Ahmadiyah refugees to take risk, return home

--- The Jakarta Post, Indonesia

Headlines - Sat, 02/28/2009 9:12 AM

Ahmadiyah refugees to take risk, return home

Panca Nugraha, THE JAKARTA POST, MATARAM

After living in uncertainty at a refugee center in West Nusa Tenggara for three years, 68 members of the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect have decided to risk returning home.

Syahidin, coordinator for the refugees, said the 68 people from 17 families would move from the Transito building in Mataram back to their homes in Ketapang hamlet, Gegerung village, Lingsar district, West Lombok regency, on March 14.

“We the 17 families, including mine, have decided to return to our homes in Ketapang, whatever the risk we might face, after having lived here in uncertainty for three years. We want to live like any other citizens,” Syahidin said Friday.

He added at least four people had died at the refugee center, while nine babies were born there during the same period.

At least 160 Ahmadiyah members from 33 families were driven from their homes after hard-line Muslims attacked them and destroyed their homes and belongings in early February 2006.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) previously issued an edict calling the Ahmadiyah heretical. The edict was seized upon by other hard-line Muslims to attack the sect’s followers elsewhere, including in West Java.

Based on the edict, among other factors, the government then banned Ahmadiyah followers from spreading their teachings.

The MUI said Ahmadiyah followers had deviated from mainstream Islam by believing that sect founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet.

Human rights activists have long deplored the attacks against the sect’s followers and criticized the MUI for issuing the edict that triggered the widespread violence.

Syahidin said the 17 families decided to return home because their houses were still habitable, while the remaining 16 families chose to stay because their homes were completely destroyed. He added he hoped the police and local administration would accompany the refugees on their return.

“But if they don’t, we will still go back home. On the security front, we believe the police are responsible for security,” he said.

The Social Services Ministry previously stopped donating rice to the refugees, saying they could no longer be considered refugees because they had lived at the center for three years. The ministry said the rice stock would be prioritized for victims of natural disasters.

Jauzi Djafar, West Nusa Tenggara chairman of the Indonesia Ahmadiyah Group, said his group had sent a letter to Governor M. Zainul Majdi to inform him of the planned return.

He added copies of the letter were also sent to the President, Vice President, home minister, religious affairs minister, social services minister, National Police chief, attorney general and the National Commission on Human Rights.

“We sent the letters on Feb. 20 to high- and low-ranking officials, including in Gegerung,” he said.

He added the planned return was the Ahmadis’ own initiative since the government had seemingly forgotten their plight.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/...fugees-take-risk-return-home.html

Indonesia: Religious violence up: survey

--- The Straits Times, Singapore

Breaking News January 15, 2009 Thursday Updated 11.28 pm

Religious violence up: survey

JAKARTA - RELIGIOUS violence in Indonesia escalated in 2008, researchers said on Thursday.

A study by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace found 265 cases of violence on religious grounds last year compared to 135 cases in 2007.

‘Religious violence was more sporadic in 2008 than 2007 as more individuals were involved besides the radical Islamic organisations,’ Setara Institute chairman Hendardi, who only uses one name, said.

‘The government’s ban on the Ahmadiyah sect triggered the escalation of religious violence,’ he said of the Muslim sect which claimed as having about 500,000 followers in Indonesia.

The study found 103 religious violence cases alone in June 2008, the month in which the government issued a quasi-ban on the Ahmadiyah sect.

But liberals in the world’s most populous Muslim country lambasted the ban as unconstitutional and criticised the government as caving in to the behest of extremist groups.

Hendardi said the institute used a different method for its latest study.

‘We had field researchers across 10 provinces for the latest study. In 2007, we only observed reports in the media,’ he said, adding that the media had done a thorough job in reporting religious violence in the country. — AFP

URL: www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/SE+Asia/Story/STIStory_326614.html

Indonesia: Religious intolerance getting worse, says report

--- The Jakarta Post, Indonesia

Headlines Wed, 01/14/2009 8:11 AM

Religious intolerance getting worse, says report

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Religious intolerance is getting worse here, with state agencies, radical groups and community organizations involved in violations of freedom of faith and religion, according to a report released Tuesday.
Areas with histories of religious violence in Indonesia

The recent sealing of the synagogue in Surabaya, East Java, by Muslims in a protest against the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip was the latest case of religious intolerance in Indonesia.

