"This is thuggery under the guise of religion," legislator Rieke Diah Pitaloka says bluntly. "And the people in power are just letting it happen." In June, Rieke was leading a small talk with constituents in the province of East Java when it was broken up by a local group of Islamist vigilantes who accused her of holding a meeting with clandestine Communist Party supporters. "They are trying to chip away at Pancasila by passing all of these Shari'a-based bylaws in various provinces," she added. Pancasila is the nation's basic philosophy rooted in five principles espoused by founding father Sukarno. "There is an effort to change the ideology of Indonesia."
This is a quote from an article in TIME that can also found on the Pangandaran Information Wrap page Goodbye to a sculpture of flying fish . . . Art in the front line!
Legislator Rieke Diah Pitaloka knows from direct experience of the deliberately intimidating, bullying and thuggish behaviour of particular Islamic organisations, organisations that do not represent the generally tolerant attitude of most Indonesians, and this includes the majority Islamic population. Rieke Diah Pitaloka is a remarkable individual. She is a poet, actress, tv personality, politician and activist, and currently serving as a member of the People's Representative Council as a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. The book she published based on her graduate research is titled Kekerasan Negara Menular ke Masyarakat, (State Violence Transmitted to Society).
The incident referred to in the TIME article took place during a social event promoting access to free health resources at one of the restaurants in Pakis Village, Banyuwangi Regency, East Java, Thursday 24 June 2010.
Rieke Dyah Pitaloka: Keturunan PKI Juga WNI!
An event, attended by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Commission IX, Dr. Rebekah Tjiptaning Proletariati and Rieke, as members of the Commission IX, was suddenly interrupted by an unexpected arrival of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) with Banyuwangi Cinta Damai Forum and NGO Gerak, prompting an intimidating confrontation.
Rieke and her other colleagues had been holding a social event supported by Commission IX. Various sections of the community had been invited, including some participants who were descendants of the families of former PKI members. Then suddenly a group of people interrupted the event shouting: "This is a meeting of members of the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party). Why is it taking place here?" said Chairman of the Banyuwangi FPI, Aman Faturahman, accusingly to a number of the meeting participants who were shocked and surprised to see the presence of these FPI members.
According to the Chairperson of the FPI Banyuwangi, the meeting was a meeting event for former PKI members and their descendants, so the meeting had to be dissolved. "Free health socialization from Commission IX is only a cover. I suspect the event is a covert activity to foster the spirit of communism again because many participants come from outside the Banyuwangi Regency," said Aman.
For this reason, he continued, the FPI and Islamic community organizations in Banyuwangi dissolved the event to maintain security conduciveness in this easternmost district of Java. "We anticipate the growth of new PKI seeds because the PKI movement in 1965 originated in Banyuwangi Regency," he added.
Seeing the increasingly heated atmosphere, the committee immediately sought to evacuate Rebekah and Rieke to the office of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) DPC at Jalan Jaksa Agung Suprapto, Banyuwangi. Rieke regretted the incident. She said, free health outreach activities were public activities and could be attended by anyone, including former members or descendants of the PKI. "I regret the attitude taken by FPI, because former members or descendants of the PKI are also Indonesian citizens," she said.
Meanwhile, Ribka Tjiptaning said he was disappointed with the attitude of the FPI which forcibly dissolved the free health information program of the House of Representatives Commission IX. In fact, according to him, the socialization was very much needed by the people in the area. "We did not exclude any PKI ex-members or descendants in Banyuwangi. Our program is purely the duty of the House of Representatives Commission IX about the socialization of the importance of providing free health facilities in the regions," he said.
The author of the book, AKI BANGGA JADI - CHILDREN OF THE PKI, revealed in 2002 that he was used to experiencing such intimidation. "This shows that our country is not yet democratic and that others still think about my background," he concluded.
There are many forms of intimidation, trolling etc. in a digitized social media environment. Reike has become a target for fake news, misinformation, lies and digital manipulation.
"West Java Pilgub, Rieke Diah: I am Ready to Go For Party Instruction" becomes fake news "Rieke: Indeed I am PKI, is there something wrong?"
Q. What is the FPI?
Q. Why is the PKI so significant in this particular Indonesian information and culture war?
The Islamic Defenders Front, Front Pembela Islam (FPI), is an Indonesian Islamist political organization formed in 1998. It was founded by Muhammad Rizieq Shihab with backing from the Indonesian military, police generals and a conservative political elite. Leaked US diplomatic cables obtained through WikiLeaks say that the FPI received funding from the police and former political elites. Their interest is in maintaining the status quo of rampant corruption, asset stripping and accumulation of wealth through processes of dispossession. The FPI provides a useful distraction from these underlying political and economic issues by translating attention to religious and cultural conflicts. The organization's leader is Ahmad Shabri Lubis, who was inaugurated in 2015, and Rizieq Shihab remains acting as the adviser with the title Great Imam of the FPI for life.
