Ezra Sihite – Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said he did not believe recent reports that Shia Muslims in Sampang district, East Java, were subjected to forced conversions by local officials.

"We have to check it first, I don't think there's such forced conversion," Gamawan said at the State Palace on Tuesday. "Belief is a human's relation with God. The government has nothing to do with forcing [people to convert to certain beliefs]."

Herstaning, a lawyer representing the displaced Shia community, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that there were 35 Shiites who were forced by officials in Sampang to convert to mainstream Sunni Islam. They were forced to sign letters, witnessed by the local Religious Affairs Agency, head of the National Unity and Political Agency (Kesbangpol), the Sampang branch of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the Sampang district head and the local Police chief, he said.

They were threatened that residents would set their houses on fire and that their safety might be endangered if they refused to sign the letter – stating that Shia was a deviant teaching – and convert to Sunni on their own will, the lawyer said.

Several Shiites revealed their experiences of intimidation upon returning to their hometowns in Sampang, with some threatened with beheading. The Shiites also confirmed that local authorities seemed to support such conversions.

Gamawan said the government would guarantee the safety of all believers and support the decision to return the displaced Shia community to their hometown, adding that all Indonesian citizens were free to adopt any belief.

"We really need to check it because there are different opinions out there, even mass organizations have their own opinions," Gamawan said. "Clearly the government guarantees people's safety and we are trying to return them to their hometowns."

There were originally 143 Shiite families in the villages of Blu'uran and Karanggayam in Sampang district, but a clash between Sunni and Shia has forced 80 families, who lost their home in the conflict, to live in a sports center in Sampang.

In recent months, the government has forced those families to move to apartments in Sidoarjo, East Java, several hours from Sampang. The government has planned to move them back to their hometowns and is trying to reconcile the conflicting groups.

Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said he had not heard about the forced conversions in Sampang. "I don't know whether there were forced conversions," Suryadharma said. "What I know is there was a program for people to have common perception and refreshments."

Suryadharma said while there's no conflict between religions in Indonesia, difference percepts to Islamic teachings could create problems.

"There's no problem between Islam and Christianity, between Hindu and Buddhism. They [Shiites] call themselves Muslim, but it's a different Islam, and it creates conflict. So [religious] freedom should be limited by regulation, and it should not be violated," Suryadharma said.