Eye on Extremism: Fears rise over Indonesian religious freedom

Rather than protect the home of a local Ahmadiyah leader, Boy Rafli Ahmad, a police spokesman, said officers had warned the Ahmadis not to provoke trouble by worshipping "that made the local people upset", and suggested they leave.

File photo: Islamic Defender Front (FPI) protests

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | SA Desk
Source/Credit: Ministry of Exterior Brazil
By Anthony Deutsch | February 9, 2011

The beating to death of three followers of a minority Islamic sect and the burning of churches have raised concerns about escalating religious intolerance in Indonesia.

Human rights groups are accusing Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, of failing to defend one of the six constitutionally recognised religions after a mob killed three Ahmadiyah members at the weekend.

In a separate incident, on Tuesday, hundreds of men – many wearing Muslim prayer caps or scarves – set fire to two churches and stormed a court house in Temanggung, central Java. The men were enraged by the outcome of a court hearing against a Christian man convicted of blasphemy. A priest was reportedly beaten.


Ahmadiyah has been persecuted for years in Indonesia, the world's largest majority-Muslim country, because its followers controversially believe their founder, not Muhammad, was the religion's last prophet. Rights groups say attacks on Ahmadiyah have escalated dramatically since 2008, when Mr Yudhoyono banned the sect from worshipping in public.

Indonesia prides itself on its religious tolerance and analysts say that if such attacks on minority groups are not stopped its reputation could suffer.

Mr Yudhoyono expressed "regret" at the deaths and ordered a full inquiry into the rampage against the Ahmadis. Police said on Tuesday they had arrested two suspects in connection with the mob attack.

Officers have been criticised, however, for failing to prevent the outbreak of violence.

In Sunday's attack, disturbing amateur video images posted on the internet showed police standing by as dozens of culprits, some shouting "Allah akbar!" (God is Great!) and "infidel!", struck at the half-naked bodies of the victims sprawled in the mud.

"Why didn't the police do more to protect us?" said Zafrullah Ahmad Pontoh, a spokesman for the Ahmadis, who number roughly 200,000 in Indonesia, in a population of nearly 250 million. "The attack was planned. We knew about it since Friday and warned the police."

Rather than protect the home of a local Ahmadiyah leader, Boy Rafli Ahmad, a police spokesman, said officers had warned the Ahmadis not to provoke trouble by worshipping "that made the local people upset", and suggested they leave.

He said the crowd had swelled to about 1,500 and with just 90 police officers they could do nothing to prevent it. "We tried to persuade them not to conduct any (religious) activities at the house . . . but they insisted," he said. Two suspects and 15 witnesses were being questioned.

Azyumardi Azra, director of graduate programmes at the State Islamic University in Jakarta, also blamed failed law enforcement. "The police seem to be reluctant to take measures against the attackers. Because the police failed to act, they become bolder and bolder."

Jim Della-Giacoma, south-east Asia project director at the International Crisis Group think-tank said Christian-Muslim tensions and attacks are continuing "as a direct result of the failure of the government to prevent or effectively prosecute incitement, intimidation and assaults against religious minorities".

The Institute for Democracy and Peace, a non-governmental group monitoring religious freedom recorded 75 cases, most of them against Christians and the Ahmadiyah sect, in 2010 compared with just 12 in 2009. Sunday's murders in Banten province, Java, are seen as an example of creeping religious intolerance in a secular country.

Much of the violence against the Ahmidis has been blamed on the Islamic Defenders Front, a militant group widely known by its Indonesian acronym FPI, whose members stabbed a protestant priest last year and raided clubs and bars serving alcohol during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Ahmadis, who first came to Indonesia in 1926 from Punjab, along the Pakistani-Indian border, are banned in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The six religions or beliefs officially recognised in Indonesia are Islam, the Protestant and Catholic branches of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

Almost 90 per cent of Indonesians consider themselves Muslim but only a small minority support shariah, or Islamic law, which is practiced only on the western-most province of Aceh, Sumatra, where the faith arrived centuries ago along with traders from the Middle East.


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