Riot Threatens to Burn Down Orphanage

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Riot Threatens to Burn Down Orphanage

“Why does it matter for them if the building is used for praying?”

Ismoko WidjayaKamis, 9 Desember 2010, 10:59 WIB

Ahmadiyah Spokesperson Zafrullah Ahmad Pontoh (Antara/ Maulana Surya Tri Utama)

VIVAnews - An orphanage belonging to a modern Islamic group Ahmadiyah which is situated in Cicariang, Kawalu, Tasikmalaya, West Java, is threatened to be burnt down by riot. Hasanah Kautsar orphanage has been in the area for around 10 years.

“It’s already inhuman to lock us up in the orphanage not to mention burning [the orphanage] down,” said spokesperson of Ahmadiyah, Zafrullah Ahmad Pontoh, today, Dec 8.

According to Zafrullah, the occurrence took place yesterday as a handful of state officials tried to seal the building. Children of 10-14 years of age were still inside the building when the officials locked the gate.

“A few minutes after, a group of people shouted outside of the complex saying that they wanted to set the orphanage on fire. It’s a social house. We don’t understand their logic,” he said.

The building was owned by a member of Ahmadiyah living in Tasikmalaya. “It’s home of some orphans as well. Why does it matter for them if the building is used for praying?“ he said.

In the meantime, Kawalu and Tasikmalaya police departments have yet to share any information.

Earlier, Minister of Religious Affairs, Suryadharma Ali, requested Ahmadiyah to disband the group. According to Suryadharma, Ahmadiyah has been against a Joint Decree of Three Ministers.

“Ahmadiyah should be disassembled as soon as possible. Otherwise, more problems will keep on appearing,” Suryadharma said on August 30, 2010.

URL: http://en.vivanews.com/news/read/192873-riot-threatens-to-burn-down-orphanage

Ahmadiyah followers threatened again

CITY Sat, 11/13/2010 12:08 PM

Ahmadiyah followers threatened again

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA: Students of the Islamic College of Da’wah (PTDI) renewed Friday their threat to close down the Ahmadiyah sect’s Nuruddin Mosque in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

“For security reasons, we leave it to the police,” Ahmadiyah national security commission chief Deden Sujana said Friday, as quoted by tempoinetraktif.com, adding that Ahmadiyah followers in Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi were ready to help.

PTDI students reportedly protested in front of the Nuruddin Mosque following Friday prayers. Police were seen around the mosque after 1 p.m. Last week, tens of PTDI members came, unsuccessfully, to seal the mosque. — JP

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/11/13/ahmadiyah-followers-threatened-again.html

Minority Religions Pray For End to Discrimination

Minority Religions Pray For End to Discrimination

By Kanis Dursin

BEKASI, Indonesia, Nov 8, 2010 (IPS) - Clutching bibles and song leaflets, members of a Protestant church flocked into a one-storey building here, situated next to a new shopping mall on one of the busiest streets in this municipality in Indonesia’s West Java province.

The mood among the congregation of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) church was subdued, devoid of talk and laughter typical of the ethnic Batak people when they greet each other. Crammed in absolute silence in the small hall, hundreds of Christians faced a small brown cross that hung on the wall.

“You may cover the (Sunday) service, but please no interviews with congregation members as the situation is still dangerous,” a leader of the church told IPS, pleading not to be identified.

Outside, dozens of armed plainclothes and uniformed police officers kept watch on people coming close to the building. “At least 30 police personnel are deployed here every Sunday since HKBP started holding their service in the building,” said a police officer on duty.

HKBP moved to its current government-designated on Sept. 26 after a group of local Muslims beat up HKBP pastor Rev Luspida Simanjutak and stabbed her assistant, Hasian Lumbantoruan Sihombing, in the stomach while the two were on their way to Sunday service on Sep. 12.

The HKBP incident, which was widely reported in local media, is the latest in a series of religion-related animosity and violence in Indonesia, raising some concerns over the space for religious freedom in the world’s largest Muslim country.

But Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has repeatedly called for greater tolerance among followers of different religious groups in this Muslim-majority South- east Asian country.

Said Aqil Siraj, chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation with some 40 million members, said it is unlikely the attacks on minority groups were religiously motivated.

Instead, he said, they are more reflective of social and economic tensions in society. The attackers were “economically poor and marginalised in the ever-widening economic gap between the poor and the rich,” he explained.

“What happened (to HKBP) in Bekasi was pure unfairness,” Said explained. “The developer moved a mosque out of the housing complex and Muslims there accepted it as the new mosque was big and nice. But when they learned that a house inside the (old) complex had been converted into a church, they became so angry.”

