Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has once again come under fire for religious intolerance after suggesting that minor religious sects, including Ahmadiyah, should disband them

Jakarta – Champions of pluralism urged the government to heed their call to counter the rise of religious intolerance.

Carlos Paath, Bandung – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said on Friday that religious tolerance in Indonesia is among the best in the world, despite some issues he said still

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 Ash

Further information on 336/12 Index: ASA 21/036/2013

Amir Tejo, Surabaya – The East Java administration has denied claims that it tried to relocate a group of Shia refugees by force from a housing block in Sidoarjo district to the much mo

Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has said there is a possibility that the Shia refugees from Sampang, Madura, who are currently living in a shelter at the Puspa Agro Market co

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Some 15,000 women who embrace traditional faiths sought help from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle on Tuesday, gathering at the party headquarters

Camelia Pasandaran – Hundreds of residents of Siwalan village in Sidoarjo, East Java, assaulted a Koran study group on Saturday afternoon, injuring the group's leader and some of its me

SP/Fana FS Putra – City officials threw their support behind an embattled East Jakarta church as hard-line Islamists rallied against the house of worship in Cipayung, lobbing accusation

Arya Dipa, Bandung – Residents of Jatisampurna subdistrict, Jatisampurna district, have filed a lawsuit against Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi for issuing a building permit for the constru

Camelia Pasandaran – Hard-line Islamists shuttered an Ahmadiyah mosque after reportedly threatening to burn it down on Sunday in the latest example of religious intolerance to plague We

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – The fate of displaced Shia Muslims is in the dark as government officials and ulema on Madura Island, East Java, question the validity of the peace treaty r

Dessy Sagita – Activists have lashed out at a Thai university's decision to honor Indonesia's minister of religious affairs, Suryadharma Ali, with a Doctor Honoris Causa title for his e

Sidoarjo, East Java – Displaced Shia Muslims from Sampang regency in Madura, East Java, who for months had taken refuge in Sidoarjo, broke down in tears as they hugged members of the Su

Camelia Pasandaran – It had taken 23 years for the parishioners of Saint Bernadet to be granted a permit to build a church in Ciledug, South Tangerang.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court (MK) has once again upheld the controversial blasphemy articles that are often used to prosecute minority groups.

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The government has made another promise to the displaced Shia followers from Sampang in Madura, East Java – that they will be able to safely practice their f

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Heritage society Sjarikat Poesaka Soerabaja has filed a complaint to the Surabaya municipal administration for allowing the demolition of a Jewish synagogue

Mikael Niman & Camelia Pasandaran, Bekasi – The Bekasi district court on Thursday sentenced a man who threatened a Batak Protestant Congregation (HKBP) church pastor Palti Panjaitan

Bekasi – Bekasi District Court handed down a suspended sentence to Abdul Azis, who was found guilty of assaulting members of the Toba Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) congregation last ye

Jakarta – The Makassar Legal Aid Institute (LBH) has lambasted the acquittal of Nur Ansari, the suspect in the firebombing of five churches in the city, on all charges saying that the v

Arientha Primanita – The government has no plans to disband the Ahmadiyah congregation in Bekasi, despite a request from the municipality.

Phelim Kine – My preparation for a news conference in February launching a Human Rights Watch report on Indonesia's rising religious intolerance included an emergency escape drill.

Worshipers from displaced church congregations took their anger to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's door on Sunday, calling for him to take a leaf out of Jakarta Governor Joko Widod

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Jakarta – Around 100 people staged a protest in front of the Lenteng Agung sub-district office in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta, on Wednesday, demanding the dismissal of a newly installed Ch

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Index: ASA 21/029/2013

Anushka Shahjahan – Displaced Shia residents from the trouble-plagued East Java island of Madura must be allowed to return home safely, voluntarily and with dignity, Amnesty Internation

Jakarta – The new head of Lenteng Agung subdistrict in South Jakarta, Susan Jasmine Zulkifli, 43, whose replacement on sectarian grounds was demanded on Monday, has won the support of m

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the Chief of the Indonesian Police, Gen. Timur Pradopo.

Lenny Tristia Tambun – The Jakarta administration says it will not bow to pressure from a group of South Jakarta residents requesting the dismissal of their local ward chief for being a

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Phelim Kine – In early June, the Indonesian government erected a 16-foot gleaming white statue of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, on Washington's Embassy Row.

Ina Parlina and Margareth S.

Ezra Sihite – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sought on Friday to defend Indonesia against accusations that the republic was descending into greater religious intolerance.

Andreas Harsono – The plight of the Al-Mujahadah Foundation madrassa in southern Aceh illustrates the perils of rising religious intolerance for Indonesia's religious minorities.

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

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Camelia Pasandaran – Many Shiite Muslims returning to Madura for Idul Fitri last week were given an ultimatum that forced them to convert to Sunnism or leave the troubled East Java isla

Camelia Pasandaran – As millions of Muslims flocked to mosques across Indonesia on the morning of Idul Fitri last Thursday, a small group braved the early morning chill, considerable di

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Jakarta – Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, said on Saturday that there should not have been any forced belief in the process

Margareth Aritonang, Jakarta – Former vice president Jusuf Kalla warned that forced conversion imposed on members of the Shia community in Sampang, East Java during the reconciliation p

Margareth Aritonang, Jakarta – Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi rejected accusations centering on the government's alleged ultimatum to the displaced Sampang Shiites – convert to the "true"

Margareth S.

Margareth S.

Jakarta – "I don't want my friends to turn away from me when I tell them who I am," said 13-year-old Ardan, not his real name, on Saturday during a story-telling event at the Jakarta Le