption, as in the case of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chiefs Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra Hamzah, is serious. It also appears that in certain high-profile crimes, such as the murder of human rights activist Munir, the masterminds remain at large and will be forgotten as a result of political compromises.

The hesitant government has left loopholes not only for radicals to be more outspoken, but also for the locals to run wild. Amid the euphoria of reform, Amien Rais proposed formation of federal states as an alternative of the unitary Republic of Indonesia. In fact, greater autonomy given to locals was a compromise that satisfied those demanding a federal system of government and those who were concerned about national unity.

However, local political elites have gone wild. They misused the broadened mandate at will, giving rise to corruption cases.

To win votes, the local politicians have also passed 90 local ordinances which clearly contradict the spirit of the Constitution.

The intellectual opposition is also weak at the local level, as intellectuals have mostly migrated to Jakarta for various reasons. Some of the bylaws impose forcefully sharia upon the people and discriminate against women.

The gubernatorial decrees on Ahmadiyah ban in East Java, West Java and Banten are the latest examples of the “small king” phenomenon.

We heard recently that President Yudhoyono and Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD promise to investigate to what extent these local elites ran counter the Constitution. However, their words have so far not materialized into actions.

In the absence of firm government, the local renegades and radicals will always find room to show off and the police will receive no political support to uphold the law.

The writer is a lecturer at the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/21/hesitant-government...

Int’l groups ask RI to stop prosecuting Ahmadis

NATIONAL Fri, 03/18/2011 11:35 AM

Int’l groups ask RI to stop prosecuting Ahmadis

Bagus BT Saragih and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The international community has turned its eye on Indonesia’s continuing persecution of minority sect Ahmadiyah with 27 members of the US Congress signing a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to revoke “prosecuting” bylaws.

In the letter dated March 15, the congressmen expressed “deep concern” on decrees issued by provincial authorities, including the East and West Java governors, banning Ahmadiyah followers from practicing their religion publicly.

“We also ask that you immediately revoke the decree that bans Ahmadiyah from conducting religious activities in the country and repeal the country’s long-standing blasphemy law, which is used to prosecute religious minorities who exercise their right to freedom of religion expression,” they said in the letter made available to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

The congressmen also addressed the brutal attack on Ahmadiyah followers in Cikeusik, Pandeglang, Banten, last month, in which three Ahmadis were murdered in the presence of police officers. The congressmen also contended that the decree banning Ahmadiyah had led to escalating violence toward religious minorities.

“Not only do the decrees recently issued in East and West Java run contrary to the principles of international human rights, but we also fear that they will only serve to embolden extremists and exacerbate violence against the Ahmadiyah community,” they said.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Thursday he had not received any letter from US congressmen.

Bylaws banning Ahmadiyah have been issued in five of the country’s 33 provinces, including West Java and East Java, the country’s most populated provinces. Administrations in seven regencies and four cities have also followed suit.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo earlier mulled issuing similar regulations but dropped the idea last week.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto said banning Ahmadiyah violated the Constitution. Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali and Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi, however, backed the regulations, saying they were in line with a controversial 2008 joint ministerial decree banning Ahmadis from propagating their religious beliefs.

International human rights groups have also protested Indonesia’s lack of willingness to investigate the Cikeusik incident and the recent report over the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) involvement in intimidating Ahmadis in West Java.

Amnesty International urged the Indonesian government to “investigate reports that the military in West Java were involved in the intimidation of Ahmadiyah followers and had forced them to renounce their faith”.

A coalition of several Indonesian human rights groups previously reported that soldiers had carried out Operasi Sajadah (Operation Prayer Mat), which was aimed at converting Ahmadis to the “right path” of Islam.

The coalition claimed they had recorded at least 56 acts of intimidation by soldiers against Ahmadis in the province after the Cikeusik attack.

West Java’s Ahmadiyah Indonesia Congregation (JAI) protested the acts and filed a complaint to the West Java Legislative Council.

The TNI denies its soldiers were ordered to influence people’s decisions, adding that its involvement was acceptable provided no coercion was involved.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/18/int%E2%80%99l-groups...

Explosion hits office of liberal Indonesian Islamic group

Explosion hits office of liberal Indonesian Islamic group

JAKARTA | Tue Mar 15, 2011 6:12pm IST

(Reuters) — A small explosion on Tuesday hit the Jakarta office of the Liberal Islamic Network, an Indonesian group that has defended the rights of minority Islamic sect Ahmadi, a witness said.