Since then, Simanjutak said, local authorities have sealed off the residential house for violating a building regulation that prohibits its use for any other purpose other than its original function. HKBP can now only hold its Sunday service in the new, heavily guarded location, although other activities, including Sunday school, are still held at the sealed house.

“The number of churchgoers and Sunday school students has dropped significantly,” said Simanjutak, who claimed the church had around 1,500 followers, including 300 Sunday school students, in Bekasi Timur alone.

“Since its birth, Indonesia has always been a pluralistic country and those who wish to turn the country into an Islamic state are just being nostalgic (of past Islamic civilisation),“ Said said.

“Pancasila is a done deal, and Nahdlatul Ulama would continue to promote pluralistic values,” he said, referring to the Indonesian state ideology that promotes pluralism and secularism.

According to Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, there were at least 28 cases of violence against Christians – who account for some 10 percent of Indonesia’s 240 million population – from January to July 2010 alone, compared to 18 throughout 2009, and 17 in 2008.

But other minority religions, too, have had their share of worries.

A group of Muslims in Parung, West Java, burned down a mosque owned by the Islamic sect Ahmadiyah in October 2010, along with five houses and several vehicles belonging to sect members. At least another 17 houses were destroyed and looted, forcing members of the minority sect to evacuate.

Local authorities have also ordered Buddhist leaders in Tanjung Balai of Indonesia’s northern Sumatra province to remove a six-metre high statue from Tri Ratna – the town’s only Buddhist temple, with some 2,000 followers – after receiving complaints that the statue did not reflect Islamic values and may hurt social harmony.

“Weak law enforcement by police officers against those involved in destroying places of worships has only encouraged more religious violence in the country,” lamented Hendardi, chairman of Setara Institute.

Experts say suspects are often let off the hook or get only light sentences. While police have named 10 suspects in the HKBP Bekasi case, no trial date has yet been set. Among these suspects are a leader of the radical Islamic Defenders Front, which has also been blamed for attacks on numerous entertainment centres in the capital Jakarta and surrounding towns.

According to Hendardi, radicals also exploit a joint decree issued in 2006 by the home affairs and religious affairs ministries, which stipulates that any religious group proposing a new place of worship must first secure written consent in the form of signatures from residents, before applying for a construction permit from the government.

Human rights activists want this regulation revoked, saying that it is discriminatory to minority religious communities. (END)

URL: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53482

Religious Affairs Minister to ban Ahmadiyah

NATIONAL Sat, 10/30/2010 10:35 AM

Religious Affairs Minister to ban Ahmadiyah

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

GARUT, West Java: Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said he wanted to disband Ahmadiyah but he did not offer timetable for the sect’s dissolution.

He said that after a long period of contemplation and asking for divine advice, he concluded that banning Ahmadiyah would be the best solution for all the problems relating to the group, which mainstream Muslims view as heretical.

Suryadharma said that Ahmadiyah should abandon Islam and stop using Islamic symbols such as the Koran and mosques.

“If they refuse to join the mainstream, they must not use Islamic symbols,” he said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Suryadharma and strict Muslims have objected to Ahmadiyah’s refusal to acknowledge that Muhammad was Islam’s last prophet.

Local Ahmadiyah leader Rahmat Syukur Maskawan rejected the minister’s ideas, saying that, fundamentally, Ahmadis were Muslims who believed that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the person who continued Muhammad’s propagation of Islam. — JP

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10...nister-ban-ahmadiyah.html

SBY fails to uphold supremacy of law: Observers

NATIONAL Sat, 10/23/2010 11:34 AM

SBY fails to uphold supremacy of law: Observers

Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Law enforcement, the fight against corruption and economic enhancement were the weak points of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration during the first year of his second term, a discussion heard on Friday.

“In terms of law enforcement, we have witnessed many issues over the last year, including the Bibit-Chandra case, the Bank Century debacle, bloated bank accounts allegedly belonging to high-ranking police officers, the Molotov attack on the Tempo magazine office and the bullying of anticorruption activist Tama S. Langkun,” Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) senior researcher Burhanuddin Muhtadi told the discussion at the House of Representatives.

Oppression against minority groups was a major problem Yudhoyono had to resolve, Burhanuddin added.

“There is one regent’s instruction to exile Ahmadiyah followers to a remote island. The state must do something about that,” he said.

Burhanuddin was referring to the West Lombok regency administration’s suggestion to move 20 Ahmadi families, who had already been displaced for many years after their village was attacked by mainstream Muslims, to an island in Sekotong subdistrict. West Lombok regent Zaini Arony said the plan was part of the government’s efforts to “protect” the Ahmadis.

