The spineless regime here finally issued its decree ‘freezing’ all activity by the Ahmadiyah sect, 200,000 people forbidden by a craven state from practicing their religion.
The decree stopped short of dissolving the dissenters as a group, but, as the Jakarta Post reported the next day, 10/6, it came out the same afternoon as thousands of ignorant Muslim fanatics screamed and shouted in front of the Presidential Palace. The primitives’ demands were reflected in the decree, signed by the Home Affairs Minister, the Attorney-General and the Minister for Religious Affairs. It outlawed any Ahmadiyah action ‘spreading interpretations and teachings that deviate from the principal teachings of Islam.’
Presumably such presumptuous arrogance could as easily be applied to either Catholics or Protestants, since both are Christian and must, one or the other, be equally susceptible to the infinite theological wisdom of SBY’s political hatchet-men as to who is deviating from Christ’s teachings. Indeed, one is surprised SBY doesn’t delegate his cabinet to globe-trot from synod to assembly to conclave, since they clearly consider themselves expert arbiters on matters of faith –pity they can’t solve Indonesia’s practical problems so cleverly.
Much of last night’s tv consisted of reports on how the victims of Muslim bigotry were planning to cope with their new second-class citizenship. Most appear to be resigned to their fate, fearing the savagery of thug gangs like the FPI. TV One at 6.45 am on Wednesday showed households that had put up stickers saying ‘Non-Ahmadiyah’ for fear of assault by bigoted Muslims.
This is sadly reminiscent of the faded signs still painted on shops and other buildings all over Jakarta, saying ‘Muslim’ or ‘pribumi’ (native) which were plastered up in 1998 to ward off similar primitives who were attacking Chinese ethnic homes and shops. Probably some of the same FPI vermin were out then as now, with new juvenile delinquents these days joining the old ones.
(An interesting article appeared in the JPO 10/6 by Budiawan, a lecturer at Sanata Dharma University in Jogjakarta , entitled ‘Is the FPI Radical?’ He says that based on research by a Muslim scholar, Al-Zastrouw Ngalawi, they aren’t really very ‘into’ religion, being more concerned with building up their own status and making money as a ‘vehicle for hire, sustaining social and economic privileges for its founders, whose businesses failed during the economic crisis of 1997.’
On a positive note, the AKKBB, the Alliance for Religious Freedom, whose members were brutalized by FPI hoods at Monas on June 1st, have attacked the decree as unconstitutional and pledged to file a lawsuit. The Wahid Institute, incidentally founded under the patronage of Gus Dur, the former President and leading Muslim cleric, hosted the Alliance press conference and the WI executive director Ahmad Suaedy made the indisputable comment that ‘it proves the government can be pressured by hard-line groups.’
These gangs include the FPI and Hizbut Tahrir, whose brain-dead lackeys broke off screaming at the Palace to march to police headquarters, demanding the release of the FPI’s head pig, Rizieq Shihab.
The lead-up to the crack-down on religious liberty was reported 9/6 in the JP which quoted a House of Representatives’ PPP (an Islamist party set up under the dictatorship) spokesman, chairman Azwar of Commission 8, which handles religious matters. ‘We want to know why the government has not yet issued a decree banning the sect.’ This PPP party has a slimy record of sectarianism. Their Hamzah Haz, Megawati’s Vice-President, gained notoriety for visiting a Laskar Jihad terrorist leader in prison during his term of office as deputy head of state. He’s the same one whose ‘doctorate’ was found to be of the mail-order variety, a typical educated Islamist.
Other parties showed less bigoted views, Mega’s PDI-P secretary general Ganjar Pranowo calling for dialogue rather than a ban, while PAN, the Muslim National Mandate Party, Zulkifli Hazan calling for action, no matter what the action might be…’the government just needs to announce its stance…doesn’t matter whether it outlaws Ahmadiyah or not..’ Outside the corridors of power, thousands of decent citrizens in Jogjakarta , including the Sultan, attended a ceremony at Gaja Madha University calling for an end to violence. The Sultan said the reform movement had ‘failed to promote tolerance among religious communities.’ JP 10/6
JP 9/6 - Ayub Junaidi, Secretary of Jember, East Java, branch of the PKB, Gus Dur’s moderate Muslim party, was busily organizing detachments of 300 men each to go to Jakarta and forcibly disband the FPI, as were the Gardai Bangsa, group, Bantuan Serbaguna and some pesantren (Muslim boarding schools) there.
The JP 10/6 published a statement from the Network for Monitoring and Advocacy for Freedom of Religion that recorded 54 cases of vilence against Christians and Ahmadiyah between 1996 and 2008. It began in 1996 with an assault on an Ahmadiyah mosque in Karang Tengah, Sukabumi, West java, then spread to Cianjur, Garut, Bogor, Bekasi and Kuningan, all in West Java, a province with an unsavoury history of Islamist sectarianism. Suryadi Rajab, the Network spokesman, noted that Christians were forced to worship in their homes because of both violent attack and local government rulings on church building..
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[Rep]