The FPI originally started as a civil vigilante group that positioned itself as an Islamic moral police force against vice, whose activity was not authorized by the government. The FPI targeted several warungs (small stalls), stores, bars, nightclubs and entertainment venues which were perceived as discourteous for selling alcohol or being open during Ramadhan. More recently, it has transformed itself into an Islamist pressure group with active online campaigns promoting what is considered as religious or racial propaganda through the Internet and occasional anti-government campaigns. However, in January 2017, several FPI official Twitter accounts were suspended due to violations of Twitter rules, including spamming, incivility and making threats.
The FPI has been vocal against liberalism and multiculturalism, and to the extension of the Pancasila doctrine which upholds religious pluralism. On 1 June 2008, the FPI staged an attack against members of the National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion (AKKBB), who were holding a rally coinciding with the commemoration day of Pancasila near the National Monument in the city center. The attack was claimed as a response to the perceived threat by the AKKBB against the FPI. The incident was referred to by the media as the Monas Incident. It caused media outrage and led to the arrest of Rizieq Shihab among 56 other FPI members. Rizieq was later imprisoned for one year and six months, after being convicted over attacks against the AKKBB. In January 2017, the police declared FPI leader Rizieq Shihab a suspect for alleged defamation of Pancasila.
06/04/2008, 00.00
INDONESIA
More than 50 Islamic Defender Front extremists arrested
The police is questioning detainees over last 1 June clashes during a pro-religious freedom rally. FPI leader is among those arrested. In East Java young moderate Muslims burn radical group’s flags.
Jakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) – At dawn Indonesian police raided the Jakarta headquarters of the Islamic Defender Front (FPI), rounding up 59 members of the hard-line Muslim group, including its leader. The operation, which involved about a thousand agents, was the government response to FPI violence against a demonstration in favour of religious freedom which took place last Sunday in the Indonesian capital.
The detainees are being questioned by police about last Sunday’s clashes between members of the FPI and activists from the National Alliance for Religious Freedom (AKKBB) who were present at the rally at the National Monument. Some 30 people were injured during the incidents.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was criticised for his government’s soft approach to FPI activities, which for years included an active campaign of persecution against the Ahmadi community, whose members are considered “heretical” by mainstream Muslims.
After the fiery words of FPI leader Shihab, who until three days ago had called for “resistance to the last drop of blood”, it is surprising how he voluntarily turned himself into police custody. Still what happened at the National Monument continues to fuel anger in the population and among moderate Muslim groups.
Members of the youth wing of the Nadhlatul Ulama (NU), an organisation headed by former President Abdurrahman Wahid, stormed FPI offices in East Java, demanding the radical group stop its activities. In various cities in East Java, Wahid’s stronghold, FPI flags and symbols have been set on fire.
The FPI also often holds protests against what it sees as the Christianization of Indonesia. Notable targets include GKI Yasmin Bogor, and HKBP Church Bekasi, where the group used violence to force the closure of the churches.
GKI Yasmin, HKBP Filadelfia hold another churchless Christmas celebration
Members of GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia held their Christmas services in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta for the sixth consecutive year on Monday, as they were again denied permits by their local administrations to hold services in their own church buildings. Hundreds of members of the two congregations held their services with only umbrellas to protect them from the sun and stifling heat on Monday afternoon.
The reader of the liturgy priest Juliar Chandra said the celebration was conducted to express their hope for justice.
"We celebrate Jesus' birthday in front of the Presidential Palace as a symbol of our hope for justice, the spirit of truth and our peaceful stance," Juliar said during the service.
GKI Yasmin spokesman Bona Sigalingging said both churches hoped to use their own buildings soon given they had obtained all the required permits.
"We hope the President will push the administration's leaders, especially Bogor's mayor and Bekasi's regent, to guarantee the rights of GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia to use their churches," Bona said. Back in 2008, the Bogor city administration issued a decree freezing the GKI church's building permit (IMB) in response to residents' resistance.
The Bandung State Administrative Court (PTUN) and the State Administrative High Court in Jakarta ruled in favor of the church and ordered the administration to revoke the decree. The Supreme Court also ruled in favor of GKI Yasmin in 2010. However in 2011, former Bogor mayor Diani Budiarto revoked the church's IMB, thus leaving the church with no permit at all. Meanwhile, HKBP Filadelfia faced a similar problem with the Bekasi administration sealing off the location upon which their church was to be built in 2010.
Both Bandung and Jakarta PTUN, as well as the Supreme Court, ruled in favor of HKBP Filadelfia in 2011. However, the congregations still could not use the churches as both administrations ignored the rulings. Bona added that in December last year, Bandung Mayor Bima Arya had promised to accommodate the congregation's right to worship. He had voiced an idea to build a mosque next to the church to show that people of different religions could live in harmony, Bona said. "We now encourage Bima to implement his own idea before the end of his term as mayor," Bona said. Meanwhile, the government should pay attention to the dispute involving HKBP Filadelfia in Bekasi as the mayor did nothing significant to settle the dispute, he said.
The FPI also endorsed the Singkil administration for closing around 20 churches in Singkil, Aceh. This stirred up controversy over the use of the local administrative law in accordance with Sharia, running counter to the Indonesian constitution, which guarantees freedom of religious practice.
A policeman holds a rifle as he stands guard in front of a burned church at Suka Makmur Village in Aceh Singkil, Indonesia Aceh province, October 18, 2015. REUTERS/YT Haryono
Indonesia's Aceh to close churches after pressure from Muslim groups
World News
October 18, 2015 / 10:15 AM
Kanupriya Kapoor
ACEH SINGKIL, Indonesia (Reuters)- - Authorities in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province said on Sunday several Christian churches would be shut down this week, just days after a mob burned down a church, killing one person and injuring several others.
Tensions have been high among the ethnically and religiously diverse population of Aceh, raising the risk of further religious violence in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim population. The vast majority of Indonesians practise a moderate form of Islam and Aceh is the only province to adhere to Islamic Sharia law, putting it at odds with the rest of the country.
Aceh was granted special autonomy as part of a 2005 agreement to end decades of separatist violence, which allowed it to implement Sharia law.
Christian groups in Aceh Singkil district, where the churches stand, had been consulted on the matter, authorities said, and members of as many as six churches had agreed to dismantle their houses of worship after admitting they did not have the required building permits.
“All houses of worship, regardless of the religion, need to be in accordance with the laws of Aceh,” Bardan Sahidi, a member of the provincial parliament, told Reuters after attending a meeting of political and religious figures, including representatives from the religious affairs ministry in Jakarta. Local Christian groups were not immediately available for comment.
The move comes after Muslim residents, including members of the hardline group Islamic Defenders Front, demanded that the local government shut down 10 churches, citing a lack of permits. A mob of hundreds of people burned down a small church in Aceh Singkil district last week, forcing thousands of Christians to flee to neighbouring villages.
One Muslim member of the mob was killed, police said last week, adding that at least 10 people had been detained on suspicion of inciting violence. The government has since deployed 1,300 police and military personnel to the area, with hundreds more on standby, to patrol the streets and stand guard outside churches that dot the small palm oil plantations in the district.
Christian residents of the run-down village attended a service on Sunday right next to the charred remains of their church, under the guard of about a dozen armed security personnel. “At the moment, things are calm but we are on standby for any further incidents,” said Saladin, spokesman for Aceh police, adding that evacuees had since returned to their homes.
In early 2017, the FPI and related Islamist groups staged a mass protest against the construction of a new Christian church in Bekasi, West Java. The protest developed into a riot and scuffles with the police, resulting in property damage and five police officers being injured.
Bekasi: Islamic extremists demonstrate against the construction of a Catholic churchHundreds of people come into the streets against the St Clara community. Some protesters even tried to attack the site of the future church, but police kept them back. Graffiti saying ‘No church construction allowed’ appeared near the site. Local authorities give Catholics a green light to go ahead.
03/07/2016, 16.56
INDONESIA
by Mathias Hariyadi
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Hundreds of Islamic extremists (pictured) took to the streets today in North Bekasi District, West Java Province, to protest against a permanent church for the local Catholic community.
For the past 17 years, the St Clara parish and its members have been embroiled in a fight to have their religious rights recognised. In late July last year, the parish obtained the required building permit*. Islamist groups had reacted to that by organising protests against the “permanent church”, but since then, the situation had quieted down, until today when tensions flared up again.
The St Clara community has existed since 1999 even though it has never had its own church. For years, Catholics took part in Sunday Mass and on other occasions, first at one, then at two separate locations because of the growing membership. However, one of the two locations was no longer available last year. The community was thus left with a small building with room for 300 people in a commercial area.
Eman Dapaloka, a local Catholic and former seminarian, said that four celebrations are held every weekend to meet the needs of the St Clara congregation, which includes some 1,900 households or 7,000 people. In view of the limited space, many members have to travel to other neighbourhoods to attend Mass. In the past, the need for a permanent place of worship has come up against local authorities and extremist groups. Complicating matters, getting a building permit is a long process in Indonesia, and can take up to ten years.
For Christians, both Catholics and Protestants, the whole thing is even more difficult because they need the backing of the local interfaith dialogue group and the signatures of at least 60 residents from the area where they plan to build a church. Often local officials come up with "unspecified reasons" to block plans under pressure from radical Islamic movements. When the authorities do issue a building permit for Christians, extremists took to the streets to protest.
In an incident last year, demonstrators tried to tear down some sign posts on the site of the future church, but were stopped by police before they could cause any damage. Outside though, they spray-painted a graffiti that read ‘No church construction allowed’.
For their part, Bekasi authorities, including Mayor Rahmat Effendi, reacted by reiterating the validity of the issued permit, noting that Catholics can build their place of worship. The site of the new church is in Harapan Baru, a village in North Bekasi District, some 25 km from the capital Jakarta. The land owned by Catholics covers some 6,000 sq. metres; the building itself would cover about 1,500 sq. metres.
