Muslim hardliners in moderate Indonesia have been emboldened by the government’s caving in to pressure to ban a minority Islamic sect, an independent think tank said in a report yesterday.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said a decree issued last month ordering the Ahmadiyah sect to stop spreading its beliefs in a prophet after Mohammed would increase social unrest.
“One official told us that this was not about freedom of religion but about law and order — without a decree, social unrest would increase,” ICG Southeast Asia Project director John Virgoe said in a statement.
“But the prospects of unrest have in fact increased because of the way in which hardline groups have worked the issue both at the grassroots and top levels of government. Having won this victory, they’ll look for others,” Virgoe said.
The report on the factors leading to the decree found that hardline groups including Hizb ut-Tahrir were targeting the sect, which has practiced its faith peacefully in Indonesia since the 1920s, to expand support and membership.
They were using their influence with the Islamic Scholars Council (MUI), the country’s main Islamic body, to influence policy despite their minimal political support in the wider community.
Pressure from hardliners for the government to outlaw Ahmadiyah despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion escalated after the MUI issued a fatwa describing the sect as “deviant” earlier this year.
“The result was a decree that is a setback for both Indonesia’s image as a country that can stand up to Islamic radicalism and President [Susilo Bambang] Yudhoyono’s image as a strong leader,” the ICG report said. “The outcome suggests a government that has no clear vision of basic principles itself but rather seeks compromise between those who speak loudest.”
The ICG said Yudhoyono had allowed the MUI to have “unprecedented influence” over policy in the world’s most populous Muslim country, which has a tradition of tolerance and pluralism in keeping with its diverse religious minorities.
“The Yudhoyono government made a serious error in 2005 by inviting MUI to help shape policy,” ICG senior adviser Sidney Jones said.
“It opened the door for hardline groups to press for greater state intervention to define orthodoxy and legislate morality,” Jones said.
The ICG also said the decree ordering Indonesia’s 200,000 to 500,000 Ahmadis to stop “spreading” their faith was related to “political maneuvering” ahead of national elections next year.
The decree fell short of the total ban sought by extremists but resulted in the voluntary closure of Ahmadi mosques across the country.
Ahmadis say they have been forced underground and fear attack by extremists who declared war on the sect and violently attacked a rally for religious tolerance in Jakarta on June 1.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS