The Age [Australia], August 10, 2004 - 6:44PM
Christians challenge to church ban
Christian groups in mainly-Muslim Indonesia are planning legal action over laws
barring them from building new churches.
They plan to lodge a class action against Indonesia's government, accusing it of
discrimination by continuing to enforce a decades-old decree governing construction
of new places of worship.
The decree, issued in 1969 by the then religious affairs ministry and the home affairs
ministry, violated human and religious freedom principles, they said.
"The decree is contrary to Article 29 of the Constitution, which guarantees citizens
the right to choose their belief and perform their religious duties," Indonesian
Communion of Churches chairman Nathan Setiabudi told the Jakarta Post.
The decree requires a religious community to gain approval from local government
before building a new church or some other place of worship.
The local authorities can then consult other local religious communities before
approving the proposal, creating a tough hurdle for Christians in the world's most
populous Muslim nation.
"We have been trying to build a new church close to my home for years," Jakarta gym
instructor Darwin - a Christian - told AAP.
"Every time the government seeks approval from the local mosques, they refuse."
Muslims account for about 85 per cent of the country's 215 million people.
The lawyer representing Christian organisations, Habiburokhman, said he would file
the class action with the Central Jakarta District Court at the end of this month.
"We shall ask the government to revoke the ministerial decree and apologise to
affected citizens," he said.
At the same time, the government is also under fire about a new and Orwellian-named
Religious Tolerance Bill, which will also restrict the building of new churches and
effectively prohibit Muslims from converting to other faiths.
Critics have warned the bill, aimed at preventing proselytising, is part of a campaign
by fundamentalists timed to coincide with national and presidential elections this year
and push Indonesia further towards becoming a full-fledged Islamic state.
In some cases, local Muslims in Jakarta have forced churches to close their doors on
the basis of a 2002 government regulation allowing them to be shut down if local
residents objected to their presence.
Masdar Mas'udi, the acting head of Indonesia's largest Muslim group, the 40-million
strong Nahdlatul Ulama, said he would study the 1969 decree and decide whether to
support its scrapping.
"If its implementation discriminates against certain religious groups and fails to uphold
justice, the government should withdraw it," he said.
But he said he suspected the same discrimination occurred in predominantly
Christian parts of Indonesia such as Papua and West Timor.
© 2004 AAP
Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd.
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