Indonesia: Government wants dialogue with Ahmadiyah

A massive response has been seen to the latest violence against Ahmadiyah, from the media, the government and from the public via social networking sites. 

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Post
By JP | February 10, 2011

The Religious Affairs Ministry plans to invite members of the Ahmadiyah sect to a meeting next week to discuss, among other issues, the brutal killing of three of the sect's followers in an organized mob attack on their congregation in Cikeusik, Banten, on Sunday.

"At this stage we haven't had any dialogue with [Ahmadiyah followers] yet, but we plan to begin next week," Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said after a working meeting with House of Representatives Commission VIII, which ran from Wednesday evening until early on Thursday morning.

Suryadharma said that the government needed to sit down and listen to the Ahmadis give their version of the massacre.


"We will also talk to various parties on this issue," Suryadharma said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

A massive response has been seen to the latest violence against Ahmadiyah, from the media, the government and from the public via social networking sites. Many have said the ongoing violence has been fueled by a joint ministerial decree signed in 2008 by the home minister, religious affairs minister and the attorney general, which bans Ahmadiyah from proselytizing.

Last year, Suryadharma said Ahmadiyah “must be disbanded immediately” because it violated the decree.

Suryadharma of the Islam-based United Development Party (PPP) is currently in the hot seat after two violent attacks on religious minority groups within a week. Two days after the Cikeusik killings, another attack erupted in Temanggung, Central Java, where, mobs ransacked a court and set fire to three churches and a school. Police have named eight suspects following the attacks, allegedly triggered by a disagreement with a Temanggung District Court verdict in a blasphemy trial implicating defendant Antonius Richmon Bawengan.

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