Indonesia: Attack on religious minorities - Carolina Rumuat

The Ahmadiyah followers in Indonesia have been experiencing a series of prosecutions in the country. In 2008, the government issued a decree recognizing their existence but disallowed the group from spreading their teachings. Since then, the members have been attacked in public places by thugs and religious fanatics. However, the culprits of the previous incidents were never arrested by the police.

The latest incident took place about eight days ago, when a mob of more than 1,500 people attacked an Ahmadi congregation in Cikeusik Sub District. While the elderlies, women and children were able to flee the congregation house, the Ahmadi men were attacked by a mob screaming “God is great”. The mob used stones and machetes. Three of of the Ahmadis died, while few others were badly injured, reports said that the victims' bodies were later on hanged on trees.

A group of Human Rights NGOs including Kontras managed to obtain a lengthy video recording of the incident. Some parts of the video were uploaded on Youtube. The NGOs also claimed that the police didn't perform their duty by allowing the attack to continue despite their presence in the area

The Banten Chief police was stripped off his rank following the incident.

Check also a video of the attack uploaded on EngageMedia

Marjuki Alie on his Politikana blog post said that the Ahmadi murderers are not the ones to blame.

[…]hukum di Indonesia payah, mudah dibeli, mudah juga ditekan-tekan oleh kelompok-kelompok kepentingan.
[…]Kok pembunuh tidak bersalah, dimana logikanya? Mereka yang mengeroyok dan membunuh rame-rame itu pikirannya sudah sesat. Sesat gimana? Ya sesat karena mereka itu telah diajarkan bahwa yang mereka lalukan itu adalah benar. Mereka itu telah diajarkan bahwa yang mereka lakukan itu mulia, atas nama agama untuk membela agama.

Indonesian laws are weak, easy to be bought, easy to be pressurized by parties who are protecting their interests. […] How come the murderers are innocent, where's the logic in that? Those who gang up against the victims and those who committed murder have lost their minds. How did they lose their minds? They were taught that what they're doing is righteous. They were taught that what they do is for religious sake and to defend that religion is noble.

Enraged Twitter users share their opinions:

harimauterbang: My goodness. So the KKK moved to Banten! Hanging people from trees! Ugh! !#ahmadiyah murders

TiaraMarieta : walaupun #ahmadiyah adalah ajaran yang menyimpang.namun tak selayaknya diperlakukan semena-mena.

Even if Ahmadiyyah is a deviant teaching, they're not supposed to be treated unjustly.

syukronamin: Org2 yg membunuh warga #Ahmadiyah itu tdk sadar, bhw dasar negara kita bukan Islam, tapi Pancasila.
[…]Knp Ormas2 se-aliran #FPI hanya ‘protes' ketika Teroris dihukum mati? Ketika ada warga #Ahmadiyah dibunuh mrk diam?

The Ahmadi murderers didn't realize that our country is not a Muslim country but based on Pancasila.
Why organizations such as FPI (author's note: Islamic Defenders Front, a Muslim hardline organization, secretly nicknamed “the cloaked thugs”, known for bashing bars and massage parlors) only protested when terrorists received death penalty? But went silent, when there's an Ahmadi being murdered?

gitaputrid: Negara ini #Bohong menjamin kerukunan umat beragama,sebagaimana bohong melakukan pembrantasan korupsi

The state lies about guaranteeing the harmony of the interfaith believers, as it lies about corruption eradication

Temanggung riot
A couple of days after the Cikeusik incident, a riot occured on Temanggung, Central Java. Under the Anti Blasphemy law, Antonius Richmond Bawengan received 5 year for desecrating Islam and Christianity. Later that day, a mob of 1,000 men arrived from other cities and began to destroy Churches and a Christian school in Temanggung.

Colson, wrote a post on Pelopor website, saying:

It looks like the President and the government lack the courage to confront them head-on. On the contrary they are making concessions to appease the hard-liners. The Indonesian bishops rightly said: the state fails to protect minorities.

Written by Carolina Rumuat 

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/02/14/indonesia-attack-on-religious-minorities/