Hard-Line Group Lashes Out At Bekasi Ahmadis

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Hard-Line Group Lashes Out At Bekasi Ahmadis

Ulma Haryanto | November 15, 2011

More than 30 people claiming to be from the notorious Islamic Defenders Front besieged an Ahmadiyah mosque in the Jatibening area of Bekasi on Monday, demanding it be sealed off.

Local Ahmadiyah leader Rahmat Rahmadijaya told the Jakarta Globe that the group tried to place a placard in front of the mosque to make clear that Ahmadis were not allowed to worship.

“It happened around 2 p.m., about 30 people entered the mosque. They wanted to hang up a placard stating that Ahmadiyah is banned, based on the Joint Ministerial Decree, a West Java gubernatorial decree and a decree by the Bekasi mayor,” Rahmat said, referring to the activists.

Human rights groups have blamed the 2008 joint ministerial decree for increasing violence against followers of the minority Muslim sect.

The Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy said the number of attacks rose from three in 2006 to 50 in 2010.

Earlier this year, West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan issued a decree banning the sect from spreading its beliefs through any media and forbidding the display of its name in public, including signposts on mosques. A similar decree was signed by Bekasi’s acting mayor, Rahmat Effendi, and went into effect last month.

The Ahmadiyah mosque had faced weekly threats from the local Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) branch and had to hold its Friday prayers under protection from Bekasi Police. There are around 200 Ahmadis in the area.

Bekasi Police Chief Sr. Comr. Priyo Widyanto denied there had been a siege.

“It is a lie. The truth is that the Bekasi municipality was only trying to hang a placard in front of their mosque, banning Ahmadiyah,” Priyo said, adding that the event was also witnessed by officials from the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the Inter-Religious Communication Forum (FKUB) and the FPI.

The police chief of Pondok Gede district, Sr. Comr. Burhanuddin, said police were aware of hard-line Muslim groups’ opposition to the presence of Ahmadis and had “secured” the area.

Firdaus Mubarik, a spokesman for the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI), said the Bekasi anti-Ahmadiyah decree could be used by hard-line groups to legitimize their harassment.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/...bekasi-ahmadis/478494

Trial Begins for FPI Members Accused in Ramadan Raids

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Trial Begins for FPI Members Accused in Ramadan Raids

Rahmat | November 08, 2011

Abdurrahman Assagaf, left, head of the Makassar chapter of the Islamic Defenders Front, and members Arifuddin, middle, and Ruswandi Abubakar sit in court on Tuesday. (AFP Photo)

Makassar. Three members of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front appeared in court in Makassar on Tuesday to answer to charges of assault and property destruction stemming from raids on an Ahmadiyah complex and restaurants during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in August.

Abdul Rahman Assagaf, head of the South Sulawesi chapter of the group, known as the FPI, appeared with two other members, Arifuddin and Ruswandi Abubakar.

“The three defendants are alleged to have abused and assaulted the owner of Warung Coto and another restaurant in AP Pettarani [street], Makassar, in August,” Prosecutor Muhammad Adnan said as he read the indictment aloud in court.

Abdul is also facing charges of incitement of violence for a later attack by an FPI group on an Ahmadiyah complex.

In the Aug. 14 attack, the LPI, a unit of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), smashed several windows at the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) complex, including at its mosque, and damaged a car and a motorcycle parked in the compound.

The 30-strong mob also attacked Ahmad, the lone person guarding the JAI secretariat, and two paralegals from the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) who tried to stop the attack. LPI members also scuffled with riot police sent to the scene to restore order.

The three defendants have been charged with assault and destruction of property for their alleged roles in restaurant raids carried out by the FPI on Aug. 12, during which about 50 FPI members convoyed through the streets looking for open restaurants and food stalls shortly after Friday prayers.

The mob forced three restaurants on Jalan Pettarani to close, and made the owners sign written statements promising that they would not operate during daylight hours for the remainder of the fasting month.

If convicted of the charges, the three defendants face up to five years in prison each.

About 100 police officers were on hand to ensure order during the 15-minute hearing. A group of 50 FPI members showed up to voice support for their comrades, but the scene remained calm.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/trial-begins.../477185

Culture of intolerance

Daily Dawn, Pakistan                 |   From the Paper > Editorial
 

Culture of intolerance
   Editorial
   Sunday, 30 May, 2010

Officials visit the Garhi Shahu mosque which was stormed by militants on Friday, in Lahore, on Saturday, May 29, 2010. - Photo by AP.

Friday’s gruesome attacks on Ahmadi worshippers in Lahore were a tragic reminder of the growing intolerance that is threatening to destroy our social fabric. Bigotry in this country has been decades in the making and is expressed in a variety of ways. Violence by individuals or groups against those who hold divergent views may be the most despicable manifestation of such prejudice but it is by no means the only one. Religious minorities in Pakistan have not only been shunted to the margins of society but also face outright persecution on a regular basis.

Take the police force, which is notorious for terrorising the poor. Even within that section of society, however, it reserves its harshest treatment for non-Muslims, for the simple reason that brutal or coercive acts directed against minorities are even less likely to get policemen into trouble. There is no shortage of more insidious means of discrimination either. To this day many job applications require candidates to state their religion. Has the irrelevance of this query never struck the organisations in question, or is it part of a screening process designed to weed out ‘undesirables’? Now let’s venture down to the basic building blocks of society, from institutions to households. In many middle-class and affluent Muslim homes, separate eating utensils of distinctly poorer quality are reserved for domestic staff. But there’s more: a further distinction in entitlement is made between Muslim and non-Muslim employees.

None of this is surprising in a country whose statute books are riddled with discriminatory laws, where jingoism is drummed into the heads of schoolchildren and where radio and television talk show participants can casually state that “we are all Muslims here in Pakistan”, which is patently not the case. This is a country where a non-Muslim cannot, by law, become president or prime minister. The blasphemy laws continue to be abused to settle personal scores, evade debts owed to non-Muslims and to grab their land by forcing them to flee in the face of violence. The state, meanwhile, remains largely unmoved by the plight of minorities — and that isn’t surprising either for it is a party to this persecution.

Tackling the terrorists who kill almost at will isn’t the only job at hand. The culture of intolerance has become ingrained in Pakistan and wide-ranging measures are required to change our collective mindset. Textbooks need to be revised and the perils of both brazen and covert narrow-mindedness must be publicly debated. It would also help if major religious parties came forward to condemn atrocities such as Friday’s attacks on Ahmadis in Lahore. But that is perhaps asking for too much.

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved
URL : www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-conte...-of-intolerance-050-hh-12