Zaini said he would seek the governor’s support of the widely-criticized plan, because it had only been put forth after consultations with religious, community and youth leaders. Critics have said the plan would amount to violation of human rights, and Zaini acknowledged that not everybody in the meeting supported the idea.

Early this month, an Ahmadiyah village in Bogor, just south of Jakarta was also attacked by militant mainstream Muslims, but the police were able to contain the violence.

Signs of increasing intolerance have also been evidenced by church closures and fierce militant rejection of churches and their congregation members in their neighborhoods.

Burhanuddin said that persecution against the Ahmadis reminded him of medieval practices in Europe, which should have long since been absent in a modern democracy like Indonesia. The government’s poor showing in the fight against corruption was ironic because the main selling point of Yudhoyono’s last presidential campaign was his commitment to the supremacy of law, he added. Another discussion speaker, law expert Irmanputra Sidin, said the President was to blame for the law enforcement agencies’ failure to reform themselves.

“The police and the attorney general have both failed to regain public trust. We can [therefore] say that Yudhoyono has failed,” he said.

Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum defended the administration, saying there had been major improvements in law enforcement, however, most of them went unheard because of poor public relations.

Commenting on a possible Cabinet reshuffle, Anas said that Yudhoyono should react firmly to Cabinet ministers who did not perform well, and some ministers should be replaced.

“The President should not maintain Cabinet ministers who did not perform well because they would only burden his administration,” he said.

Rumors of a possible Cabinet reshuffle have been swirling since last week when Yudhoyono marked the first year of his second term in office.

The Democratic Party has long insisted that Yudhoyono must improve his administration by replacing certain ministers. Golkar, the second largest party, has also made similar calls, and has even said it did not mind preparing substitutes should Yudhoyono dismiss certain Golkar ministers.

Anas said the first year in office was the best time for Yudhoyono to reshuffle his Cabinet because the new ministers would still have enough time to familiarize themselves with their jobs.

He maintained that the Yudhoyono administration had made progress during the past year, but public awareness remains low because of the administration’s inadequate communication skills.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10/...remacy-law-observers.html

Govt must protect Ahmadiyah, other minorities: Golkar

NATIONAL Thu, 10/21/2010 10:55 AM

Govt must protect Ahmadiyah, other minorities: Golkar

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has a constitutional obligation to protect Ahmadiyah and other minority religious groups and must take action against violence directed against them, says a Golkar Party representative.

Speaking at a press conference at the end of the party’s three-day leadership meeting in Jakarta on Wednesday, Golkar’s patron board chair Akbar Tandjung said the government had no authority to interfere in Ahmadiyah’s internal affairs, including its religious teachings, and should take action against hard-line groups that burned down Ahmadiyah mosques and other buildings in several cities in the country.

“Our party has proposed a bill on religious freedom to help provide protection for all people, including minorities.”

“In the name of Pancasila — the state ideology — and the diversity of the nation, the government cannot prohibit Ahmadis from following their own teachings, which are different from the true Islam followed by the majority of Muslims. The government also has to guarantee Ahmadis their fundamental right to their faith,” he said.

Hard-line groups launched a string of attacks on Ahmadiyah followers and their buildings in Banten, West Java, and West Nusa Tenggara over the last several years. Ahmadis accept Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, instead of Muhammad, as their last prophet.

Hundreds of Islam Defenders Front (FPI) followers burned Ahmadi houses in Parung, Bogor, last month. Earlier, several hard-line groups sealed mosques belonging to Ahmadis in Kuningan, West Java, demanding the government disband the sect.

Despite the 2008 joint ministerial decree accepting Ahmadiyah’s existence, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali asked Ahmadis to dissolve their sect and come back to the true Islam.

Golkar slammed the government for its slow response to the recent FPI assault on HKBP church ministers in Bekasi, West Java, and is determined to campaign for religious tolerance to counter increasing intolerance among Muslims.

Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie said his party, one of the nationalist parties, together with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), was deeply concerned about the deterioration of national attachment towards Pancasila among the people.

The declining implementation of and respect for Pancasila has been demonstrated by the increase in social disharmony, increasing intolerance among the Muslim majority and increasing terrorism and the emergence of terrorist cells, said Aburizal.

When asked why Golkar had remained silent amid the government’s slow response to minority attacks, Aburizal said his party was not an executive body, although it was included in the pro-government coalition.