The explosion, which injured three people, comes a month after a mob beat to death three followers of the Ahmadi sect, considered heretical by mainstream Muslims.

Indonesia has won praise for largely defeating Islamic terror, but a recent spike in religious intolerance could heighten risk concerns for foreign investors counting on improved stability in Southeast Asia’s largest economy and the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Ade Wahyudi, a manager at KBR68H radio that shares the office with the pluralist Liberal Islamic Network, said the office had called police to open a package that contained a book with wires sticking out of it. The police officer who opened the package was among the injured.

“I was on a different room, upstairs, and heard a bang, like thunder,” Wahyudi told Reuters by telephone.

Indonesian authorities have said they are investigating last month’s brutal mob killing, but human rights activists say authorities have not taken a strong stance against attacks on Ahmadis in the past.

Rights activists and several parliamentarians said on Tuesday that military personnel in western Java island recently summoned Ahmadi leaders to identify Ahmadi followers in their area and asked them to return to mainstream Islam.

“This goes to show a strengthening movement in government institutions trying to persecute Ahmadis. This is a worrying turn,” said Haris Azhar of local rights group Kontras.

Military leaders denied the allegations of attempts at forced conversions.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, a member of the parliamentary legal commission from opposition party PDI-P, said the government should clarify the “disturbing” reports.

“It’s deeply concerning. It reminds us of the past when the military was meddling into local politics and public order,” she told Reuters by telephone.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)

URL: http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/idINIndia-55597120110315

Communities join to combat violence

CITY Sat, 03/12/2011 1:12 PM

Communities join to combat violence

Bagus BT Saragih and Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Without using the government’s repressive tactics for handling sectarian violence, some community groups are joining hands to promote a pluralist and humanistic face for religions in the country.

“We can see that the government has been ignorant in handling cases of religious violence that have frequently occurred in this country recently, therefore we are making our own way by working with other moderate groups in society to improve conditions,” Moderate Muslim Society chair Zuhairi Miswari told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said they were working together to promote the peaceful and humanistic face of religion by participating in various anti-violence dialogues with religious communities in the city.

Aside from promoting understanding through interreligious dialogues, the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP) is also reflecting this principle by allowing people from any religion to join them.

“Anyone from any religion can join us because religion is something related to somebody’s freedom to make a choice,” ICRP general secretary Johannes Hariyanto said.

He said people in the ICRP considered religion basically a personal choice and not something somebody is born with, which cannot be changed.

Both Zuhairi and Johannes regretted the actions of some who have perpetuated violence in the name of religion.

“They are not only violating the law but also the constitution. Unfortunately those violations are justified by some laws and decrees,” Johannes said.

He was referring to regional regulations and bylaws, the 1965 Blasphemy Law and the 2008 joint ministerial decree banning members of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia from propagating their religious beliefs, but which allowed them to maintain their faith and perform their daily religious duties.

“Any efforts to bar Ahmadiyah followers from performing their rituals are against not only the 1945 Constitution but also a number of laws,” Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Haris Azhar said Friday.

He cited Article 28 of the Constitution, which guarantees every citizen religious rights.

Regulations made by provincial, regency and city administrations can be reviewed by the Supreme Court if they are considered out of line with higher regulations or laws.

As of March 2011, 12 local administrations have issued regulations banning Ahmadis from practicing their religion. The latest regions include East Java province, West Java province, South Sumatra province, Pandeglang regency and Samarinda municipality.

One province where religious violence has frequently occurred is West Java province.

On Friday, another assault of Ahmadis took place in Ciaruteun, Bogor, when hundreds of people suddenly attacked four homes of Ahmadiyah members.

According to Ahmadi spokesman Firdaus Mubarik, hundreds of people, including the perpetrators of Cisalada incident that took place in November of last year, suddenly ran over an Ahmadi after a provocative Friday sermon at the local mushollah (small mosque).

Fortunately, no casualties occurred during the incident, and the police took six people into custody.

That incident was only one in a series of violence in the name of religion, including the brutal murder of three Ahmadis in Cikeusik, Banten, last month.

Zuhairi blamed the joint ministerial decree, saying it was a “license to kill” for people who opposed Ahmadiyah. “The joint decree plus its derivatives became justification for [people] to do violence towards Ahmadis”.