Catholics in Bekasi are not alone in this predicament. Co-religionists in St Bernadette Parish in Ciledug, Tangerang City, Banten Province, went through the same experience. Even though they had a permit to build, they have been unable to do so for the past two years because of opposition from extremist groups. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation. Catholics are a small minority of about seven million, or 3 per cent of the population. In the Archdiocese of Jakarta, they are 3.6 per cent of the population. However, they are an active part of society, and have contributed to the nation's development and played a major role in emergency operations.
Propaganda or hate speech and incitement to violence?
One of Rizieq Shihab's propaganda campaigns openly called for hostility against Ahmadis:
"We call on the Muslim community. Let us go to war with Ahmadiyyah! Kill Ahmadiyyah wherever they are!........ And, if they talk about human rights? Human rights are satanic! Human rights are crap!.....If they want to know who is responsible for killing Ahmadiyyah, it is I; it is FPI and others from the Muslim community who are responsible for killing Ahmadiyyah! Say that Sobri Lubis ordered it, that Habib Rizieq and FPI ordered it! "The FPI was suspected of acting behind the scenes in the 6 February 2011 assault against the Ahmadiyyah community, in which three people were killed. The assault was led by a group of over thousand people, wielding rocks, machetes, swords, and spears. They attacked the house of an Ahmadi leader in Cikeusik, Banten. Similarly, a group attacked the Ahmadiyyah headquarters near Bogor and harassed its members in areas such as in East Lombok, Manislor, Tasikmalaya, Parung, and Garut.
The Islamic Defenders Front: Demonization, Violence and the State in Indonesia
There is a 2013 paper by Mark Woodward, Mariani Yahya, Inayah Rohmaniyah, Diana Murtaugh Coleman, Chris Lundry and Ali Amin, accessible on the internet that explores the ways in which the Indonesian Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front–FPI) uses hate speech and demonization to legitimize violent attacks on organizations and individuals it considers to be sinful or religiously deviant, and civil discourse to establish credibility and respectability.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures some governments, policy makers and human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and the group often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants and political prisoners. Pursuant to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Human Rights Watch (HRW) opposes violations of what are considered basic human rights under the UDHR. This includes capital punishment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. HRW advocates freedoms in connection with fundamental human rights, such as freedom of religion and freedom of the press. HRW seeks to achieve change by publicly pressuring governments and their policy makers to curb human rights abuses, and by convincing more powerful governments to use their influence on governments that violate human rights.
On February 28, 2013 HRW published this article with this headline and sub heading . . .
Indonesia: Religious Minorities Targets of Rising Violence
Government Inaction, Discriminatory Laws Embolden Militant Groups
. . . and this picture!
Soldiers walk past a burned Ahmadiyah mosque in Cisalada, West Java province, which hundreds of Muslims burned along with five other houses on October 2, 2010
(Jakarta) – The Indonesian government is failing to protect the country’s religious minorities from growing religious intolerance and violence, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should respond much more decisively and adopt a “zero tolerance” policy for attacks on religious minority communities.
The 107-page report, “In Religion’s Name: Abuses against Religious Minorities in Indonesia,” documents the government’s failure to confront militant groups whose thuggish harassment and assaults on houses of worship and members of religious minorities has become increasingly aggressive. Those targeted include Ahmadiyahs, Christians, and Shia Muslims. Indonesian monitoring groups have noted a steady increase in such attacks, one group finding 264 violent incidents over the past year.
The summary of the report begins with this account:
On February 6, 2011, in Cikeusik, a village in western Java, around 1,500 Islamist militants attacked two dozen members of the Ahmadiyah religious community with stones, sticks, and machetes. The mob shouted, “You are infidels! You are heretics!” As captured on video, local police were present at the scene but many left when the crowd began descending on the Ahmadiyah house. By the time the attack was over, three Ahmadiyah men had been bludgeoned to death.
Ahmad Masihuddin, a 25-year-old Ahmadiyah student, recalled, “They held my hands and cut my belt with a machete. They cut my shirt, pants, and undershirt. I was only in my underwear. They took 2.5 million rupiah (US$270) and my Blackberry [cell phone]. They tried to take off my underwear and cut my penis. I was laying in the fetal position. I tried to protect my face, but my left eye was stabbed. Then I heard them say, ‘He is dead, he is dead.’”
The report summary continues . . .
In important respects, Indonesia is rightly touted for its religious diversity and tolerance. Since President Suharto was forced to step down in 1998, after more than three decades in power, inaugurating an era of greater freedom in Indonesia, viewpoints long repressed have emerged into the open. A strong thread of religious militancy is among them. As detailed in this report, the government has not responded decisively when that intolerance is expressed through acts of harassment, intimidation, and violence, which often affect freedom of expression and association, creating a climate in which more such attacks can be expected.