The incident was not included in the 2008 Report on the Condition of Religious and Faith Freedom in Indonesia, which was released by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace.

But Setara Institute chairman Hendardi said the closure of the Jewish place of worship was against the principle of religious tolerance.

“It is clearly part of religious violence and cannot be tolerated,” he told The Jakarta Post after launching the report.

The report found 265 cases of violence against religions from January-December last year, a significant increase from only 135 cases in 2007.

“The increase is spurred by the rising persecution against the Jamaah Ahmadiyah by Islamic organizations to pressure the government to issue a presidential decree banning the minority sect,” the report said.

Last year, the government issued a joint ministerial decree forbidding Ahmadiyah from spreading its religious teachings, bowing to pressure from extremist groups that had attacked its followers, their mosques and houses across the country.

Out of the 265 incidents, the institute recorded 367 violations against freedom of religion and faith.

“Of the 367 violations, the state was involved in 188 cases of violence both by ‘commission and omission’,” Hendardi said.

The report said police were involved in 121 cases of religious intolerance, regents and mayors in 28 cases while 52 others involved courts and regional legislative councils.

“What is worrying is that more individuals and unidentified groups launched sporadic religious attacks, which reached 91 cases last year,” Hendardi said.

The report blamed the radical Islamic Defender Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) as the main actors in the religious violence.

“We record the MUI involved in 42 cases and the FPI in 27 cases including in the Monas incident last year,” he said, referring the brutal attack on activists during a pro-tolerance rally in the National Monument, Central Jakarta.

The Setara conducted investigations in North Sumatra, South Sumatra, West Sumatra, Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan and West Nusa Tenggara.

West Java was the province recording the highest rate of religious violence with 73 cases, followed by West Sumatra and Jakarta provinces with 56 and 45 cases, respectively.

“Most of the cases took place in June when the government issued a joint ministerial decree to curb the activities of Ahmadiyah,” Hendardi said.

Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni claimed a 2006 decree on religious harmony had sharply decreased religious violence in the country. “This is big achievement,” he said Tuesday as quoted by Antara.

The 2006 decree requires people to obtain government permits to build houses of worship. Earlier, the Wahid Institute said religious violence rose to 232 cases in 2008 from 197 in the previous year.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/01/14/religious-intolerance-getting-worse-says-report.html

Govt to stop donations for Ahmadiyah refugees

---Jakarta Post, Indonesia

Headlines Tue, 01/13/2009 8:00 AM

Govt to stop donations for Ahmadiyah refugees

Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

The government will stop donating rice to hundreds of followers of an Islamic sect taking refuge in shelters in West Nusa Tenggara for the past three years, an official said Monday.

The head of the province’s social services agency, Bachruddin, said the Social Services Ministry would only allocate the rice for victims of natural disasters, not for Ahmadiyah followers.

“Frankly, the ministry did not allocate rice for Ahmadiyah refugees this year. So we will stop the donations,” Bachruddin said in Mataram, adding the current stock of 35 tons of rice would instead be used in cases of natural disasters.

The government previously provided 9 to 12 tons of rice for 271 people from 57 families living in refugee shelters in Mataram and Central Lombok, after their homes were destroyed by other Muslims who considered the sect heretical.

“Last year we still had rice stocks for them, but not this year. It’s also because they’ve been taking refuge here for more than two years now. They can’t be categorized as refugees,” Bachruddin said.

To handle the matter, he went on, the social services agency was approaching communities where the sect’s followers came from, to try to persuade them to accept back the refugees.

He added the agency was also working with the Mataram and Central Lombok administrations to relocate the refugees to residential areas, and not colonies, as they used to live in.

