Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe | Headlines
By Camelia Pasandaran | March 10, 2011
Not a single Ahmadi is banned by government regulations from practicing his or her faith, a top Home Affairs Ministry official has said, arguing instead that members of the sect are merely banned from spreading their beliefs.
Ministry spokesman Reydonnyzar Moenek said on Wednesday that no regulation issued by local administrations or the central government to further restrict the activities of the minority sect was in violation of the Constitution.
According to Chapter 2, Article 28E of the Constitution, everyone is entitled to have beliefs, express their opinion and act in line with their conscience.
But so far 11 regions across the country, according to the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), have issued regulations banning or thoroughly restricting the activities of Ahmadiyah.
“No law or decree issued so far has violated the Constitution.” Reydonnyzar told reporters. “We have not restricted anybody in regard to worshipping. The Home Affairs Ministry will continue to evaluate existing regulations.
“Preliminary evaluations of the regulations [in regard to Ahmadiyah] point out they are still within the boundaries of the law. None of them contradicts the Constitution or the SKB [a 2008 joint ministerial decree banning Ahmadis from proselytizing].”
The joint decree, issued by the Religious Affairs Ministry, Home Affairs Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office, stopped short of disbanding the sect.
After the provincial administrations of West Java and East Java issued regulations banning all Ahmadiyah activity, the Jakarta administration had said it was studying the possibility of issuing a similar decree. However, Governor Fauzi Bowo has since confirmed that no decree of this nature would be issued by his administration.
The Depok administration on Wednesday became the latest in the line of local administrations to issue a regulation restricting the activities of the Ahmadiyah.
He said he would follow the instructions issued by Djoko Suyanto, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, who stated that no gubernatorial decree or regulation should violate the Constitution.
Reydonnyzar said the Home Affairs Ministry had met with West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan, who said that the province was not banning Ahmadiyah completely, but rather that the regulation was issued to improve the security of the group.
“It is just about anticipating possible security threats,” Reydonnyzar said. He added that none of the decrees banned the Ahmadiyah community from practicing their faith; they only banned members from spreading their beliefs.
Following President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s call last week for a review of discriminatory bylaws, the Home Affairs Ministry insisted that although religion fell under the authority of the central government, the responsibility could be handed over to provincial, district or municipal governments.
The ministry has met with representatives from the Islamic People’s Forum (FUI), the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah.
“Some of them advised Ahmadiyah to stop its exclusive behavior,” Reydonnyzar said. “They should not be closed to outsiders, as they are now, marrying only among their own members and being intolerant of clerics from outside Ahmadiyah.”
Feedback from the discussions will be used to improve the joint ministerial decree, he said.
Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, 250 members of the FPI rallied outside the governor’s office, protesting statements made by Sultan Hamengkubuwono X — the governor — that the activities of Ahmadiyah would not be curtailed in the province.
Read original post here: Ministry Defends Regional Bans On Ahmadiyah
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