In most cases, the perpetrators of the intimidation and violence have been Sunni militant groups − described throughout this report as Islamist groups − at times acting with the tacit, or occasionally open, support of government officials and police. Groups that have participated in or supported the targeting of minority religions include: the Islamic People’s Forum (Forum Umat Islam, FUI), the Indonesian Muslim Communication Forum (Forum Komunikasi Muslim Indonesia, known as Forkami), the Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI), Hizbut-Tahrir Indonesia, and the Islamic Reformist Movement (Gerakan Islam Reformis, Garis). These groups are united by their espousal of an interpretation of Sunni Islam that labels non-Muslims, excluding Christians and Jews, as “infidels,” and labels Muslims who do not adhere to what they define as Sunni orthodoxy as “blasphemers.”
The harassment and violence directed at minority religious groups is facilitated by a legal architecture in Indonesia that purports to maintain “religious harmony,” but in practice undermines religious freedom. Indonesia’s 1945 constitution explicitly guarantees freedom of religion, as does the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is a party. However, the Indonesian government has long enacted, and in recent years strengthened, legislation and regulations that have subjected minority religions to official discrimination and made them extremely vulnerable to the members of the majority community who take the law into their own hands.
In numerous instances documented in this report, harassment and intimidation of minority communities by militant Islamist groups has been facilitated by the active or passive involvement of Indonesian government officials and security forces. These groups have cooperated with, or applied pressure on, local authorities to prevent the issuance of building permits for religious minorities’ houses of worship, sought the removal of religious minority communities to new locations, or to stop them from worshipping in their area altogether. In some cases, Christian churches that have met all of the legal requirements for construction have had their permits revoked by local authorities after pressure from Islamist groups, even in the face of Indonesian Supreme Court decisions ruling the construction legal.
This report also documents incidents in which police failed to take action to prevent violence against religious minorities or provided no assistance in the aftermath of such incidents. Police all too often have been unwilling to properly investigate reports of violence against religious minorities, suggesting complicity with the perpetrators. Nor has the justice system proven to be a defender of religious minorities. In the few cases of violence that have gone to the courts, prosecutors have sought ridiculously lenient sentences for the perpetrators of serious crimes, which the judges seem content to oblige. The exception has been cases construed by authorities as acts of “terrorism,” as with the bombing of a church in Solo, Central Java, on September 25, 2011, in which a suicide bomber died and the wife of its funder is still being prosecuted for money laundering, and an attempt to bomb another church in Serpong in April 2012, in which 19 people were arrested.
Indonesia’s religious minorities also face entrenched discrimination in their dealings with the Indonesian government bureaucracy. During the Suharto era, Indonesians were required to list their religion on their national identification cards, choosing from one of five recognized religions, a practice that discriminated against, and put in an untenable position, followers of hundreds of minority religions. Although the current Population Administration Law gives citizens the choice of whether or not to declare their religious faith on their ID cards, those who wish to declare a faith still must choose from a list of six protected religions. Individuals who do not declare a religion risk being labeled “godless” by some Muslim clerics and officials and subject to possible blasphemy prosecution. In 2012 alone, a self-declared atheist, a Shia cleric, and a spiritualist have all been jailed for blasphemy after listing Islam as their religion on their ID cards.
Indonesian government institutions have also played a role in the violation of the rights and freedoms of the country’s religious minorities. Those institutions, which include the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society (Badan Koordinasi Pengawas Aliran Kepercayaan Masyarakat, Bakor Pakem) under the Attorney General’s Office, and the semi-official Indonesian Ulama Council, have eroded religious freedom by issuing decrees and fatwas (religious rulings) against members of religious minorities and using their position of authority to press for the prosecution of “blasphemers.”
Indonesia has in recent years made meaningful progress toward strengthening democracy and respect for human rights. Those gains, along with perceptions of Indonesia as a bulwark of a progressive, moderate Islam, have prompted international praise of Indonesia as a model Islamic democracy. For instance, in November 2010, US President Barack Obama, when visiting Jakarta, praised “the spirit of religious tolerance that is enshrined in Indonesia’s constitution, and that remains one of this country’s defining and inspiring characteristics.”
If that reputation is to remain intact, strong and immediate action is needed, including more forceful leadership by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to reform the laws and government practices that have facilitated abuses against religious minorities. The Indonesian government needs to meet its obligations to hold accountable police, government officials, and members of groups implicated in the abuses. Indonesia’s reputation as a country “underpinned by the principle of religious freedom and tolerance” can only be realized if the government takes steps to curb the increasing targeting of and discrimination against religious minorities, returning to its founding principles, and fostering a national culture of acceptance and respect for all religious groups.
The Ahmadiyya Community in Bogor during the Dutch colonial period.
The New Naratif has an "Explainer" article on the Ahmadiyya in Indonesia including a section on:
Persecution of the Ahmadiyya
Indonesians have a long history of tolerance and harmony. Indonesia’s proud motto is Bhinneka Tunggal Ika—out of many, one. Yet persecution of Ahmadi Muslims has increased since the early 2000s across Indonesia as part of a wider trend towards religious intolerance generally. The first 80 years of Ahmadi Muslims living in Indonesia passed peacefully—we were even recognised by the government in 1953–so why the recent change?
