Islamists Amok, Cops Complicit? Where Now, Mr. President?

 West Java Police Chief Martinus Sitompul said the attackers, residents of neighboring Cisaar village, wrecked the roof, broke the windows and generally ransacked the mosque, leaving it in shambles.

  The attackers, he said, were angry that the Indonesia Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) was still using Arrohim Mosque in Cipeuyeum village.

“The people already warned the mosque caretakers about [Ahmadiyah] using it and there was a joint agreement that they could not use the mosque,” Martinus said. “But they continued to conduct their activities and Friday prayers there.” Local police are now guarding the crime scene and investigating the incident, he added.

JAI spokesman Firdaus Mubarik said it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened in the village. “The mosque in Cipeuyeum was the target of a similar attack last year when its books and carpets were burned by neighboring residents,” he said. Just like last year, Firdaus said, the police knew about the attack before it occurred yet did nothing to prevent it from taking place.

“The police warned our congregation on Thursday not to use the mosque for Friday prayers, which means that they knew about it,” he said. Jakarta Globe 18/2
 

  Now regardless of whether the cops knew exactly when and where this bigot rabble was going to attack the place of worship of a peaceful and inoffensive minority   (and just a day ago we read that the sly mob sneaked past the dozy gendarmerie, who failed to draw their guns when they heard the ruckus – yes, sure thing!) Police Chief Martinus makes it quite clear that he was fully aware of the ‘agreement’ that the Ahmadis could not worship freely because of sectarian Islamist objections. That is clearly oppressive discrimination, which President SBY has said will not happen on his watch. 

I’m glad I had to postpone publishing this longer review of his address to international diplomats last week, as it allowed me to  include the above, and also some local comments on the same speech. 

One example is the Jakarta Post article by a Muslim academic, Mr. Hilaly Basya, whose views are basically moderate but whose presentation of history is slightly askew.  http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/02/17/religious-conflict-and-role-our-social-class.html

He suggests Muslims are hostile to Christians due to  the ‘history of the Crusades,’  as if those were something other than wars of liberation. It was hardly aggression to seek the rescue of those Near East lands which had been conquered and were being converted. They had previously been governed by the Byzantine Empire, centre of Eastern Christianity.

 

And then he touches on ‘colonisation of  Muslim countries by Europeans.‘  Huh? What about Spain, not liberated from the Muslim invaders until the 15th Century, and Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, etc., held in bondage for hundreds of years by the Turks? He must have missed those chapters of imperial history! And I won’t get into the invasion of Egypt, where the Christian Copts ate STILL being tormented.

He argues on a shaky premise, that ‘the Indonesian Government, with the religous affairs minister and the home affairs minister, is facing a dilemma…on the one hand, it has to uphold the law, on the other, it seems to be worried that supporting GKI Yasmin will exacerbate tensions..‘ 

Perhaps some members of the regime see it as a dilemma, but those two ministries are held by shariah fanatics, Suryadharma Ali and Gamawan Fauzi, whose only dilemma is how best to do down the Christians.  Upholding the law is evidently off this government’s agenda, since SBY himself has opened the gates to side-lining the Supreme Court.

Vivanews.com last Wednesday had him telling the nation that “on this case (Yasmin) our experience in resolving cases of Ambon, Poso, the legal approach sometimes can not end the conflict, but the need for additional approaches,” said SBY.

But he’s Head of State! With one phone call, he can issue a clear order to the Police to enforce the law, and re-open the church.  No dilemma there, surely.

But to be fair, Pak Hilaly does recognise the problem – the sheer primitive ignorance of those who serve as foot-soldiers of the FPI etc. Apparently they ‘think it is wierd that a church should exist where Christians are few.’  His answer, a massive programme of education in the Pancasila pluralist basics of the Constitution, is all very well but would not work without cleaning out those awful pesantren schools, where incitement against Ahmadiyah etc is rife.

But congrats to the JP’s editorial, an unsigned piece that calls out SBY for ‘missing the point.’ and underlines the truth that   the state’s failure to play a role as the guardian of all citizens had directly and indirectly contributed to the killings in the Banten area of Cikeusik over a year ago. Worse, 12 people convicted in the fatal incident received only between three and six months of jail sentence and have all been freed.

Similarly, it is the state’s disrespect of the rule of law that has denied the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin congregation their freedom to worship

.So it ain’t just me, babe! Everybody knows something is wrong. But some want to right the wrong and others don’t. 

A flurry of reports…President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to adopt a more proactive approach to calming fears in the international community… there were almost no surprises in his address, which included a refusal to take firm action on the forced closure of a church in Bogor, West Java, the meeting itself at least set a more favorable tone in Yudhoyono’s efforts to reach out to global society…. Yudhoyono reiterated that his administration had always been serious in handling cases concerning human rights violations…

 

Serious? Six Months for This Murderous Pig?

