Agus Triyono – Trying to counter the growing intolerance in Indonesia, the country's two largest Muslim organizations have expressed support for the protection of people's constitutional rights to religious freedom amid several incidences of unilateral church foreclosures in the country.
"By law, the government has a duty to offer security and protection if there is a citizen, regardless of religion, who feels that they cannot perform their religious duty, or feels threatened when doing so, including building places of worship," Abdul Mufti, the secretary of Muhammadiyah, said on Sunday. "The government should be more stringent in enforcing the laws of this country."
Muhammadiyah is the second-largest Muslim organization in the country.
The spotlight during the past week has been on a church belonging to the Batak Protestant Congregation (HKBP) that the Bekasi government has kept shuttered despite a Supreme Court decision overruling it. The congregation, which has been forced to pray on the streets because of the government's stubbornness, was attacked by a mob of hundreds of Islamic hard-liners on Ascension Day on Thursday, and again on Sunday.
Nusron Wahid, the chairman of GP Ansor, the youth wing of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, said it would mediate between the HKBP congregation and those opposing the church's presence. "We don't want what happened to GKI Yasmin, where they are going at each other head-to-head, to happen here," he said on Sunday.
He was referring to Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin in Bogor, where congregation members are forced to pray in secret after facing threats and attacks from hard-line groups there. "We will try to create a joint activity, have a dialogue so there can be understanding and trust," Nusron said.
Aside from the cases involving the HKBP and GKI, officials in Aceh Singkil district sealed off 16 Christian houses of worship earlier this month after protests from conservative Muslims.
District head Razali Abdul Rahman insisted on Tuesday that the 16 gathering places, known as undung-undungs, were shut down for "not having permits" and "to prevent interreligious conflict." But Mufti said conflicts would only become inevitable if such closures were allowed.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Budiman Sudjatmiko also said religious freedom was waning in Indonesia. "The job of the government and of law enforcers is to ensure there is religious freedom and tolerance for all Indonesians in every corner of this country," he said.
NU chairman Said Aqil Siroj recently highlighted attacks against another minority group, Shia Muslims, on the island of Madura. A Shiite community was attacked by mainstream Muslim groups in December, but police instead accused local Shia cleric Tajul Muluk of blasphemy.
"What we must emphasize is togetherness and tolerance," Said said. "There is no religion that teaches violence. There mustn't be any group which takes the law into its own hands, especially claiming to act on behalf of their religion. That will only smear religion itself."
Said also highlighted the recent controversy over pop star Lady Gaga's concert, scheduled for June 3 in Jakarta, which has been attacked as "satanic" and "promoting pornography." "For NU, if there are a thousand Lady Gagas, it won't change our faith," he said.
Muhammadiyah chairman Dien Syamsuddin said religious groups should focus on finding common ground. "We must face our common enemy. Our enemy is not each other, but problems facing humanity like poverty, ignorance, backwardness, injustice and violence," Dien was quoted as saying on the Muhammadiyah website.