Fadli, Batam – The Riau Islands provincial administration was welcome to ban Ahmadiyah (an Islamic sect considered heretical) in the region, but was urged to let Ahmadis perform their religious practices as usual, an Ahmadi said.
Speaking at a dissemination forum on Thursday regarding the joint ministerial decree on the ban of Ahmadiyah in Batam, which was led by Religious Affairs Minister's expert staff Tulus Sastrowijono, an Ahmadi from Bintan regency, Muhammad Sani, questioned the ban.
"You talk about the ban on Ahmadiyah. Does it also include the ban on our religious activities, because we still pray five times a day and perform our Friday mass prayers?" said Sani, who came with his wife and their baby.
Tulus Sastrowijoyo, who oversees law and human rights affairs, responded by saying that Ahmadiyah was blasphemy against Islam. Banning it, he said, did not violate Article 29 of the Constitution because freedom of religion was also confined by the prevailing laws.
"The central government is still waiting for proposals from each of the provincial and regency/municipal administrations on their stance regarding Ahmadiyah," he said.
He added that, so far, none of the 33 provincial administrations had sent an official proposal regarding the matter. "If a region wants to ban Ahmadiyah, it has to propose so to the central government and this will be the stance of the government," Tulus said.
Tulus also said that the central government was not passing the problem to regional administrations but rather did not want to act authoritarian in the matter.
So far, he said, only two provinces, West Java and East Java, have issued a gubernatorial decree banning Ahmadiyah, but both were annulled by the Home Minister because it was the central government's authority.
Separately, the Indonesian Ulema Council's (MUI) Riau Islands provincial branch chairman Tengku Azahari Abbas said all elements of Muslims in the province had agreed on the banning of Ahmadiyah.
"If a proposal is needed [for the ban], then we will push the Riau Islands governor to urge the President to ban Ahmadiyah because the sect has caused restlessness and tarnished Islam," Azahari said.
He added that there were some 200 Ahmadi families in Riau Islands, 72 of which were in Batam. In Batam they are concentrated around a mosque called Alzikir.
"The mosque has been sealed by the Religious Affairs Ministry because it violated a joint ministerial decree on the establishment of houses of worship," said Azahari, expressing hope that the government would take stern action against Ahmadiyah.
The same hope was also expressed by Didi Suryadi of the Islamic Forum (FUI). He said the President had to be stern against Ahmadiyah and quick in dealing with it.
Passing the problem to the regional administrations would only create new problems because different regions had different stances. "The President has to take stern action before the people take action," Didi said.