The Ahmadiyya community in Padang, Indonesia, December 1951
The framework for contemporary restrictions on religious freedom in Indonesia was built in 1965, when legislation was passed punishing verbal expressions that create enmity and hostility:
Article 156: The person who publicly gives expression to feelings of hostility, hatred or contempt against one or more groups of the population of Indonesia, shall be punished by a maximum imprisonment of four years or a maximum fine of three hundred rupiahs.
Article 156a: By a maximum imprisonment of five years shall be punished any person who deliberately in public gives expression to feelings or commits an act.
Initially, this law was generally applied to prevent intentional provocations of public disorder, and “stem the recognition of indigenous beliefs” across the archipelago. With the creation of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body, in 1975, the law was used more frequently to persecute and discriminate against religious minorities.
- which [p]rincipally have the character of being at enmity with, abusing or staining areligion, adhered to in Indonesia;
- with the intention to prevent a person to adhere to any religion based on the belief of the allmighty [sic] God.
The MUI has passed fatwas (religious decrees)against Ahmadi Muslims, designed to demonise our community by branding us “heretical”. These fatwas have no binding legal authority, but they influence the masses and the government considers them a persuasive authority in the legislative process.
The US State Department reports:
Numerous regional branches of the MUI have released fatwas on the issue of “deviance” from mainstream Islam, including recommendations to ban the Ahmadiyya. These have been influential in enabling continued official and social discrimination against the Ahmadiyya and other minority religious groups.The “deviance,” as the Sunni-dominated MUI describes it, is that we Ahmadi Muslims believe the awaited Messiah and Mahdi has come. Indeed, that is their only argument and that is precisely the argument the Meccan chiefs made against our master Prophet Muhammad (sa). They could not disprove him, they could only ridicule him for forsaking the beliefs of their forefathers. Ahmadi Muslims respond as Prophet Muhammad (sa) responded, that Allah has provided guidance, and we are peacefully following that guidance.
The Jalsah Salana (Annual Gathering) is the formal annual gathering of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. In 2000, the community celebrated their 75th anniversary in Indonesia.
As an example of the MUI’s influence, the Indonesian government approved MUI fatwas in 2005 and 2007, that respectively banned and condemned the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. A 2008 government joint ministerial decree banned the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from proselytising, on pain of a five-year prison term for blasphemy. A government body, the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society, unsuccessfully supported a full ban, but Ahmadi Muslims remain allowed to worship in private and vigilantism against them is specifically forbidden.
Nevertheless, the Government has tolerated violent abuse and discrimination towards Indonesian citizens belonging to the community. The New York Times reports that vigilante attacks against Ahmadi Muslims have increased each year since the ban’s implementation. The Setara Institute, an Indonesian religious liberties organisation, recorded 15 attacks on Ahmadi Muslims in 2008, 33 in 2009, and 50 in 2010. The Setara Institute also documents increased attacks through 2016 by another non-state actor—The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI)—against Indonesian Ahmadi Muslims and Christians. From 2008 to 2018, there have been 155 documented attacks across 10 provinces on Ahmadi Muslims in Indonesia. Given the rise of attacks against the Ahmadi community in Indonesia in recent years, it seems clear that the MUI’s use of fatwas and inflammatory language has promoted hatred against Ahmadi Muslims.
The enforcement of Indonesia’s anti-blasphemy laws are denying Ahmadi Muslims the free expression of their beliefs. Under the guise of maintaining peace and order, such enforcement has resulted in a dramatic and consistent increase in religious violence. Yet, as deeply entrenched as they are, these discriminatory laws can be redressed. With a proper understanding of the situation and a unified international effort, Indonesia can be held accountable to fully comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (to which it is party), and can restore itself as the democracy it is known for throughout the world.
The FPI and anti-communism
The FPI often employs anti-communism as its political motivation. In June 2010, along with other organizations, the FPI attacked a meeting about free healthcare in East Java, mistaking it for a meeting of the banned Communist Party of Indonesia. In January 2017, the FPI called for the withdrawal of Rupiah banknotes, accused them of displaying the image of the banned hammer and sickle logo.
FPI leader calls for withdrawal of banknotes with ‘communist symbol’
Safrin La Batu - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta / Mon, January 23, 2017 / 08:46 pm
Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab has called on the government to pull from circulation the newly-issued Indonesian rupiah banknotes, which he claims have an image that resembles the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party’s (PKI) hammer and sickle logo.
Rizieq attended on Monday the Jakarta Police’s summons for questioning on his statement, during which he brought several new rupiah banknotes, from Rp 1,000 to Rp 100,000 bills, and showed them to investigators to prove his claims.
Rizieq said the banknotes’ rectoverso image, which according to Bank Indonesia (BI) functions as an anti-counterfeit feature, resembled the PKI logo.
“We ask the government to explain to us why, from thousands of rectoverso images they could have used, they chose the one that looks like a hammer and sickle logo. This is dangerous,” Rizieq told reporters after the questioning.