According to the Center for Legal and Policy Studies (PSHK), most of the local bans on Ahmadiyah were made based on the 1965 Blasphemy Law. A number of NGOs filed a judicial review with the Constitutional Court last year to challenge that law. But, the court rejected the request and upheld the law

“The law is already too old and no longer in line with the current situation,” Fajri Nursyamsi from the PSHK said.

Therefore, Fajri urged the government and the House of Representatives to speed up deliberations of the religious tolerance bill. “The bill can accommodate more relevant situations and replace the old blasphemy law,” he said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/12/communities...

Does SBY have the guts to ban violent groups?

OPINION Sat, 03/12/2011 1:03 PM

Does SBY have the guts to ban violent groups?

Pandaya, Jakarta

It looked like there would be a showdown when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to ban violent organizations and the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) — the obvious intended target — retorted that it would start a revolution if the President failed to meet their demands that Ahmadiyah be dissolved by March 1.

The timing of the war of words has never been more critical, occurring only a few days after violent hard-line Muslims stormed an Ahmadi residence in Cikeusik, Banten, and killed three people and others attacked three churches in Temanggung, Central Java.

But, as of today, the President has yet to do anything to make good on his promise, which received mixed reactions from the weary public. It could be just another bluff given that he has made the same threat at least three times since 2006.

But, the FPI has not done anything yet either, apart from a small street demonstration it jointly organized with other radical Muslim groups like the Muslims Forum and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia in Jakarta late last month.

In numerous interviews with the media, FPI leaders promised to topple President Yudhoyono should he refuse to ban Ahmadiyah, the way the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia thrashed the authoritarian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

In fact, the whole affair has only revealed how weak Yudhoyono’s government is.

When addressing the National Press Day celebration on Feb. 9, SBY ordered his aides to ban violent organizations.

But, none of his most authoritative aides: Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, Attorney General Basrif Arief and National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo seemed to heed his orders.

Instead, Gamawan hosted a meeting with top leaders of the notorious FPI at his office on Feb. 16, exactly a week after Yudhoyono made his threat. Smiling broadly, Gamawan told waiting journalists that he and FPI leaders Habib Rizieq and Munarman exchanged opinions on how deal with Ahmadiyah.

Meanwhile, Suryadharma has been busy blaming the Ahmadis for the Cikeusik tragedy and wanting to ban Ahmadiyah entirely.

Even more mind boggling, the Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Marwan Effendi lauded local governments that caved in to radical demands and banned Ahmadiyah in their areas.

Yudhoyono has not made any comments on these glaring insubordinations. What has happened is that more regencies and cities are toying with the idea of banning Ahmadiyah in the name of regional autonomy.

Gamawan, like Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, is known for his anti-Ahmadiyah stance. Along with then attorney general Hendarman Supandji, they issued a joint decree banning Ahmadis from conducting religious activities outside their community. When Gamawan was the governor of West Sumatra, he was one of the regional heads who introduced the controversial sharia-inspired morality bylaws.

Ahmadiyah followers have suffered from discrimination and physical attacks since the Indonesian Ulema Council called the cult heretical in a 1980 fatwa and reaffirmed it in 2005.

For hard-liners, the controversial decree has become a license to bully Ahmadis with the tacit support of the local police and government bureaucrats. They vow there will be no peace until Yudhoyono formally bans Ahmadiyah, which they consider heretical because it does not recognize the Islamic orthodoxy that Muhammad is the last prophet.

Interestingly, while Yudhoyono has yet to prove he was not bluffing, such provinces as Banten, East Java, West Java, Lampung and South Kalimantan have boldly announced that they have banned Ahmadiyah.

This is a worrying development that can give way to more cases of violence against Ahmadis, whose numbers are estimated at 200,000, living in enclaves across the archipelago.

Yudhoyono’s inaction in banning violent vigilante groups as he promised to do has given added credence to the perception that he is afraid of the small but noisy hard-line groups.

It has also left many wondering if violent radicals are enjoying the backing of some extremely powerful but corrupt individuals in the police, military, political parties or interest groups who are using terror for their personal or institutional interests.

Yudhoyono has mishandled the FPI’s threat to topple him like the Tunisians did with their despot. He was ridiculed when his spokesperson Julian A. Pasha promised to take measures against the FPI.

His critics argue that the President should have ignored the FPI threat because the group is just too small to make an impact politically, because moderate majority Muslims do not share its brand of Islam. His overreaction has made it as if the FPI were so important that mainstream politics has to reckon with it.

