“We prevented the mob from vandalizing the village. When they found out that the gathering had indeed stopped, the mob responded by throwing stones.”
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Post
By Arya Dipa | May 6, 2013
No one was injured as unknown assailants attacked an Ahmadhi hamlet in Tenjowaringin village in Tasikmalaya, West Java, early on Sunday morning.
“There were no fatalities. Only windows and doors were damaged,” Dodi Kurniawan, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyah community in Tenjowaringin, said over the telephone on Sunday.
Members of the minority Muslim sect were a majority in Wanasigra hamlet, where they comprised 95 percent of the local population, Dodi said. Tenjowaringin was 80 percent comprised of Ahmadhis, he added.
According to the spokesman, 29 buildings were damaged in the attack, including a mosque, a mushola (small mosque) and an elementary school.
The attacks were apparently connected to a meeting of the local branch of the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) on Friday and Saturday that was attended by 2,700 Tenjowaringin residents, Dodi said.
Tasikmalaya Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Wijonarko said that the meeting, which was conducted under guard by police, ended after ashar prayers in the late afternoon on Friday and resumed on Saturday.
“The activity stopped after dzuhur on Saturday, Wijonarko said, referring to noon prayers. “People who were against Ahmadiyah, however, got information saying that the activity was still going on.”
Police met members of the mob, who descended on the hamlet from outside Tasikmalaya around 1 a.m. on Sunday to ensure that the meeting had ended, according to the police chief.
“We prevented the mob from vandalizing the village. When they found out that the gathering had indeed stopped, the mob responded by throwing stones,” Wijonarko said.
Dodi said the attack on the community had gone on for about 15 minutes. “But it seemed that there was someone giving the commands.”
The Ahmadhi spokesman said that police officers on scene did nothing to stop the rampage and that no one had been evacuated after the attack.
The incidence of violence directed at followers of Ahmadiyah has been more frequent after the issuance in March 2011 of a provincial regulation banning Ahmadiyah activities in West Java.
Some mainstream Muslims have deemed Ahmadiyah a heretical sect for its belief that founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet.
Contacted separately, liberal scholar Ulil Abshar Abdala and former first lady Sinta Nuriyah Wahid paid a visit on Sunday to Al-Misbah Mosque in Bekasi, West Java, where 19 Ahmadiyah followers have been barricaded for more than a month.
The mosque was sealed on April 4 by the Bekasi municipal administration, which justified its actions using the 2011 gubernatorial regulation and a 2008 joint ministerial decree that banned members of Ahmadiyah from propagating their beliefs.
“The Constitution says that each citizen has the freedom to practice their beliefs or religious faith without any pressure or violence and the state has to protect this freedom. Unfortunately, reality speaks otherwise,” Ulil told The Jakarta Post over the telephone.
Ulil said that Bekasi was an area where the number of radical religious groups had increased rapidly, potentially threatening the rights of the adherents of minority religions.
Sinta blamed the ministerial decree for what had happened to Ahmadis. “The decree says that the state does not ban Ahmadiyah’s followers but limits their practice. People mostly use this argument to prohibit Ahmadis from practicing their belief,” she told the Post over the phone.
According to the security coordinator of the Bekasi congregation, Ahmad Maulana, the Ahmadis will stay at the mosque until the administration lifts the seal. “We believe the seal is against the law because there has been no such order from the court,” he said. (tam)
Recent attack against Ahmadiyah followers
Feb-April, 2013: Bekasi officials seal Al-Misbah Mosque three times in Pondok Gede.
Oct. 25, 2012: Idul Adha (Day of Sacrifice) celebrations in Bandung marred by hard-line FPI members who attack An-Nasir Mosque, home to hundreds of Ahmadis, damaging the building and preventing the Ahmadis from celebrating Idul Adha.
April 20, 2012: A crowd of Islamic groups and local residents vandalize Baiturrahim Mosque, used by Ahmadis in Singaparna, Tasikmalaya, West Java.
Feb. 17, 2012: Crowd vandalizes Nur Hidayah Mosque used by 200 Ahmadis in Cianjur, West Java.
Feb. 6, 2011: Three Ahmadhis are killed in a brutal attack in Cikeusik, Banten. Serang District Court later sentences killers to light sentences.
Read original post here: Mob ransacks Ahmadiyah village
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