The FPI's allegations, however, were rejected by Bank Indonesia (BI), referring to it as a recto-verso security feature of the BI logo for the new Rupiah banknotes. FPI was accused of stirring public unrest by slandering Bank Indonesia and the government.
This is an example of generating a cause célèbre out of thin air, primarily for political purposes, and employing the use of fake news to incite fear and paranoia.
The Washington Post ran this story:
An Islamist militant group says Indonesia’s new bills have secret communist symbols
This may seem like a trivial dispute, but it's a provocative attack in the world's most populous Muslim nation, where hundreds of thousands of people (or more) were killed in the 1960s for being communists or suspected communists.
In 1965 and 1966, members of the military, along with civilians, systematically executed members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) as well as many of its alleged supporters. The PKI had been accused of backing a military coup. In the decades of authoritarian rule that followed, communists continued to be portrayed as an evil, dangerous threat. When current President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was elected in 2014, activists hoped he would apologize for the massacres or launch an official investigation. But Islamists, who still see secular leftism as a major problem, strongly opposed the idea, and Widodo took no major action.
Communist parties are still illegal in Indonesia, and Rizieq was questioned Monday by the police, who were investigating whether he slandered the bank by even making the claim.
Some members of the FPI assembled outside the police station to support Rizieq. The Islamist organization is notorious for carrying out violent raids against people it deems are committing un-Islamic acts.
“There is a deep strain of anti-communism, particularly in the Muslim community, and it was made even more intense by the executions in the 1960s,” said Gregory Fealy, a professor at Australian National University who has worked on politics and Islam in Indonesia. “There continues to be conspiracies theorizing about the reemergence of communists, a lot of which are very fanciful, but they can really get people's imaginations going.”
Fealy said accusations of crypto-communism are fairly common for Rizieq's group. “This is de rigeur for the FPI,” he said. “Whether they believe there was really communist imagery there or not, they know this always will get a reaction.”
But Rizieq's claim puzzled many Indonesians, who couldn't see the hammer-and-sickle no matter how hard they tried.
Gandrasta Bangko, a 35-year old marketing director in Jakarta, took to social media to mock the allegation. “Just saw a cloud formation that looks like Palu-Arit,” he tweeted, using the Indonesian term for hammer-and-sickle. “Preparing lawyer team to sue anyone responsible for this s---.”
An unsigned editorial published Tuesday in Indonesia's Tempo magazine said that “we can rightly accuse Rizieq of suffering from acute communism-phobia. It is more laughable than criminal.” The editorial argued that rather than focusing on absurd debates over phantom imagery, the group should be restrained by being held responsible for their actual crimes.
After speaking with police, Rizieq denied that he had improperly accused the government of communism — but still didn't back down on his claim that the bills have threatening imagery.
The 1965-1966 massacres of members of the communist party are set out in the Maribaya Information Wrap page in the article:
It was the rise in influence and increasing militancy of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), and Sukarno's support for it, that was to become a serious concern for Muslims and the military, and tensions grew steadily in the early and mid-1960s. This was the third-largest communist party in the world. The PKI had approximately 300,000 cadres and a full membership of around two million.
The party's assertive efforts to speed up land reform frightened those who controlled the land, and threatened the social position of Muslim clerics.
Update - the struggle continues
“The rally participants, who are from various worker unions, will take part in the cultural carnival to celebrate May Day,” said KRPI chairman Rieke Diah Pitaloka, as quoted by kompas.com.
50,000 workers perform cultural carnival to celebrate 'May Day'
Around 50,000 workers have joined with the Indonesian Working People Confederation (KRPI) to take to the streets across Jakarta to celebrate International Workers’ Day, known also as May Day, on Tuesday. The workers are also ready to perform a cultural carnival for the celebration.
The May Day rally participants gathered in areas around the Patung Kuda (Horse Statues) traffic circle on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, at 8 a.m. local time. They later marched to areas in front of the State Palace.
In the rally, KRPI will convey five demands called “Panca Maklumat Rakyat Pekerja (Five Mandates of the Working People)” to the government. In one of the mandates, KRPI will call on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to transform Indonesia into a national research-based industrial country that focuses on serving the interests of the people and the nation. KRPI is urging the government to immediately set up a national research body.
“So Indonesia will have a comprehensive industrial development blue print, which places workers as the subject of national industrial development from the upstream to the downstream,” said Rieke.
In another demand, KRPI is also urging the government to realize "Tri Layak Rakyat Pekerja" (Three Decent Conditions for Indonesian Working People). They comprise decent wages, decent working conditions and decent living standards for all Indonesian workers.
Pancasila philosophy heritage
This campaign agenda addresses both the immediate social, political and economic reforms necessary for Indonesia to become a sustainable modern state, but also strengthens the foundations of the state in the founding philosophy of Pancasila.
Rieke Diah Pitakola's recent appointment as National Archives Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia will allow her to foreground this particular Indonesian philosophical heritage in the information war of attrition being carried out by unrepresentative extremist religious groupings.
