Farouk Arnaz & Camelia Pasandaran – Police in the predominately Sunni province of West Java have refused an application by Shiite Muslims in Bandung to mark the religious day of Ashura on Thursday afternoon.

"There's a mechanism [to get the permit]," West Java Police spokesman Ins. Gen. Suhardi Alius told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday. "Have they got the complete documents to get the permit, such as the recommendations from the local religious affairs agency and the Indonesia Ulema Council?"

The Association of Jemaah Ahlul Bait Indonesia (Ijabi) – the Shia group applying to hold the event – said that it had all the necessary "recommendations" to mark Ashura, which is commemorated by Shiite Muslims as a day of mourning in remembrance of the martyrdom of Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet, at the Battle of Karbala.

The issue appeared to be at an impasse on Thursday after the police said they would allow the event to take place only if Ijabi were able to produce the required documents.

Suhardi also said that the issue had been politicized as another manifestation of rising religious intolerance in West Java. Religious minorities have become a target in West Java as increasingly powerful hard-line groups, like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), rose to wield considerable influence over local politics.

In the past year, hard-liners have vandalized numerous mosques belonging to minority Muslim groups and, with the help of the local government, successfully shuttered several Christian churches. The local government, led by the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party's (PKS) Ahmad Heryawan, have been accused of systematically siding with intolerant groups' protests against religious minorities – including those protected under Indonesia's constitution – in an ongoing campaign of discrimination.

Emilia Renita Az, secretary of Ijabi, told the Jakarta Globe that the group had jumped through every bureaucratic hoop required by the government and the police to secure the rights to mark the holiday.

"Police did not tell us the reason why they rejected the permit," Renita said on Thursday. "This is not the first event – it's been an annual event since 2000."

Renita said that the denial of the permit was part of a broader issue. "There's growing tensions between Shia and the [Sunni]," Renita said. "And instead of police protecting human rights, they're siding with the other group."

Renita said that around 6,000 Shiite Muslims would mark the event in Bandung regardless of the police stance. "We will keep doing it even though police threatened to arrest the committee," she said. "Our crime is only one: exercising religious freedom, which is guaranteed by the Constitution."

Suhardi said the police would have to be present in some capacity to ensure that the event did not turn into a major confrontation. Rumors on Thursday indicated that the FPI were planning a demonstration during the event.

"We'll see, clearly there's no permit for the event," Suhardi said, adding that the Ashura event was expected to be significantly larger than in previous years. "So don't blame the police."

Ashura, more than most Muslim holidays, brings out the differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. For the vast majority of Shia, it is primarily a day to mourn the death of Husayn bin Ali – he was beheaded by soldiers loyal to Yazid, the third Umayyad Caliph.

While many Sunni Muslims also regard the death of the Prophet's grandson as an occasion of remorse, Ashura is more of a celebratory occasion for most Sunnis – who are less focused on the battle in what is now Iraq, and more devoted to narrations by the Prophet that it was the day on which the Israelites and Moses were saved from Pharoah by the divine.