Ahmadiyah & Human Rights
http://www.indonesiamatters.com/1055/ahmadiyah-human-rights/January 30th, 2007, in Religion, Cities & Regions, Islam, Java, by Patung
The Human Rights Commission delivers a report on the persecution of the Ahmadiyah sect in recent years.
A report by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM, Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia) detailing attacks on the Jemaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) sect in 2005 and 2006 has found that the group's members have suffered gross human rights violations.
The Ahmadiyah sect, originating in Pakistan, arrived in Indonesia in 1925 and for much of its history in Indonesia was largely unmolested. However in 1980 the Council of Clerics (Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI)) issued a fatwa against the sect declaring their brand of Islam a heresy. A year later a letter from the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Jakarta was sent to the head of the Islam section of the Department of Religion recommending that Ahmadiyah be banned by the government - three years after this the head of the Islam section of the Department of Religion penned an edict in which it was stated that Ahmadiyah was a danger to the nation and, again, heretical.
In the years after these events the position of the Ahmadiyah in Indonesia became increasingly weak and threatened. Unconcern about the existence of Ahmadiyah among some orthodox Muslims, or disdain and vague dislike among other orthodox Muslims, turned into outright hostility, sometimes leading to physical attacks on persons and property.
2005 was the worst year for Ahmadiyah in Indonesia ever. The following attacks on them were recorded:
- 18th February - vandalism of a mosque at Sintang, West Kalimantan.
- 28th June - vandalism of a mosque at Wajo, South Sulawesi.
- 8th-9th, 15th July - attacks on the Mubarak campus in Parung, Bogor, West Java.
- 26th July - threats against a mosque in Bandung, West Java.
- 27th July - vandalism of a mosque at Bogor.
- 29th July - forced closure of a mosque complex at Kuningan, West Java.
- 30th July - threats against members in Pamulihan, West Java.
- 2nd-11th August - threats against a mosque in Bogor, vandalism of a mosque and homes in Cianjur.
Many of the attacks which occurred in the following year, 2006, have been reported on this website, search Ahmadiyah.
Closure of the Ahmadiyah Mubarak campus in Parung, Bogor.
Following this surge of violence the Human Rights body established a special commission to handle the Ahmadiyah issue. The deputy head of this fact-finding body, MM Billah, said on the 25th of January that there was a pattern to the attacks. Once the formal declaration of heresy had been made against the Ahmadiyah small groups of people, organising and meeting at mosques or through religious associations, began public campaigns against Ahmadiyah mosques, by holding meetings or putting up banners, then made threats, and finally, once the masses had been inflamed, vandalism, burnings, and evictions were undertaken. The authorities tended to allow this behaviour, he said, or in some cases police and public order officials participated in it.
In the attacks on the Mubarak campus, and in the Kuningan incident, Billah said his report had managed to identify some of the key perpetrators. [1]
Meanwhile the head of the Fatwa Commission of the MUI, Ma'ruf Amin, was not pleased at the results of the report. He said Ahmadiyah was genuinely a heretical group and it could be understood if regular Muslims reacted badly to its existence.
He worried that the statement by Komnas HAM that attacks on Ahmadiyah were human rights crimes would only further inflame the passions of Muslims, and that therefore Komnas HAM was in fact provoking violence against Ahmadiyah. He advised Komnas HAM to revise their findings so as not to cause ill-feeling in society. [2]
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