Hardline Islamists like Abu Bakar Bashir have joined forces with powerful government agencies pushing for minority Ahmadiya sect of Islam to be formally banned.

Presenter: Indonesia correspondent Geoff Thompson

Speakers: Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir; Sobri Lubis, Muslim Defenders Front.

Thompson: More than 85 percent of Indonesia's 225 million people are Muslims and in times of crisis, that often means Christians and other minority religions became the easy targets of mob discontent.

But with the exception of brutal crackdowns on protests here and there, the last few years have been some of the most peaceful in Indonesia's post-Suharto history. In these times of peace, Indonesia's mainstream Muslims have turned against differences within Islam itself.

Specifically against the sect known as Ahmadiyya.

(Sounds of people talking in the street)

"A group of people is trying to force their beliefs upon us and trying to suppress us and wipe us from the world", says an Ahmadiyya member taking part in a recent protest in Jakarta. From the radical fringe of Indonesian Islam, he has good reason for concern.

Thompson: That's the voice of Sobri Lubis, the secretary general of the hardline Muslim Defenders Front, known as FPI recorded at a meeting which is now doing the rounds of You Tube. His rant calls for Muslims to wage war against Ahmadiyya and kill its followers wherever they are – because they destroy Islam and as for concern for human rights, that's just 'cat shit' he says.

So what is it about Ahmadiyya which draws so much venom. Mahendradatta leads a group of lawyers known as the Muslim Defenders Team which also represents the Bali bombers.

Mehendradatta: They try to push people, to force people to believe that Islam is Ahmadiyya. Ahmadiyya with the book named Shakirah and also the last prophet is not Mohammed but Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

Thompson: It's complicated, but essentially, Ahmadiyya's opponents claim it's followers believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the man who founded their religion in 1889 and his writings challenged the status of Mohammed as the last prophet and the Koran as God's only word. Ahmadiyya disputes this interpretation of their believes.

Of course, it's hardly surprising that shrill hardliners in mostly moderate Indonesia are on the hunt for new enemies within. But the momentum against Ahmadiyya has now entered the mainstream, with an influential intergovernmental panel powered to oversee people's beliefs investigating Ahmadiyya and recommending it be banned by the Government.

Now the push is on for Indonesia to follow countries like Pakistan where Ahmadiyya are not recognised as Muslims at all. Usman Hamid heads Indonesia's leading human rights group Kontras.

Hamid: Banning Ahmadiyya will give legitimacy to those who are against Ahmadiyya. Banning Ahmadiyya will be a kind of throwing an oil to the fires. So we urge the Government not to ban Ahmadiyya.

Thompson: In Sukabumi in West Java, the remains of a ransacked school lay alongside the burnt out shell of what was the area's Ahmadiyya mosque. When Indonesia's attorney-general avoided making a decision on the recommended ban, a local preacher called on Ahmadiyya to return to mainstream Islam and a mob torched the mosque.

Thompson: There's hundreds of thousands of Ahmadiyya followers across Indonesia but only a few hundred live in this area, and they're scare what will happen when the police leave.

Goona Wan Wadi is the secretary of Ahmadiyya's local branch, a Government ban he says will force Ahmadis to seek asylum in countries like Australia.

(Sound of Goona Wan Wadi speaking)

"There are some offers from our brothers in Canada, Australia and brothers in different cities but we love this motherland so much. If it only because of a difference, why can't we sit and talk peacefully together" he says.

Thompson: Radical cleric, Abu Bakir Bashir tells the Ahmadis to "go for it". They want to seek asylum. "That's what infidels do", he says, "seek protection of other infidels" he says.

He and others pushing for the Ahmadiyya's ban say they simply want the sect to announce itself as a religion other than Islam. Then they say they would support its constitutional right to freedom from persecution.