AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Monday March 13, 2006 10:30 AM ET
In Indonesia, Islamic hardliners leave Christians and Muslims in
the cold
 JATIMULYA,
Indonesia (AFP) - In
a cramped, humid
loungeroom on
Jakarta's fringes,
Christians
congregate despite
fears of being
tracked down by
white-robed Muslim
hardliners who are
outraged by their
worshipping.
"All the time we
have to move.
Please help us,
Allelujah! How long do we have to keep moving?" asks Reverend Siefrid Liando,
struggling to be heard above the neighbours' ghetto blasters.
At the Indonesian Fellowship Church on this particular Sunday, mothers nurse babies
as they squat on fading woven mats along with teenagers and children, listening
intently to Liando's sermon in the intensifying tropical heat.
The protestant church is among at least 30 Christian groups in Indonesia, the world's
most populous Muslim nation, who have complained of eviction from their houses of
worship, according to the Indonesian Communion of Churches.
Those responsible claim the churches are operating illegally, citing a 1969 regulation
requiring the formal approval of a community before a house of worship is built in their
neighbourhood.
The Fellowship Church first encountered the work of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI)
-- well known for their violent anti-vice campaigns to shut down down bars and
entertainment venues in the capital -- when they found the laneway leading to their
church boarded up last September.
A notice told them that their church, two adjacent homes converted into a communal
space, had been shuttered due to complaints from nearby residents.
Six weeks later in a dramatic move, some 200 FPI members swooped on the
Fellowship's street church, grabbing another reverend, Anna Nenoharan, and holding a
traditional scythe known as a parang to her ribs.
They forced her into a car and took her to a nearby Muslim boarding school where
they held her for an hour.
"They held the parang to my neck -- here, at the back -- and said: 'If you hold any
more services, we will cut off your head' " Nenoharan tells AFP.
"They called me a dog and a pig," she says, referring to two offensive insults for
Muslims. Later, when she lodged a complaint to police they told her they could do
nothing if she was uninjured.
The FPI, along with a similarly extreme group known as the Anti-Apostasy Alliance
(AGAP), who claim to have closed more than 100 churches across the archipelago
nation, argue they are just upholding the law.
Nenoharan's riposte is that it's a tough law to follow: seven Christian groups she is
aware of have been waiting more than a decade for approval to build a
multi-denominational church or several smaller churches in Jatimulya, a suburb on the
outskirts of Jakarta.
"We have 3,000 Christians in Jatimulya, but the government won't let us build a single
church," she complains. "Yet Muslim groups can use government buildings as
mosques and boarding schools whenever they want."
The evictions are a sign not just of increasing tensions between hardliners and
Christians, but between radicals and other Islamic groups in Indonesia, where the vast
majority of people practise a tolerant form of Islam.
Ahmadiyah, an Islamic sect which believes that Mohammed was not the final prophet
as do mainstream Muslims, has suffered attacks on its members' homes and
mosques.
Last month radical Islamists on Lombok island in eastern Indonesia attacked an
Ahmadiyah community and destroyed 23 houses.
It was the fourth time they were targeted and the more than 1,000 residents are still
camped out in government offices, too afraid to go home, sect spokesman Abdullah
Basyith tells AFP.
"Our concern is that if the government doesn't carry out its duty and deal with the
perpetrators, then they'll keep using violence," he says.
Radical Muslim groups in Indonesia have become increasingly militant since the 1998
downfall of autocratic former president Suharto, who ruled for more than three decades
with an iron fist.
"Some officials are reluctant (to act) because it might create political disadvantage,"
says Jamhari Makruf, a political analyst from Syarif Hidayatullah University.
"It's time to review the whole relationship between state and religion again," he adds.
Indonesia is a multi-religious state, with five religions officially recognised: Islam,
Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism and Hinduism. The constitution guarantees
their followers religious freedoms.
Of Indonesia's 220 million people, approximately 85 percent are Muslim, 10 percent
Christian, two percent Hindu and one percent Buddhist. The remainder other religions,
such as animism.
Jakarta has tried to defuse tensions by proposing a revision to the 1969 law, which
would see a house of worship need approval from just 70 residents to operate, says
Abdul Fatah from the religious affairs ministry.
But Christian leaders argue the proposed regulations are still biased.
"Does the constitution say we have to get approval from residents?" asks Benny
Susetyo, from the Indonesian Bishops' Council.
And the proposed law is unlikely to appease the militants, either.
"If it's true, it will destroy Islam because that means only five families could approve" a
church's construction, says Muhammad Mu'min, coordinator of the hardline AGAP.
"They use the churches to do missionary work. We know they always do it, from the
data ... We have a right to protect Islam from other religions."
Back at the Indonesian Fellowship Church, the tension shows no sign of ending.
"We always feel under threat," says the Fellowship Church's Liando. "We never know
when they will arrive."
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
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JATIMULYA,
Indonesia (AFP) - In
a cramped, humid
loungeroom on
Jakarta's fringes,
Christians
congregate despite
fears of being
tracked down by
white-robed Muslim
hardliners who are
outraged by their
worshipping.