The Australian, October 10, 2005
Jakarta turns blind eye to holy wars
Indonesia's Christians fear going to church as authorities sanction sectarian violence,
writes Sian Powell
FROM the recent suicide bombings in Bali, to the forcible closing of churches in West
Java and persecution of so-called heretical and liberal Muslims, the march of militant
Islam is leading to a sense of increasing intolerance across Indonesia.
In the province of Aceh, militants were this week out to commemorate the holy fasting
month of Ramadan by menacing discos and bars.
As many as 23 so-called "wild" or unlicensed Christian churches in West Java have
been forced to close by militant Muslims in recent months, according to prominent
Christians, who fear they are facing a surge of bigotry.
Muslims considered insufficiently orthodox have also been under threat. Hundreds of
militants recently attacked mosques, as many as 33 houses and a number of cars in
Cianjur, West Java, because the property belonged to the "heretical" Islamic
Ahmadiyah sect. Ominously, the militants say their actions are condoned by both the
state and by peak Islamic bodies.
Muhammad Mu'min, chief of the Anti-Apostasy Movement Alliance (AGAP), says the
proliferation of illegal churches must be stopped, because the spread of Christianity
damages the fabric of Islam in Indonesia. "The substance of closing 'wild' churches is
an apostasy issue," he says. "Many of our brothers have converted to non-Muslim
religions, especially Christianity, because of overt or covert activities, and even with
force."
Conversion from Islam to another religion is a very serious matter in Indonesia.
Leaving Islam is considered a sin by Muslims, and apostates are reviled. Three
Indonesian Christian women from Indramayu in West Java were each jailed for three
years earlier this month for inviting Muslim children to church events, and apparently
thereby luring them away from Islam.
Mu'min says Christians will stop at nothing to convert Muslims. "(They use) forceful
acts; like beatings, and sexual harassment, and worse. One reverend was captured
and sentenced to 12 years in prison," he says.
The violence can hit even humanitarian organisations. Around the same time as the
Cianjur violence, seven former counsellors at a cancer and drug rehabilitation centre in
Probolinggo, East Java, were sentenced to prison terms of between three and five
years for insulting Islam -- militants had earlier raided the centre, driving out patients
and vandalising the interior. A few weeks earlier, two Christian congregations in
Bekasi were forced to pray in the streets, after extremists blocked the way to their
churches.
This intolerance, in a nation long famed for its easygoing and gentle brand of Islam,
seems to stem from the edicts of Indonesia's highest Islamic authority, the Indonesian
Council of Scholars (MUI). In July, the MUI issued a much-criticised series of decrees
outlawing liberal interpretations of Islam, religious pluralism and secularism.
The 11 fatwas also banned interfaith marriage and prayers performed with people of
other faiths, as well as renewing a decades-old ban on the heretical Muslim sect
Ahmadiyah.
Ignored by most Muslims, the edicts were seized upon by a lunatic fringe of militants,
including the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the newer umbrella organisation
AGAP. Indonesia's beleaguered Christians, comprising about 9 per cent of the
nation's population of roughly 230 million, have been feeling particularly threatened.
Long inured to violence in the conflict zones of Ambon and Poso, where internecine
warfare has claimed thousands of lives, they now fear going to church on Sundays.
As well as using the MUI fatwas as justification for the forcible closing of churches,
the militants say the Indonesian Government has given them every right to take action
against churches without licences.
A 1969 ministerial decree says permission must be sought from the local
administration head and local residents for the construction of a place of worship. In
largely Muslim Indonesia, this often means no permission is forthcoming for Christian
churches, so Christians use houses, shops, hotels, and even office towers for
worship. Concerned by the widespread and often violent attacks on these unlicensed
churches in recent months, the Government has promised to revise the decree -- but
Christians remain anxious.
A former head of the Indonesia Church Association, Reverend Nathan Setiabudi, says
he is compiling a detailed list of the violence. "The problem is, the national police chief
thinks the people coming down to the streets (to attack churches) are justified," he
says. "I still think it's against the law, and it has nothing to do with the decree."
There is freedom of religion in Indonesia, which recognises five official creeds,
including Christianity and Catholicism (an interesting separation), but Mr Setiabudi
fears there is a plot afoot to meddle with the status quo.
"There are those who have power who have no heart, victimising and setting Muslims
and Christians against each other as happened in Ambon and Poso," he says. "They
bombed Tentena (a market in the Christian town of Tentena in Sulawesi was attacked
in May, killing 20). Now they are closing churches. If we allow it, there could be
another Ambon or Poso on a national scale." Christians and liberal-thinking Muslims
are appalled both by the upsurge in violence and the authorities' seeming
unwillingness to do anything about it.
Although MUI head Umar Shihab has condemned the violence, the edicts that
nurtured it have not been withdrawn.
"We have members in the MUI," says Mu'min. "The first time we closed a wild church,
it was at the MUI's request. They asked me directly, 'Please help us close them'. So
we helped them."
The hardliner, who has in the past been arrested for anti-alcohol and anti-gambling
violence, says his movement has the support of prominent Muslims.
Asserting the AGAP organisation has members throughout Indonesia, Mu'min says
he is ready for battle.
Ordinarily a small team would be sent to close a church, he says, but if the Christians
resist, there will be violence.
"If they bring a mob, we will bring our mob, ready for physical battle."
© The Australian
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