New York – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should uphold freedom of religion in Indonesia and repudiate statements by his religious affairs minister calling for the banning of the Ah

Garut, West Java – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said he wanted to disband Ahmadiyah but he did not offer timetable for the sect's dissolution.

Incidents of church attacks and religious violence are spreading throughout Java, outside of traditional "hot spots" such as Greater Jakarta and West Java, activists said on Sunday.

Arientha Primanita, Bilhuda Haryanto & Aidi Yursal, Jakarta – Buddhists are the latest minority religious group to feel the heat, being at the center of a festering row over a large

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The government has a constitutional obligation to protect Ahmadiyah and other minority religious groups and must take action against violence directed agai

Nivell Rayda, Bogor – For the past two weeks, 35-year-old Ahmad Nuryamin has been sharing a four-by-six meter cell with 11 other detainees at the Bogor Police headquarters, some of them

Ulma Haryanto & Zaky Pawas, Jakarta – A long-awaited church in West Java faces the prospect of not being built at all, following objections by local Muslims.

Nivell Rayda & Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – The level of intolerance among the Muslim community toward the Ahmadiyah sect has more than doubled during the six years of President Su

Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – A district head in West Nusa Tenggara announced plan to relocate 20 Ahmadiyah families to a deserted island, a move many say is both discriminatory and inhumane.

Zaki Pawas, Jakarta – Police in Bekasi arrested a struggling poet and a street singer on Thursday evening, accusing them of involvement in last month's attack on members of the Batak Ch

Rizal Harahap, Jakarta – Public pressure prompted the Pekanbaru city administration to finally close down a house of worship owned by followers of the Ahmadiyah sect.

Erwida Maulia and Theresia Sufa, Jakarta/Bogor – Ahmadiyah followers continue to encounter challenges in Indonesia in practicing their religion freely, with the government sticking to i

Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – Despite intense public criticism of a 2006 joint ministerial decree requiring neighbors' approval for houses of worship, ministers on Monday said the gover

Arghea Desafti Hapsari and Theresia Sufa, Jakarta/Bogor – In a bid to seek a "permanent solution" to the burning issue of Ahmadiyah, the government will review the controversial decree

Nivell Rayda, Bogor – Ahmad Zainuddin, 75, had returned home to Cisalada village in Bogor after a trip into Jakarta to pick up his monthly pension stipend, just hours before his home wa

Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has again appealed to the nation for calm after members of the minority Ahmadiyah sect in Ciampea, Bogor, were

Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said on Wednesday that the government would maintain the controversial joint ministerial decree on establishment of places of worshi

Jakarta – Religious intolerance among Indonesian Muslims has increased in the last 10 years, a new study shows, indicating a link with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Academics, religious leaders and students in North Sumatra have called on the central government to immediately issue a law regulating on inter-religious relati

Jakarta – Denying claims by hard-line groups, many residents from the Pondok Timur Indah housing complex in Bekasi, West Java, say they do not object to the religious activities conduct

Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta – How difficult is it to build a church in West Java?

Jakarta – While in some parts of Bekasi and Bogor relations between Christian congregations and majority-Muslim neighborhoods have soured over vetoed plans to build churches, the interf

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The Golkar Party says the House of Representatives must initiate a bill on houses of worship and pass it into law to replace the controversial ministeri

Theresia Sufa, Bekasi, Bogor – Before the dust has even settled in two congregations' battles to build churches in Bogor and Bekasi, the cities' authorities are being pointed out as mor

Camelia Pasandaran & Eras Poke, Jakarta – The minister of religious affairs on Monday said there were no plans to revise the joint Ministerial Decree on Houses of Worship despite a

Jakarta – Said Aqil Siradj, the chief of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, said Sunday that 19 "local" religions across the country have requested the government

Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – Dozens of Christians held prayers inside their boarded-up church near Indonesia's capital Sunday, saying they had as much right as anyone to worship in the wor

Armando Siahaan, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta – Some of the country's lawmakers have joined the chorus of criticism against the 2006 joint ministerial decree on

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The constitutional protection of freedom to worship guaranteed by the state is behind the court's verdict in favor of the churches, says a court official.

Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – A group of Christian worshippers said they would defy police and the threat of attack to hold Sunday prayers outside their now-boarded-up church near Indonesia

Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has come under fire for planning to disband the Ahmadiyah sect, which he singles out as "misguided".

Jakarta – The controversial joint ministerial regulation on houses of worship is not only manipulated by hard-liners but also misused by authorities to extort money, says a church leade

Jakarta – The Bekasi administrations of the recently attacked HKBP church is not an effective remedy as other beleaguered congregations in Greater Jakarta continue to face problems desp

Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta – Police should not overlook the roles played by local clerics in inciting violence against a Christian congregation in Bekasi, human rights watchdogs have said.

Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – The deputy speaker of the House of Representatives has roundly criticized Religious Minister Suryadharma Ali, joining human rights watchdogs in saying the man

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – The Religious Affairs Ministry said Wednesday it was open to revision of a 2006 joint ministerial decree requiring local consent on sites for houses of

Arientha Primanita, Jakarta – Jakarta Police on Wednesday named the head of the Bekasi branch of the Islamic Defenders Front a suspect for his alleged role in a brutal attack on two chu

Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta – Islamic leaders on Tuesday defended a government regulation that requires local consent before a house of worship can be established, which pluralism advocates

Candra Malik, Jakarta – About 4,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the government do more to protect Constitution-enshrined religious freedoms in response to Sunday's brut

Arientha Primanita, Jakarta – Contrary to earlier media reports on Monday, a Bekasi police official says that they have yet to name suspects for the attack on members of a Protestant ch

Arientha Primanita & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – Experts have warned that Sunday's attack on churchgoers in Bekasi could be symptomatic of a growing religious intolerance in

Ulma Haryanto, Bekasi – A church leader was stabbed in the stomach and a reverend beaten during an attack on a group of Christians forced to pray in a field in Bekasi on Sunday morning.

Minister Suryadharma's statements about banning the Ahmadiyah community are reprehensible, and President Yudhoyono should publicly say so.

Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – Ignoring the outrage of rights activists, the religious affairs minister on Tuesday reiterated his belief that an outright ban on Ahmadiyah would be good f

Ulma Haryanto, Bogor – Hitting back at the Bogor administration's unexplained decision to again seal off their half-built church last week, members of the GKI Yasmin congregation broke

Dessy Sagita & Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Aghast by Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali's controversial statements advocating the banning of the Ahmadiyah sect, a number of non

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – Human rights activists have described Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali's proposal to disband the Ahmadiyah congregation as a "setback" and a

Indonesian officials have again reacted to official discrimination and vigilante violence against the Ahmadiyah by restricting their right to practice their religion.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The formation of new regions in Indonesia is growing at an alarming rate, with a new region created every 15 days, Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi said Wednesday.

The Solidarity for Peace in Diversity (Solidaritas) on Thursday launched a website titled Nusantara Online, aimed at providing complete and constantly updated legal data on the country'