“But some residents still reject the followers. The residents want them to uphold ‘real Islam’, while the refugees defend their beliefs,” Bachruddin said.

To date, 130 people from 37 families of Ahmadiyah refugees have been living in the Transito House in Mataram, after being forced from their homes in Ketapang hamlet, Gegerung village, Lingsar district in West Lombok, in February 2006. Another 19 people from 7 families have been living in the defunct Praya Hospital, Central Lombok, since they were expelled from their homes in Praya three years ago.

M. Jauzi, chairman of the provincial branch of Ahmadiyah, said his organization would leave the decision to stop the donations up to the government.

But he called on the government to return the refugees to their respective homes if they decided to press on with the decision to stop the donations, saying that “taking refuge is not the will of the Ahmadiyah followers”.

“We’ve frequently asked the government to return the refugees to their homes so they can work rather than live off of handouts,” he said.

Jauzi said his organization had sent a letter to the governor, asking the administration to resolve the issue quickly.

“In the latest developments, the provincial administration and religious affairs office said they would facilitate the refugees’ return home. But we’re still waiting,” he said.

Violence against Ahmadiyah followers is not isolated to the province.

In West Java, property owned by sect supporters have been vandalized. Attackers often use an edict issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council, which declared Ahmadiyah heretical, to justify the violence. Many moderate Muslims have decried the violence against the Ahmadiyah followers as a violation of the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of religion and religious belief.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/01/13/govt-stop-donations-ahmadiyah-refugees.html

NTB government prepares to allow Ahmadiyah refugees to return home

-- Jakarta Post, Indonesia

Headlines Tue, 11/11/2008 10:51 AM

NTB government prepares to allow Ahmadiyah refugees to return home

Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

Ahmadiyah refugees in West Nusa Tenggara will be allowed to return to their homes soon, the host governor announced Monday, following three years of foot-dragging over the issue.

Governor M. Zainul Majdi told The Jakarta Post his administration, through the relevant agencies, would repatriate the refugees by conducting public awareness campaigns to “provide understanding to people where the Ahmadiyah members came from”, and ask the beleaguered minority sect members to socialize with the local community.

“The administration will return them to their home villages, but this process must be supported by a willingness on the part of residents in these villages to accept them again, and by members of Ahmadiyah interacting more and not remaining so exclusive any more. We are carrying out dissemination efforts at the moment,” Majdi said.

He did not specify when the Ahmadiyah members would be returned, but said this was the administration’s final decision on the matter, rather than relocating them.

“We’ll definitely keep addressing the Ahmadiyah issue through approaches according to the joint ministerial decree,” he said.

As many as 137 Ahmadiyah members from 33 families have taken refuge at the Mataram transmigration transit center since being forced from their homes in Ketapang hamlet, Gegerung village, Lingsar district in West Lombok in February 2006.

In Central Lombok regency, around 57 Ahmadis from 15 families now live at the former Praya hospital after being driven from their homes in Praya subdistrict, Praya district, Central Lombok, in June 2006. To date, six people have died and eight babies have been born in their three years in exile.

It remains unclear how the Ahamdiyah members will reintegrate into their previous communities, having seen most of their belongings destroyed, including houses.

The violence against Ahmadiyah followers was believed to be triggered by the Indonesian Ulema Council’s issuance of an edict calling the sect heretical.

Earlier this year, the government bowed to pressure from radical Islamic groups and issued a joint ministerial decree banning the Ahmadiyah from spreading their teachings.

Bachruddin, head of the West Nusa Tenggara Social, Demographic and Civil Statistics Agency, said the status of the refugees was considered unique, and stressed its handling could not be carried out according to standard procedures.

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees defines refugees as a group of people forced to move because their places of origin are ravaged by natural or social disaster, in which the state cannot guarantee their safety.

“The Ahmadis took refuge not because of a natural disaster, but because they were evicted by the state,” Bachruddin said.

“This poses a unique problem: They are actually not refugees, but the fact is they effectively are.”

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/11/1...rn-home.htmll