Political analyst Hermawan Sulistyo says the FPI, which has only a few thousand members, has no financial and human resources to mobilize the masses for a revolution as it brags that it has.

To start a revolution it would need at least 100,000 people militant enough to demonstrate for at least four weeks, which would also require a lot of money, he says.

Hermawan may be right. The gargantuan anti-Yudhoyono demonstrations that the FPI promised have not manifested. And, Yudhoyono seems to have forgotten his threat as well, for pressing new issues keep arising.

This whole political comedy should not distract Yudhoyono from the real issue: protecting minorities and punishing people who break the law, not banning organizations, as the right to organize is guaranteed by the Constitution.

The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/12/does-sby...groups.html

Antagonizing religious minorities

OPINION Fri, 03/11/2011 9:25 PM

Antagonizing religious minorities

Endy M. Bayuni, Asia Pacific Bulletin, Washington

Blasphemy can be a deadly affair in Indonesia and Pakistan, two of Asia’s largest Muslim-majority countries. Triggered by allegations of blasphemy, virulent mob attacks against those perceived to have offended Islam have rocked the two countries in recent months.

While Indonesia and Pakistan have laws that specifically address issues of blasphemy, those unfortunate enough to be labeled blasphemers are rarely taken to court. Encouraged by, if not with tacit approval from, conservative Muslim leaders, Indonesian and Pakistani mobs have been taking the law into their own hands instead.

On Feb. 5, three Indonesian adherents of Ahmadiyah, a sect with origins in 19th-century British India and considered heretical by many Muslims, were killed when a mob raided their house in Pandeglang, a town in Banten province to the southwest of Jakarta.

This was the deadliest attack yet on the sect — which has 200,000 to 500,000 followers in Indonesia — that subscribes to most of the tenets of Islam but recognizes its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as a prophet. Sunni Muslims, the great majority of Indonesians, believe that Muhammad is the last prophet, and any claim to the contrary is considered offensive to Islam and thus blasphemous.

Under great pressure from Muslim conservative groups, the Indonesian government has been trying to persuade — to no avail — Ahmadis, followers of Ahmadiyah, to cease all “deviant” religious activities and “return to the right path,” or at the very least drop their claim to being Muslims. This is the gist of a 2008 joint decree signed by Indonesia’s Minister of Religious Affairs, Minister of Home Affairs, and Attorney General.

Deriving its legal basis from an anti-blasphemy law originally promulgated in 1965, the joint decree also enjoins that Muslims refrain from attacking Ahmadis. As Ahmadis refused to obey the joint decree, conservative Muslim groups have grown impatient and attacks on Ahmadis have become more frequent and more violent. A YouTube video of the Feb. 5 raid shows frenzied attackers beating an Ahmadi to death while shouting “God is great” in — or perhaps because of — the presence of unstirred police officers.

Two days later, with Indonesia still in shock after the brutal attack on the Ahmadis, another mob vandalized several churches in Temanggung, a town in Central Java. The trigger this time was a district court’s ostensibly insufficiently harsh conviction of a man charged with insulting Islam through the leaflets he had produced and circulated around town.

Antonius Richmond Bawengan had received the maximum sentence of five years under the anti-blasphemy law, but the crowd amassing in court to hear the verdict demanded nothing less than the death penalty. That Bawengan’s leaflets also insulted Christianity mattered little to the mostly Muslim crowd. More disturbingly, attacks on Christian churches and schools have become more frequent under many pretexts, blasphemous or otherwise.

In Pakistan, two top government officials have been assassinated in the last two months for speaking out against the anti-blasphemy law, apparently a capital offense. On March 2, Federal Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian and a member of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, was shot in Islamabad by unidentified gunmen as he left home for work.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Bhatti had said before his death that he had received many death threats. There was no doubt about who killed Salman Taseer, the governor of the Punjab, on Jan. 3: his own bodyguard.

Instead of widespread handwringing, reports from Pakistan immediately after the murder described massive rallies of Muslim conservatives who endorse the murder. Both men spoke in defense of Asiya Bibi, a Christian farmer who was sentenced to death for insulting prophet Muhammad and is awaiting execution.

Although the anti-blasphemy law has been part of the criminal code since the creation of Pakistan, the death penalty was introduced in 1984 as an addition to life imprisonment for offenses that amount to insulting Islam, the Koran, and Prophet Muhammad. Only in 1992 did capital punishment become mandatory for those specific offenses.

