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| File photo: FPI Islamists attack |
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Post
By Yuli Tri Suwarni | April 20, 2012
Hundreds of people attacked an Ahmadiyah mosque in Babakan Sindang village, Tasikmalaya, West Java, prior to a Friday prayer, showing further evidence of attacks against minorities in the country.
According to Ahmadiyah follower Enda Juanda, initially there were dozens of people gathering around the mosque at around 9 a.m., with some wearing white and green garments and others carrying Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) flags.
“They initially shouted. But they started throwing stones at windows a few minutes later and broke into the mosque,” Enda told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Enda was inside the mosque with his friend Didi when they started to storm into the mosque and burn the rugs and prayer mats.
“I instinctively ran and saved myself. I am sure there is nothing wrong with my belief,” he said.
The Ahmadiyah community’s Tasikmalaya branch spokesman Budi Badrussalam said attackers unleashed three Molotov cocktails that burned the mosque’s rug and prayer mats.
People were able to put out the fire before it expanded, and no casualties or injuries were reported.
Spokesman of the FPI’s Tasikmalaya branch, Acep Sofyan, said the attackers were not FPI members, but people from “various Islamic organizations, locals and students” of Islamic boarding schools in the vicinity.
Although he said none of the attackers were FPI members, he said they did not throw Molotov cocktails at the mosque, and that there were people provoking them to burn prayer mats in the mosque.
“We instantly put out the fire,” Acep said.
He alleged that the attackers were furious after Ahmadiyah followers insisted on using the mosque for prayer, despite the fact that district authorities had sealed it.
The authorities took the measure, he said, after receiving complaints from locals.
It was the second attack that had happened to Ahmadiyah followers in West Java and their properties over the past two months.
On Feb. 17, an Ahmadiyah mosque in Cisaar village, Cianjur, West Java, was also under attack.
Some 80 Ahmadis, both male and female, insisted on performing a Friday prayer at the damaged mosque while their mosque was being vandalized.
Budi said he regretted police officers and local officials who allowed the incident to take place under their nose.
“That is a historical mosque, which was built in 1920. The Serang Archeological Preservation Agency has categorized it as a historical building,” Budi said.
Tasikmalaya Police chief Adj. Comr. Gupuh Setiyono denied that the police had allowed the vandalism to occur.
He said police had tried to persuade the local people, who rejected Ahmadiyah followers, to talk to them a day before the incident took place.
However, he pointed his finger at the Ahmadis, who he said had provoked the attack.
“At first, people came only to put up banners and hand over their statements concerning their objection to the Ahmadis’ activities in the area,” Gupuh said.
“But an Ahmadi started to vent provocative words that made people [on the other side] angry and instigate the attack.”
He said the police would investigate the case according to procedure.
He added that he would set up a meeting with the Cult Surveillance Coordinating Agency (Bakorpakem), the Indonesian Ulema Council and local figures to determine ways to minimize any implications that might follow. (iwa/mtq)
Read original post here: Indonesia: Ahmadiyah mosque in Tasikmalaya under attack, police look the otherway
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