In an open letter to three UN Special Rapporteurs, the Human Rights Working Group-Indonesia decries the unfair legal process against and the criminalization of Rev.

For the 13th year in a row, Indonesia has been included on a watchlist of countries with appalling religious freedoms.

Jakarta – Twenty Ahmadiyah followers have missed work and school, remaining holed up in the Al-Misbah Mosque in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, since local officials sealed it off on April 4.

Slamet Susanto and Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Religious conflict in Indonesia has begun to show a rising trend during the last five years in terms of the nature of the conflicts, ac

Dear friends,

Jakarta – Residents have taken to the streets to stop construction of a church Tambora, West Jakarta, claiming that organizers lack a needed permit.

The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) has threatened to report a celebrity spiritual guru to the police for deviating from Islamic doctrine and having too many wives.

SP/Yoseph Kelen – Legislators have commended the East Nusa Tenggara administration for its ability to maintain religious harmony in the province.

Amir Tejo & Dessy Sagita – The Surabaya District Court acquitted Nahdlatul Ulama figure Rois Al-Hukama of all charges on Tuesday, arguing that no witnesses directly saw the Sunni le

Camelia Pasandaran – Three Ahmadiyah mosques in Cianjur, West Java, were shut down and damaged by a group of Islamic hard-liners and local residents on Friday, the latest act of intoler

Camelia Pasandaran – The Bekasi administration says they will only open the sealed Ahmadiyah mosque in Pondok Gede if the congregation agrees to let the local government select an Imam

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-060-2013

Dear friends,

Sandra Siagian & Rebecca Lake – So often the victims of intolerance in Indonesia, Christians, Ahmadiyah and Shia Muslims on Monday marched together in Central Jakarta to urge the go

Fikri Zaki Muhammadi and Margareth S.

The National Commission on Human Rights on Tuesday said that 85 percent of Indonesia's houses of worship do not have building permits, with most of them being mosques.

Camelia Pasandaran – Thirty members of Bekasi's beleaguered Ahmadiyah Muslim sect have been locked inside the shuttered Al-Misbah mosque since Bekasi Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) off

Bekasi, West Java – A score of Ahmadis in Bekasi, West Java, camped inside their sealed Al-Misbah Mosque on Saturday, refusing to leave until the municipal administration lifted the ban

Jakarta – Around 50 Ahmadis in Bekasi, West Java, have sealed themselves in the Al-Misbah Mosque, which the municipal administration closed the day before in a crack down.

Sampang, Madura – Eights months after dozens of Shiite Muslims on Madura Island were driven from their homes by mobs from neighboring Sunni villages, the displaced remain in poor condit

Camelia Pasandaran – The Bekasi government shut down a mosque of Indonesia's beleaguered Ahmadiyah sect in Pondok Gede on Thursday, in the latest act of religious intolerance in the dis

Camelia Pasandaran – Bekasi's district head has failed to come up with a solution for a group of pastors, representing the district's beleaguered Christian community, over the spate of

Camelia Pasandaran – There will be no indoor Easter service this year for three embattled congregations in West Java still fighting to worship in their own churches, but that won't stop

Jakarta – Members of a number of churches in Greater Jakarta will hold their Easter mass in front of the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta on Sunday and call for an end to their su

Jakarta – Fresh on the heels of the demolition of a Bekasi church, the local administration banned congregants from conducting services at their church in Jatibening Baru subdistrict on

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-051-2013

Dear friends,

Jakarta – The congregation of Damai Kristus Catholic church in Tambora, West Jakarta, held their Sunday service protected by the police to prevent another lock out by members of Muslim

Members of Muslim community groups closed off the Damai Kristus Catholic Church in Tambora, West Jakarta, on Saturday evening.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) and several rights groups have lamented the Bekasi administration's move to demolish the Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) of Setu in B

An Advent church in West Java's city of Tasikmalaya was vandalized by an unknown group early on Friday morning, one day after another church in the same province was demolished by the B

Dessy Sagita – The effects of growing religious intolerance in Indonesia go much deeper than just limiting freedom to worship and have the potential in some cases to affect the victims'

The government's demolition of a church in Bekasi not only violates religious freedom, but it will fan the flames of religious division in Indonesia.

Camelia Pasandaran, Jonathan G.

Camelia Pasandaran – The Bekasi district government will demolish a church in Setu, Bekasi on Thursday because the church has no building permit.

Margareth S.

Urgent Appeal Update: AHRC-UAU-007-2013

Dear friends,

Camelia Pasandaran – Bekasi police have charged a local pastor for allegedly assaulting a member of an intolerant group on Christmas Eve last year.

Zakir Hussain – Dewi Kanti, 37, has known only one faith all her life. But it has never been recorded on her identity card.

The Banua Niha Keriso Protestan (BNKP) in Bandung, West Java, was bracing for a confrontation on Friday after a group of local leaders demanded the church cease operations, a religious

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must use the final year of his second term to take radical measures to end discrimination against religious minorities, an NGO

Margareth S.

Rebecca Lake – Failures in government leadership and law enforcement are fueling a surge of religious violence in Indonesia and have rendered religious minorities vulnerable to attack,

Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – Presidential spokesperson Julian Adrian Pasha is calling Human Rights Watch (HRW) "naive" for its report released on Thursday highlighting abuses against rel

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – Indonesia has experienced a "sharp uptick" in religiously motivated violence, with Islamic gangs regularly attacking Christian churches as well as "deviant

Jakarta – Indonesia's government, security forces and courts must do more to protect religious minorities from growing episodes of intolerance and violence, an international rights grou

Yudhoyono needs to insist that national laws be enforced, announce that every violent attack will be prosecuted, and map out a comprehensive strategy to combat rising religious intolera

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – A transnational movement has entered Indonesia to destroy the Shia sect, which has existed in Aceh since the fourth century, a scholar has said.

Primus Dorimulu & Camelia Pasandaran – Just days before a provincial election, West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan has signed a deal with the hardline Islamic Defenders Front in which

Bayu Marhaenjati – For a year now, the congregations of two churches in Bogor and Bekasi have been holding joint Sunday services outside the State Palace in Jakarta to draw the presiden

Sita W.

Camelia Pasandaran – The Home Affairs Ministry claims that there would be less religious conflict between Christians and Islamic fundamentalist groups in Indonesia, if churches simply a