Nevertheless, while no execution has taken place in Pakistan under the anti-blasphemy law, extrajudicial killings of over 30 people presumed guilty of those offenses by angry individuals or mobs have occurred. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, at least 1,030 people had also been charged for blasphemy in Pakistan since 1986. The fatalities figures exclude Ahmadis who, as in Indonesia, have been the target of recurrent violent attacks. In May 2010, a mob massacred 86 Ahmadis in a Lahore mosque after Friday prayers.

Furthermore, Pakistan has declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims and continued to let violent persecution of the sect persist. This is little comfort for Indonesian Ahmadis who are under pressure to drop their claim to being Muslims.

In light of these recent events, there is little hope of seeing the anti-blasphemy laws in Indonesia and Pakistan repealed any time soon. On the contrary, both governments are under growing pressure from conservative Muslim groups to deal even more harshly with religious minorities that are perceived to offend Islam and with any effort to alter the legal status quo.

Presiding over a precarious coalition government, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani has ruled out repealing the anti-blasphemy law, and Sherry Rehman, a coalition politician whose bill would repeal the law, has been told to withdraw the offending bill. In Indonesia, the Constitutional Court rejected by a majority decision a petition to have the 1965 anti-blasphemy law annulled in April 2010.

The anti-blasphemy law’s increasing use in the two countries is a reflection of the growing political clout of conservative Muslim organizations, and religious minorities are increasingly finding themselves at the wrong end of the law. The Ahmadis are the most vulnerable because their belief itself is considered blasphemous by the majority Muslims.

At a time of increasing religious intolerance, conservative Muslims may construe any indication of slight by members of other religious minorities, Christians in particular, to be a blasphemous offense. A relative absence of government intervention in cases of violent vigilantism, a judiciary unwilling to stand up for the defense of minority rights, and a legislature swayed by conservative Muslim leaders cannot but undermine the underpinnings of the state.

Leaders of Indonesia and Pakistan should know what to do: the Indonesian and Pakistani constitutions do provide for, respectively, religious freedom and the protection for citizens to practice their faith, and the protection of the rights of religious minorities.

Indonesia and Pakistan support the resolution on “the defamation of religions” at the UN Human Rights Council. Each year, the Council votes on the resolution, which is proposed by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Congress, to address concerns about the rise of Islamophobia around the world. Looking at recent events, Indonesia and Pakistan have a far bigger problem at home than Islamophobia.

The writer is visiting fellow at the East-West Center in Washington and formerly editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post.

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URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/11/antagonizing...

No Politics In Push to Protect the Ahmadiyah: Churches

NEWS

No Politics In Push to Protect the Ahmadiyah: Churches

Dessy Sagita | March 09, 2011

Christian leaders recently lambasted by Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam for “politicizing” violence against the Ahmadiyah have defended their position as proponents of diversity.

Benny Susetyo, from the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) said at a press conference on Tuesday that he had done nothing wrong in calling for all religious groups to be protected against violence.

“I’ve been victimized here, I haven’t once said anything about the theology of Ahmadiyah or Islam,” he said. “I merely stated that the government should protect everyone, including minority groups, regardless of their beliefs.”

Dipo warned on Sunday against “politicizing” the violence targeted at the minority Islamic sect because of the potential to “create communal conflicts.”

He also said religious leaders needed to help maintain peace and tolerance in society, and accused Benny, whom he labeled an Ahmadiyah supporter, of interfering in Islamic affairs.

Gomar Gultom, secretary general of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), also said the country’s leading religious scholars had never discussed their stance toward the Ahmadiyah, let alone issued a public statement on the matter.

“We just want to remind [the public] that the country is a constitutional republic and should not bow down to any pressure from majority groups or religions,” Gomar said.

Salahuddin Wahid from Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic organization, said that from an Islamic perspective, Ahmadiyah’s beliefs were wrong.

However, he said disbanding the sect simply because of public pressure would only set an unhealthy precedent for the country’s developing democracy.

“If any organization insists the Ahmadiyah are deviant, it should take the problem to the courts to decide whether the sect really is blaspheming against Islam,” Salahuddin said.

Franz Magnis Suseno, a Catholic priest and theologian, said he had advised Dipo to take a break to prevent him making controversial statements that could create a rift in Indonesian society.

