Source/Credit: AFP | MSN News
By AFP | February 9, 2011
Pressure mounted on Indonesia Tuesday to tackle violent religious extremism and demonstrate its oft-touted commitment to diversity, after three sect members were brutally killed in a lynch mob attack.
Leading international human rights groups condemned Sunday's onslaught on the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect in West Java and demanded an immediate investigation into why police failed to stop the mob of hundreds of armed Muslim extremists.
They also joined the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an autonomous board that advises the US government, in calling for a review of laws seen as persecuting minority faiths.
"Police should be studying the video closely to identify and apprehend the attackers," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, which obtained gruesome video of the mob beating and stoning their victims.
"And there needs to be a full investigation into why the police absolutely failed to prevent this mob from going on a violent rampage."
Police have said they are questioning two suspects but have made no arrests despite the attack being caught on video and occurring in front of officers, who fled or did little to intervene.
Five sect members suffered extensive injuries and barely escaped alive, while two remain missing, police said.
"The police are interrogating two suspects. They clearly took part in the violence," national police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said.
Ahmadiyah spokesman Zafrullah Ahmad Pontoh said he could not bare to watch the video, which shows Muslim fanatics screaming "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as they set upon their victims in a wild frenzy.
"Sadistic, sadistic. I can't stand watching the video. The people who did this are inhuman, they have no conscience at all," he told AFP.
Indonesia's constitution explicitly guarantees freedom of religion. But under pressure from Islamic conservatives, the government in 2008 banned the Ahmadiyah from spreading their faith.
"Revoking the 2008 anti-Ahmadiyah decree is a crucial first step to reversing this wave of violence, and it needs to happen immediately," Pearson said.
Activists also demanded the resignation of Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, who says the Ahmadis would be safe if they simply renounced Islam. Last year he called for the sect to be banned outright.
The attack came less than three months after US President Barack Obama visited the world's largest Muslim-majority country and praised its "spirit of religious tolerance" as an "example to the world".
But Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Deputy Director Donna Guest said Indonesia was failing to shield minorities from persecution.
"This brutal attack on Ahmadiyah followers reflects the continued failure of the Indonesian government to protect religious minorities from harassment and attacks and to hold the perpetrators accountable," she said.
The Ahmadiyah break with most Muslims by believing their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, not Mohammed, was the final prophet of Islam.
The US religious freedom commission renewed its call on Indonesia to review its 1965 blasphemy law that bars deviations from six sanctioned faiths.
"This is just more deadly evidence that blasphemy laws are the cause of sectarian violence, not the solution," commission chair Leonard Leo said in Washington.
"Indonesia is a tolerant county that should be more intolerant of extremist groups," he said. "It's time the Indonesian government brings them to account for the violence and hatred they spread."
National police spokesman I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana defended his officers and said they had tried to evacuate the Ahmadis from the house.
"It's just impossible for us to guard all of them (the Ahmadis)," he said.
Read original post here: Activists demand action after Indonesia slayings
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.