Author:
Publication: The Australian
Date: October 10, 2005
URL: http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16865601%255E2703,00.html
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."