Update - many Indonesians have had enoughPeople Are Calling for the Disbandment of Indonesia’s Radical Islamist Group
Members of the Islamic Defenders Front in a protest against Ahmadiyah, a minority Muslim group in Indonesia
The online petition demanding the government to refuse the Islamic Defenders Front's permit renewal is gaining traction. But is it enough?
by Adi Renaldi
13 May 2019
The days are numbered for Indonesia's notorious hardline Islamist mass organisation, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), unless it extends its permit to exist legally in the country.
In Indonesia, mass organisations are required to be registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs. FPI's permit has allowed the organisation to be active since June 20, 2014, but it will expire on June 20 this year. Three days ago, an online petition demanding the ministry to refuse FPI's permit renewal was set up on Change.org. At the time of writing, the petition has collected over 300,000 signatures.
“With the FPI’s license about to expire, let’s unite against the extension of their license,” Ira Bisyir, the author of the petition, wrote on the petition. "The organisation is a radical group, supporter of violence, and a supporter of the HTI [the Indonesia chapter of the far-right Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir].”
HTI—short for Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia—is an organisation outlawed by the Indonesian government in 2017 as per President Joko Widodo's decision, which was later bolstered by a Supreme Court ruling. The HTI, with its Islamic caliphate ideology, is seen as subversive to the legitimate government and taking advantage of democratic principles to spread their efforts of treason. The FPI and HTI have ideological differences, but many Indonesians consider them equally radicalized.
FPI is most known for its central role in organising protests that led to the arrest, and consequently imprisonment, of former Jakarta governor Basuku Tjahja Purnama, a Christian man of Chinese descent, on blasphemy charges.
In response to the initial petition calling for FPI’s disbandment, a counter-petition in support of an extension of the organisation’s license has emerged on the same platform. So far, it's gained over 140,000 signatures.
All permits for mass organisations are issued in the form of a Certification of Registration (SKT), which must be renewed every five years.
Muhsin bin Zaid Alattas, the leader of the group'sJakarta chapter, said on Wednesday that FPI will renew its SKT as soon as possible. "Civil organisations must obey the regulations placed upon them in Indonesia, so we must renew our license,” he told BBC Indonesia.
SKT renewal is no quick process—all documents have to be submitted to the ministry's Director-General of Politics and General Governance to have the group's validity examined, before they're passed on to the minister for approval. But to date, there's no record of the ministry having rejected any mass organisation's renewal application. As of August 2017, there were 344,099 active mass organisations in Indonesia.
Now the question is, could this petition affect anything at all? Legal observers say that the effort of these online activists—or "clicktivists"—may just go to waste after all, because petitions rarely gain traction in Indonesia.
A researcher from the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), Erasmus Napitulu, told VICE that in democratic nations, all parties must be given the freedom to organise. The government, he said, should specify a range of what civil organisations are permitted or not permitted to do. This would mean that the petition against the renewal of the FPI’s license is actually dangerous, because it could potentially encourage the government to disband other civil organisations, including those with a progressive agenda like human rights groups and labor unions.
Meanwhile, Margato Kamis, a state administration legal expert at Khairun Ternatem University said that it’s better for Indonesians when FPI continues to be registered as a civil organisation in the eyes of the government so it can continue to monitor the group’s actions. He also said that FPI could never truly be dismantled, even if the government rejected its renewal application.
“Formally, they might no longer exist, but the group’s essence may stay alive in society. How do you disband that?” Margarito told VICE.
In Indonesia, there is nothing in place to guarantee the government will respond to a petition, no matter how many signatures it collects. This is unlike places like the United States, where the government is obligated to respond to any petition that's able to garner at least 100,000 signatures within 30 days.
Despite this, some petitions in Indonesia have been successful in swaying public opinion and lawmakers' decisions in the past. According to local media Tirto, six petitions successfully influenced public policy in 2016. One of them was a call for President Joko Widodo to refuse to revise policy on remission and leniency for corruptors last August, and he did just that in the end.
Soedarmo, Director General of Politics and Public Government of the Ministry of Home Affairs, told the media that online petitions aside, the ministry will take other factors into consideration regarding FPI's permit renewal.
So far, only two radical mass organisations have been disbanded under Jokowi's administration. Hizb ut-Tahrir was banned in 2017, and ISIS-linked Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) in 2018.
This isn't the first time that Indonesians have publicly expressed its criticism towards FPI. The presence of the group, which was established in August 1998, has been publicly rejected in several regions in Indonesia, including Sumatra and Bali. Last July, hundreds of young people Dayak in Tarakan, North Kalimantan, blocked the arrival gate of Juwata International Airport when FPI leaders came to the city to attend the inauguration of its Tarakan City chapter.
Many Indonesians believe that the organisation is a threat to the country's pluralism. Setara Institute, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for democracy and human rights, has noted that FPI was the main actor in 16 acts of violence against religious freedom in 2016 alone. According to police data, the group was also responsible for 107 acts of violence between 2007 and 2010.
Adi Renaldi is a staff writer at VICE Indonesia. Hewrites about hoaxes, terrorism, and other national security issues. Follow Adi on Instagram.
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