Ulma Haryanto, Indonesia – The first seven months of the year has seen a surge in attacks on Christian groups, according to the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy.

A report released by the group on Monday says 28 attacks and violation of the churches' right to worship had been recorded this year, compared with 18 incidents in all of 2009 and 17 in 2008.

Bekasi has seen the most number of incidents with seven, followed by six in Greater Jakarta. If the trend continues, the institute warned the total for the year would be more than triple that of last year.

Ismail Hasani, a senior Setara researcher, told the Jakarta Globe this was only the tip of the iceberg. "We rely on our network to record the incidents, but there are others outside our coverage area," he said.

Ismail said attacks against church congregations this year had been more conspicuous than those against the Ahmadiyah, a controversial sect that believes its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the last prophet of Islam, a claim that contradicts mainstream Muslim beliefs.

In 2008, the government banned the group from conducting religious activities in public. "Last year we recorded around 33 cases against Ahmadiyah but this semester, from a rough estimation, we have seen about four cases," Ismail said.

The Setara report also noted that regional governments often played a part in the violations, using the criteria for a church to be established – the need for approval of local residents – as a reason to deny a permit or order a demolition.

"Twelve of the violations this year have included district heads sealing or rejecting requests to build a church, with them citing 'public pressure' as the reason," Setara deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos said.

"It seems that people and the government do not realize that the right to worship, as stipulated in the Constitution, comes with the right to have a house of worship."

The central government, however, defended its handling of the situation. Ahmad Syafi'i Mufid, head of Jakarta's Forum of Religious Tolerance and head researcher at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, said the ministry had done enough.

"They are the ones who are trying hard to avert conflicts. Too bad their voice is drowned out," he said.

Ahmad played down suggestions of religious intolerance, saying the root cause of the disputes was economic disparity. "When people are being unfairly treated, then they do the same to others," he said.

He also defended local administrations' conduct. "I think regional governments are just confused. They receive so much information that they do not know who is right or wrong," he said.

Saut Situmorang, a spokesman for the Home Affairs Ministry, said the Religious Tolerance Forum was the proper avenue to resolve such conflicts.

"The Home Affairs Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry should receive regular reports from regional governments and the forum can determine what is going on," he said.

Setara's Bonar, however, said the escalating problem showed that the government's one-way system of monitoring religious harmony was ineffective.