“I understand that Dipo feels it’s important to defend President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but it doesn’t have to be said in such a counter-productive way,” he said.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/no...churches/427526

Depok rules to ban Ahmadiyah from public worship

NATIONAL Wed, 03/09/2011 11:13 PM

Depok rules to ban Ahmadiyah from public worship

Ina Parlina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Following in the footsteps of East Java, West Java and South Sulawesi, Depok Mayor Nurmahmudi Ismail issued on Wednesday a ban forbidding the Ahmadiyah religious sect from practicing their religion in public.

Nurmahmudi said the ban was a follow-up to a 2006 joint ministerial decree and West Java gubernatorial decree, both of which ban the sect from practicing their religion publicly.

“This ruling is made to uphold security and order in society and to stop the spread of any errant teaching,” the Prosperous Justice Party members said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com on Wednesday.

Nurmahmudi said his administration would assign a special team led by the Depok city secretary to enforce the ruling and monitor the activities of the sect.

“The objective [of the team] is to monitor the activities of Ahmadiyah members from spreading their interpretation of the religion, which is against Islamic teachings. It will become an implementation of the joint ministerial decree as well as West Java gubernatorial decree,” Nurmahmudi said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/09/depok...worship.html

Priests rebuff claim they politicized attacks on minorities

NATIONAL Wed, 03/09/2011 11:13 PM

Priests rebuff claim they politicized attacks on minorities

Ina Parlina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Several interfaith leaders who criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration have rebuffed Cabinet secretary Dipo Alam’s accusation that they politicized recent incidents of religious intolerance.

Dipo accused the religious leaders of politicizing incidents of religious persecution, including recent attacks on the Ahmadiyah sect, saying their remarks had inflamed religious intolerance.

He labeled them “black crows” because they were religious leaders who had taken political stances in criticizing Yudhoyono’s leadership.

Some of the interfaith leaders had recently made separate comments about the attacks on Ahmadiyah.

Earlier in January, nine prominent interfaith leaders on several occasions voiced a statement accusing the government of lying to the public about 18 different issues. The lies included a failure to uphold justice in human rights violation cases, protect migrant workers and protect the environment.

One of their accusations was that the government had manipulated statistics on poverty. They claimed the government misled the nation by making false claims that it had achieved success in reducing poverty. The Yudhoyono administration defended its statistics, saying that they had quoted legitimate data from the National Statistics Agency.

Four leaders from the Indonesian Bishops’ Council (KWI), Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) gathered at the Maarif Institute for Culture and Humanity on Tuesday to respond to Dipo’s statement.

Prominent NU leader Salahuddin Wahid said the group consisted of interfaith leaders who merely wished to point out what was good and bad according to their religions.

“This is not political. Our capacity as religious leaders is sufficient to criticize the government that had failed to ensure religious tolerance in the country,” he told a press conference.

KWI executive secretary Benny Susetyo, a Catholic priest, said he regretted Dipo’s statement. “It’s ironic that such a public official is actually triggering a conflict,” Benny said, referring to Dipo.

Dipo reportedly said that Benny’s comments about the Ahmadiyah issues were inappropriate because he should not have commented about a religion other than his own.

Benny denied the allegation, saying he had not been solely addressing the Ahmadiyah case.

Franz Magnis-Suseno, a Catholic professor said the government must protect its citizens and all groups, including Ahmadiyah, from violence.

PGI secretary-general Gomar Gultom defended Benny, saying that they had never spoken about Ahmadiyah. “Dipo needs to correct his statement because we never discussed the Ahmadiyah incidents,” he said.

Maarif Institute executive director Fajar Riza Ul Haq said Ahmadiyah was not the entire issue. “Any violation against a minority must be addressed seriously by the government. This is our criticism of them,” Fajar said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/09/priests...minorities.html

MUI urges government to ban Ahmadiyah

NATIONAL Tue, 03/08/2011 8:59 PM

MUI urges government to ban Ahmadiyah

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has urged the government to place a ban on Ahmadiyah to prevent further problems from flaring up.

“If [the Ahmadiyah congregation] is not banned, then [religious] fanatics will keep on harassing them,” MUI chairman Umar Shihab said on Tuesday.

He added that the ban placed by certain administrations on the Ahmadiyah congregation would make the Ahmadis conscious that they have diverged from Islam.

The government, he further said, must follow suit with the action taken by certain administrations which have imposed bans on the Ahmadiyah congregation.

