Jakarta – Islamic minority sect Jamaah Ahmadiyah plans to file a protest to the government against the gubernatorial ban in South Sumatra put in place earlier this week.

Yan Husein Lamardi, a member of Ahmadiyah's advocating team, said the regional administration, unlike the central government, had no authority to issue the ban.

The government, he said, had only issued joint ministerial decree on Ahmadiyah's activities and nothing about ban. "No prohibition was stated in the decree," Yan said, as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

South Sumatra governor Mahyuddin N.S. issued a decree Monday banning Islamic minority sect Ahmadiyah and any activities of the Indonesian Jamaah Ahmadiyah (JAI) organization from the region.

The governor said the decree was made in accordance with the ministerial decree ordering the sect to stop all religious activities or face charges for blaspheming Islam.

Yan said Ahmadiyah had obeyed the decree and was no longer propagating the sect's teachings. "We no longer mention that there is another prophet after Prophet Muhammad in our sermons," he said.

Ahmadiyah will also protest against violence the sect has been suffering since the issuance of the ministerial decree. Yan said that the sect had suffered at least 24 attacks since the ministerial decree issued two months ago. (dre)