Indonesia: Ahmadiyah mosque sealed off in Ciamis

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“We’ve locked up the mosque starting from today. This is a follow-up action based on a meeting that we held on Wednesday to discuss the closure.”

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Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Post
By TJP | June 26 2014

Officials of the Ciamis Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) have sealed an Ahmadiyah mosque on Jl. Cipto Mangunkusumo in Ciamis, West Java on Thursday, as they have been ordered to do so by the city’s Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and several other Islamic organizations.

“We’ve locked up the mosque starting from today. This is a follow-up action based on a meeting that we held on Wednesday to discuss the closure,” said Dedi Iwa, the head of security for Ciamis Satpol PP, said as quoted by tempo.co on Thursday evening.

Dedi said his agency had coordinated with the local police and the Indonesian Military (TNI), as well as the city’s MUI branch and the Interfaith Harmony Forum (FKUB), to ensure that Ahmadis in the area would not engage in any activity, based on the 2013 joint-ministerial decree to ban Ahmadiyah activities.

“We will pursue the legal process if they insist on continuing their activities,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Saiful, Ahmadiyah leader for the eastern part of West Java, said his group had not yet received official news from Satpol PP about the sealing.

Saiful said the Ciamis board of Ahmadis had sent a letter of complaint to Regent Iing Syam Arifin regarding his reaction when Islamic organizations held a protest in front of the regent’s office to urge the local administration to seal the mosque on June 23.

During the protest on June 23, the regent received the board members to talk about the complaint letter, but Satpol PP officials had gathered at the mosque.

“The closure will see us hold our activities on the mosque’s terrace and I’m planning to approach the regent again, because we are going to start Ramadhan this month and the 1945 Constitution guarantees religious freedom,” he said.

In May, the Bekasi city government locked down the Al-Misbah mosque, a place of worship for Ahmadis, in Bekasi, West Java. (gda)


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