 He picked two recent incidents as examples: the widespread attacks against Ahmadiyah followers and the saga surrounding the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Taman Yasmin in Bogor, West Java.

 

 Bogor Christians Worshippng Outside their Sealed Church 

“On the GKI church issue, the government has continuously facilitated mediation for all related parties.

But what’s to mediate? The highest court in the land has ruled for the church, not the bigot mayor. .

I hope the church congregation can worship peacefully in Bogor.”

Yes, but WHERE in Bogor? That statement could be interpreted as paving the way for what the bigots are pushing, a re-location to a bigot-chosen venue instead of letting them into their church. Impossible, he says – “I need to clarify this. The government has never prevented anybody from worshipping according to their faith,” said the President in a speech delivered in Indonesian.

But then, what about that Ahmadi mosque at the top of this page?

To the diplomats, SBY said THIS!

“What we do is attempt to prevent conflicts and ensure that this country, the population of which is more than 90 percent Muslim, protects those with different faiths under our Constitution,” Yudhoyono said. “Our measures are never discriminative….

What? So the Tri-Ministerial Decree from his Government, issued in 2008, does not single out Ahmadiyah  and blatantly discriminate against them, in ways never yet applied to other religions? A quick reminder of that decree’s content.

The joint ministerial decree between the Religious Affairs Ministry, the Home Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) was issued in 2008, banning Ahmadiyah from disseminating its teachings, because of theological differences between it and mainstream Islam. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/02/09/threeparty-meeting-discuss-decree-ahmadiyah.html

Please note. Banning Ahmadiyah!  Not Hinduism, not Baptists, not Sunnis, not Shias, not Catholics, not Pentecostalists…ONLY Ahmadiyah. Is that not ‘discriminative?’  And what about the following, which SBY’s Government has done nothing to interdict?

On February 28, 2011, the provincial government in East Java, which has a population of 37 million, banned the activities of the Ahmadiyah community, outlawing the display of their mosque and school signs and the use of “electronic media” to extend their teachings. On March 3, the government in West Java, Indonesia’s most populous province, with 43 million people, also banned the Ahmadiyahs’ activities. Both provincial governments based their laws on the June 2008 national decree by the Yudhoyono administration, violations of which can result in prison sentences of up to five years. Jemaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia, the religious group’s leadership, reports that 16 provinces and regencies in Indonesia have issued anti-Ahmadiyah decrees since 2006.  http://www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=263&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=262&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1119

No discrimination?

But read on, for now it gets quite chilling!

The President warned the international community that if harsh actions against the opponents of church were taken, there was a risk of repeating the violent conflict between Muslims and Christians that took place in Maluku and Central Sulawesi several years ago. 

That’s about as green a light as the rabid Islamist gangs need.  If the Government indicates thus that ‘harsh actions’ will not be implenented to stop thuggery against Yasmin Church in West Java and Ahmadiyah in every province, then the thug leaders –  who, despite what one might think, can read – will feel free to continue and intensify their mayhem.  

And the analogy with Maluku? What happened back then?

President Gus Dur ordered his security forces to stop the blood-thirsty savages of Laskar Jihad getting across to Maluku. Perhaps some obeyed orders, but others behaved treasonably, flouted the presidential order and let the scum sail to make war on innocent Christians. I can remember seeing a photo in the Jakarta Post at the time, of security forces in Surabaya WELCOMING that Islamist pack back from their killing spree.

If SBY needs to draw a lesson from Maluku, surely the lesson is that being easy-going, not to say permissive, with the Laskar killers and their present-day counter-parts, only encourages them.               

A draconian crack-down would be cheered on by the great majority of Indonesians (as well as we expats, except for the collaborationist oiks) who detest Islamist gangsterism.

Meanwhile, SBY could step in and end the vicious discrimination which Ahmadis, refugees in their own country,  are suffering in Lombok. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/02/13/six-years-ahmadis-still-face-uncertainties.html

People have been staying at the shelter since they were evicted in February 2006 from their village in Lingsar district, West Lombok regency, because their beliefs are considered heretical by many mainstream Muslims.

    They have complained since then that they have not been granted their basic rights as refugees. Social aid was discontinued in 2008.  “We feel that we have been neglected. I am afraid that the administration’s plan to relocate us will turn out to be just further discourse, as in the past,”

What’s been done, and is still going on there, is a disgrace to any civilised country. These are GENUINE refugees, not lying ‘asylum-seeker’ crimmigrants.

Can the President not go and visit these persecuted people, and see to it that they are restored to their homes without delay, and that those who have made their lives a misery be punished mercilessly? 

So many easy steps to take. Visit the persecuted church, succour those oppressed in Lombok, fire cops who won’t enforce the law, void discriminative decrees…order the arrest of the swine unpunished for the Cikeusik murders…the list is endless.

Where will SBY start?