Indonesia’s pluralist attitude towards religion has taken a worrying turn for the worst as the government considers whether to ban the Islamic sect Ahmadiyah who has 200,000 members throughout Indonesia.
The proposal to ban Ahmadiyah arose at a joint meeting led by the coordinating minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Adi Sucipto, on the 17th of April. The drafting of the proposal shall come from three bodies; the Reglious Affairs Ministry, Home Ministry and Attorney Generals Office.
According to Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, speaking to journalists on the 23rd of May, the joint letter is almost finished and includes three lines of reasoning; judicial, philosophical and sociological. The judicial reasoning has already been completed as, according to Henderman Supandji, Ahmadiyah contravenes the 1965 law on the prevention of misuse and disgrace of religion. Meanwhile the sociological and philosophical reasoning has almost been completed by the Religious Affairs and Home Ministries. Once the proposal is completed it shall be submitted to the government for final approval.
Followers of Ahmadiyah, a sect that originates from India and believes that Mirzan Gulam Ahmad was the last prophet or messenger, has faced increasing harassment within Indonesia during the past years as Ahmadiyah members have been attacked in Java, Sulawesi and Lombok in September 2005, February 2006 and August 2006 respectively. The situation is exacerbated by a fatwa from the Indonesian Ulemas Council (Majelis Ulema Indonesia) declaring the sect heretical while the Religious Affairs Minister, Maftuh Basyumi, declared Ahmadiyah a ‘deviant sect’ in 2006.
Support for the proposal has been expressed from many religious groups including the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FBI), who have frequently been involved in violent attacks on Ahmadiyah, and may politicians such as the Mayor of Cimahi, Itoc Tochiya, who claimed such a ban would be in the interest of the security of Ahmadiyah as the police have difficulty defending the sect against attack. He subsequently cordoned off 6 Ahmadiyah mosques in the city banning practitioners from entering them.
However, not all believe the proposal to be beneficial for Indonesia with many urging the president to cancel such a law on the grounds that it is anti-pluralist, can create further religious tension and even contradicts the 1945 Indonesian Constitution on Religious Freedom. Pressure is also mounting from the international community as, on May 16th, UNCAT noted the failure of Indonesian Security forces to provide security for Ahmadiyah and has made a request for a special rapporteur on religion to visit the country.
By allowing Ahmadiyah to be banned the government may just be paving the way for the prohibition of other religious minorities while giving the green light to groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front, who frequently attacked Ahmadiyah, to carry out similar attacks against other religious groups. This would be a worrying development as it would contravene the pluralist nature of religion in Indonesia that, although being the largest Muslim country, also recognises the right to practice other religions.
