Fitri, Mataram – Hundreds of villagers in East Lombok have attacked and set alight a hut used by a small group deemed to be a deviant sect, forcing police to evacuate and save the sect leader and 20 of his followers, police said on Monday.
The attack by villagers from Seruni Mumbul on Sunday destroyed the hut, which sat atop a local hill, Pringgabaya subdistrict Police chief Adj. Comr. Eko Mulyadi said.
"The leader of the group that is suspected of being a deviant sect, Khairrudin Ahmad, and 20 of his disciples, were detained for their own safety so that the angry mob does not attack them," Eko said.
Villagers alleged that the group's Koranic reading ritual included making loud noise, indecent dress and the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
But, Eko said, "we do not yet know for certain what teachings they abide by. Therefore we will question the leader to see whether or not the teaching deviates from Islam." Eko said that on Saturday night villagers demanded that the sect disband or leave the area, prompting an exchange of harsh words between the two sides.
At that time police were able to disband the crowd, but demonstraters returned the next day to destroy the empty hut.
Abu Agna, a resident of Pringgabaya, said that every Thursday evening the sect conducted a ritual where they engaged in Koranic reading while drinking alcohol and listening to flute and gong music.
"Another thing that deviates from Islam is that the women and the men who are not related by family ties mixed" and did not dress according to Islamic codes, Abu said. He added that the group had conducted meetings over the past two months.
He said that when the group's leader was taken by the police on Sunday, he was only in his underwear and was clearly drunk, forcing police to actually carry him to the police vehicle that later took him to the subdistrict police station. Residents, he said, found a number of kris daggers as well as five bottles of fermented palm wine inside the hut before they set it aflame.
Saiful Muslim, head of the West Nusa Tenggara chapter of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI), said that even though the council could not yet say whether the sect was deviant, he deplored the violence.