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Radical Indonesian muslims to take legal action over Bogor church permit

Jakarta Globe - January 17, 2011

Arientha Primanita, Jakarta – A hard-line Islamic group is set to file a class-action lawsuit against the Bogor administration for its failure to rescind the Indonesian Christian Church's building permit.

The move follows the announcement on Friday that the Supreme Court had rejected the administration's request to uphold the revocation of the church's permit to construct a place of worship.

The church, also known as GKI Yasmin, has been fighting for nearly a decade with the Bogor administration and Islamic hard-liners for the right to finish building.

"In the name of the FUI [Islamic People's Forum], we are going to file a class-action suit with the Bogor District Court as soon as possible," said Ahmad Iman, chairman of the Indonesian Muslim Communication Forum (Forkami), a member of the FUI.

"We are so disappointed with the Bogor administration for its failure to resolve this matter. All Muslims are disappointed with the Bogor administration," he said.

"We are certain that this church had never fulfilled the prerequisites to acquire a legal permit to establish a church. It failed to follow the guidelines set out in the joint ministerial decree on houses of worship.

"We are not opposed to religious freedom. We protest the illegal establishment of this church," Ahmad said.

He was referring to a 2006 decree that requires any planning application for a place of worship to have the approval of at least 60 residents in the immediate vicinity, copies of 90 identity cards from congregation members and written recommendations from the local offices of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interreligious Communication Forum (FKUB).

Ahmad pointed out that the Bogor administration had failed to take any action over the church, even though the Supreme Court ruling had been issued on Dec. 9 last year. The contents of the ruling were only made public on Friday.

"If they had been serious about handling this issue, they would have monitored their request to uphold the revocation all the way,' Ahmad said. "It's as though they just filed the request for fun."