“Our party has proposed a bill on religious freedom to help provide protection for all people, including minorities,” he said.

Golkar and local party members in Banten, West Sumatra, South Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara have been involved in the issuance of sharia-inspired bylaws, as previously reported.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10/21/g...inorities-golkar.html

Ahmadiyah followers insist they are Muslims

NATIONAL Mon, 10/11/2010 9:19 AM

Ahmadiyah followers insist they are Muslims

JAKARTA: Ahmadiyah congregation members have refuted suggestions made by mainstream Indonesian Muslims that they should abandon Islam and form a new religion.

“We object to those who do not consider us a part of Islam,” Ahmadi’s Garut branch executive Rahmat Syukur Maskawan said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com on Sunday.

In response to the growing animosity, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), suggested last week that Ahmadiyah followers should no longer claim that they are a part of Islam.

Followers of the sect would suffer from isolation if they insist on associating themselves with Islam while at the same time violating the basic teachings of the religion, NU deputy secretary-general Enceng Shobirin said.

The campaign to outlaw Ahmadiyah, a frequent target of persecution, was political. Rahmat said, adding that he deplored the statement made by NU and questioned the organization’s commitment to defending minority groups and upholding pluralism.

Ahmadiyah has been declared “heretical” by the Indonesian Ulema Council for saying that its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a prophet. Such belief is against the dominant view among Muslims that Muhammad was God’s last prophet. — JP

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10/11/ahmadiya...they-are-muslims.html

Editorial: Tyranny of the majority

EDITORIAL Fri, 10/08/2010 9:45 AM

Editorial: Tyranny of the majority

The ongoing controversy over whether religious sect Ahmadiyah has the right to persist and it’s followers the right to freely profess their beliefs illustrates the long-standing issue that this nation has failed and is failing to protect the rights of it’s minorities.

Dubbed the world’s third-largest democracy, Indonesia has been facing difficulties in adopting and adapting itself to that very principle of democracy that is the respect for and protection of minorities.

Minority groups in Indonesia, including the approximately 200,000 Ahmadis, have to face the ugly fact that they are small in number and therefore prone to marginalization, discrimination and sometimes even persecution.

As of today, hundreds of Ahmadis on Lombok Island in West Nusa Tenggara have been living in shelters since their expulsion from their homes in February 2006. They have been denied their economic right to live a better life and their right to vote as evidenced when the local poll commission scrapped them from the voter roll in last year’s elections.

Worse, their children have had to experience the ordeal. Only last month the local government moved to provide free education for Ahmadi children.

The latest in a string of attacks on Ahmadiyah followers last week indicates the absence of any form of protection for minorities. Hundreds of Ahmadiyah members living in an enclave in the West Java regency of Bogor lost not only their belongings but perhaps also their hopes for a peaceful life in this country.

Regardless of the cause of last week’s arson attack, Ahmadiyah has been perceived as a threat to mainstream Muslims and a cause of destabilization. With ulema and Muslim figures failing to promote dialog, and instead fighting for a ban against Ahmadiyah, hard-line groups have found clemency in carrying out acts of violence against the religious sect.

Solutions for the Ahmadiyah problem initiated by Muslim leaders have so far constituted one-way traffic, in which the majority dictates and enforces it’s will on the minority. It is tyranny of the majority that is currently plaguing the country’s efforts to deal with Ahmadiyah.

Sadly, this is how this nation understands democracy. Political parties form a coalition within the House of Representatives annihilate dissenting voices during decision-making processes. Democracy has been hijacked to help the majority groups fulfill their interests.

In the Ahmadiyah case, the government as the representation of the state has failed to draw a line to protect the weak or the minority vis-à-vis the majority. But democracy prevails only if the rights of the minority are protected.

The enforcement of the 2008 joint ministerial decree on Ahmadiyah spoke volumes about the government’s perceptions on the rights of the strong, as the regulation amputated the basic rights of the Islamic sect’s followers and reinforced a stigma on them as an unwanted society.

A plan to review the decree that many expect will result in a permanent solution to the Ahmadiyah issue will be translated into a permanent ban against the religious sect as long as the tyranny of majority is at play. A new decree banning the sect would read as an expression of supreme power and illustrate that the government has failed to listen to their wishes.

British political philosopher John Stuart Mill noted that the danger of the tyranny of the majority lay not just in the infringements of individuals’ rights or the marginalization of a political minority, but in the oppression of minority groups in society based simply on criteria such as skin color, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. Ahmadiyah and other minority groups deserve equal rights, unless of course this nation no longer believes in democracy.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10/08/editorial-tyranny-majority.html