“That’s why the government needs to ban [the Ahmadiyah congregation]…similar to the MUI which has banned the teachings [of the Ahmadiyah] which have deviated from the teachings of Islam,” he said, as quoted from Antara news service.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved
URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/08/mui...html

Jakarta will not outlaw Ahmadiyah: Governor

HEADLINES Tue, 03/08/2011 11:39 AM

Jakarta will not outlaw Ahmadiyah: Governor

Andreas D. Arditya and Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As more regional governments stepped up their campaigns against the Ahmadiyah sect, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo backtracked from his declaration about banning members of the sect from publicly practicing their faith, saying that no new action would be taken against the group.

“The Jakarta administration has decided that religious issues are regulated under the joint ministerial decree. The city government is only responsible for maintaining security and order, not handling religious issues,” Fauzi said.

A joint ministerial decree issued by the government in 2008 banned members of the Ahmadiyah Indonesia Congregation (JAI) from propagating their religious beliefs, but allowed them to maintain their faith and perform their daily religious duties.

The Governor said the administration decided to drop its plan to issue a bylaw against Ahmadiyah following a statement by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto late on Sunday warning of the illegality of such bylaws.

“Local government can’t issue ordinances that go against these articles. The message is clear, there should be no bylaws or gubernatorial decrees that contradict the state’s Constitution,” Fauzi said.

Djoko said local ordinances on the issue should be consistent with Article 28 and 29 of the 1945 Constitution and the joint ministerial decree.

Article 29, section 2, stipulates state guarantees for the freedom of faith and worship.

Djoko also said the government could not ban a belief. “One way or another, we can’t stop or outlaw a religious belief,” he said.

An official from the Attorney General’s Office also said Ahmadiyah could not be disbanded.

The Junior Attorney General for Intelligence, Edwin Pamimpin Situmorang, meanwhile, said the Coordinating Board for the Monitoring of Mystical Beliefs in Society (Bakor Pakem), chaired by the Attorney General, was no longer authorized to outlaw a religious belief.

“Bakor Pakem only evaluates reports from the public regarding certain beliefs and submits its analysis to the Religious Affairs Ministry,” he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

However, Ahmadis could be prosecuted under the 1965 Blasphemy Law if they cause unrest in the society,” Edwin said.

On Monday Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi said there should be no problems with the local governments issuing bans and they would not contradict the joint ministerial decree.

“The joint ministerial decree mandates that local governments to issue regulations consistent with the decree, but in principle these local governments could not disband Ahmadiyah,” Gamawan said.

There were 188 mystical beliefs and religious sects in Indonesia as of 2010, according to AGO records.

Calls from hard-line Muslim groups to ban Ahmadiyah have mounted in recent weeks following a deadly attack against Ahmadis in Cikeusik, Pandeglang, Banten.

Local administrations in East and West Java and South Sulawesi have issued bans against the sect members practicing their faith. The Pontianak city administration in West Kalimantan said on Monday that it would issue a similar ban later in the week.

The Tegal chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in Central Java Khumaidi said as quoted by Antara that it supported the government and regional administrations banning Ahmadiyah followers from propagating their belief.

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URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/08/jakarta...governor.html

Kontras accuses police of publicity stun

NATIONAL Mon, 03/07/2011 1:13 AM

Kontras accuses police of publicity stun

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA: The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) fears a police move to name three police officers suspects in a planned attack on Ahmadiyah followers in Cikeusik was merely a ploy to shore up public support.

In February, a hard-line mob attacked Ahmadis in Cikeusik, Pandeglang, Banten, murdering three Ahmadis and seriously injuring several others.

“Suspects from the groups that took part in the attack should not have been named,” Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said, adding that he feared the move was merely cosmetic.

Haris said that it would be unwise for the police to only publicly disclose the total number of suspects they had arrested without identifying the mastermind behind the incident.

“Don’t probe only those involved in the attack. The police must arrest those behind the attack,” he said.

The National Police on Friday named three Cikeusik Police officers suspects for negligence resulting in loss of life in the attack, a violation of the Criminal Code.

The police have so far named 12 suspects in the incident, as well as one Ahmadi.

The fallout from the incident has seen four high-ranking police officers removed from their posts while 37 Cikeusik and Pandeglang Police officers are also undergoing questioning in connection to the attack. — JP

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URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/03/07/kontras...stun.html