Camelia Pasandaran & Cameron Bates – The United Nations has written to the Indonesian government expressing "concern" about the increasing number of reports about violence committed

Ulma Haryanto – Ahmad Masihuddin, Irwan and Bebi are the lucky ones.

Vento Saudale, Bogor – A church community at the center of an ongoing dispute with the Bogor administration on Sunday was again forced to hold its services on the roadside because its b

Elisabeth Oktofani – The last person jailed in relation to the brutal attack on members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church of Pondok Timur Indah in Bekasi late last year was relea

Camelia Pasandaran – A meeting between presidential staff and a beleaguered Indonesian church at the center of an ongoing dispute with the Bogor administration was delayed on Thursday.

Nivell Rayda – After weeks of tweaking and trials and errors, an activist at a prominent human rights group was finally able to connect his laptop computer to an old 32-inch cathode-ray

Nivell Rayda – When the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front attacked demonstrators rallying in support of the embattled Ahmadiyah sect on June 1, 2008, many believed that fundamentalists

The opening trial for 12 men facing charges in relation to the deadly attack on an Ahmadiyah community in Cikeusik, Banten, started under tight security on Tuesday at the Serang Distric

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Over a hundred members of the recently banned Millata Abraham Muslim sect on Friday underwent a mass conversion to mainstream faith at the Baiturrahman Raya M

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja – The suicide bombing in a mosque last week was only the latest terrorist attack in West Java, where minority sects and churches have also been hit by a recent wav

Camelia Pasandaran & Arientha Primanita – The government has said it will weigh in on the long-running standoff between the Bogor administration and a beleaguered Christian congrega

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Wednesday urging Indonesian authorities to provide full protection for everyone attending the trial of 11 men charged with the deadly attacks on

Vento Saudale, Bogor – An Ahmadi man was sentenced to nine months in jail on Monday for stabbing a teenager following an attack by hundreds of hard-line Muslims on an Ahmadiyah communit

Novia D.

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 r

Yuli Krisna – More than 400 members of the beleaguered Ahmadiyah have converted to mainstream Islam since a ban on their activities was issued in West Java, officials claimed on Thursda

Vento Saudale, Bogor – A court in Bogor sentenced three people charged in a mob attack on an Ahmadiyah community to prison terms of between four and six months on Wednesday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Thousands of Muslim teachers and students on Thursday thronged the streets of Banda Aceh, demanding that the governor clamp down on "deviant" religious sects.

Vento Saudale – A West Java government team dealing with the province's beleaguered Ahmadiyah community on Thursday called on area residents to leave the matter of the sect to the admin

A statement from Amnesty International, KontraS, Imparsial, Elsam, Setara Institute, ICRP, HRWG, ANBTI, ILRC and Wahid Institute.

Elisabeth Oktofani & Putri Fitria – Amnesty International called on the government on Wednesday to revoke the decree that bans Ahmadiyah members from proselytizing, saying the regul

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The rising number of attacks against minority groups in Indonesia is a sign that the country, which aims to play a greater role on the global stage, is movin

Camelia Pasandaran – The Indonesian government has admitted that it still does not know what to do about the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect.

Jakarta – The Islamic-based United Development Party (PPP) reiterated on Saturday its "official" rejection of the presence of Islamic minority sect Jamaah Ahmadiyah in Indonesia, saying

The Religious Affairs Ministry has ordered a large Buddhist statue in North Sumatra to be taken down after it raised the ire of Muslims in the area.

[An abridged version of this article appeared in the April 2011 issue of Direct Action newspaper

Arya Dipa and Panca Nugraha, Mataram – West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan says he wants the police to investigate the attack of a house owned by an 80-year-old Ahmadiyah follower in Tasi

Semarang, Central Java – Twenty five men implicated in the highly publicized burning of churches in Temanggung, West Java, in early February made their first appearance in the Semarang

Jakarta – Prosecutors at the Semarang District Court are charging Syihabuddin, a defendant in the Temanggung riots case, of provoking people into engaging in last month's riots that dam

Yuli Krisna, Bandung – The Indonesia Ahmadiyah Congregation has issued an urgent request to West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan to revoke a recent decree issued to ban activities of the A

Bangkalan, Madura, Bangkalan – Bangkalan Legislative Council in East Java has urged all schools in the regency to oblige their female students to wear Islamic head scarves when they are

Ulma Haryanto – The Depok administration said on Sunday that it would seize an Ahmadiyah mosque previously sealed off by a mob and turn it into a "normal" mosque.

Religious Minister Suryadharma Ali reiterated once again that two controversial decrees governing religious issues would not be revised or revoked despite increasing protests against th

Zubaidah Nazeer – Last week's string of mail bombs sent to several moderate Muslim leaders in Indonesia have helped to highlight their work, even as loud noises made by radicals continu

Camelia Pasandaran, Vento Saudale & Nurfika Osman, Bogor – Fresh from attending a trial hearing of men accused of burning down schools and an Ahmadi mosque in Bogor last October, so

The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Camelia Pasandaran – A top judge says the Bogor administration is clearly in the wrong in defying a Supreme Court ruling to unseal a church it had previously closed down for a building

Ina Parlina & Rizal Harahap, Jakarta/Pekanbaru – Representatives of the Ahmadiyah congregation skipped a government-initiated dialogue with officials on Tuesday, a closed-door meeti

Ulma Haryanto – Activists on Tuesday called for urgent state action against attacks on Ahmadiyah, saying authorities had failed to follow up on National Commission on Human Rights probe

Ina Parlina and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Jakarta/Bandung – Jamaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia is refusing to attend a meeting spnsored by the Religious Affairs Ministry scheduled for Tuesday, saying t

Nivell Rayda – When 55-year-old Joni Jailani became the leader of Ciaruteun Udik village in Bogor two years ago, it never crossed his mind that he would be mentioned in newspapers, let

Slamet Susanto and Jon Afrizal, Yogyakarta/Jambi – Demands to ban Ahmadiyah have increased in a number of regions amid recent calls from some US congressmen asking the Indonesian govern

Vento Saudale, Bogor – Some 100 members of a Christian congregation conducted services on the sidewalk in Bogor Sunday after police prevented them from using a contested church site tha

Following a series of violent incidents against religious minorities, including the Ahmadiyah community, two regional administrations in Indonesia had issued local decrees banning the A

Elisabeth Oktofani & Camelia Pasandaran – The Indonesian Christian Church and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation on Thursday reported the Bogor administration to the national Ombud

Rights group Amnesty International urged Indonesia on Thursday to investigate allegations of soldiers intimidating followers of a minority Islamic sect and forcing them to renounce thei

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has received a letter from 27 US lawmakers urging him to immediately revoke recent provincial decrees and the 2008 national decree banning Ahmadiyah a

Ina Parlina and Arya Dipa, Jakarta/Bandung – Soldiers involved in an operation initiated by the West Java administration to convince local Ahmadis to change their beliefs was "voluntary

Indonesia admitted on Wednesday that soldiers had been entering mosques of a minority Islamic sect but said they had been protecting followers, escalating a debate about religious freed