Indonesia’s Religious Liberty – “Forced to ID as ‘Islam’ to Get a Job!”


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In a shameful but sadly not surprising move, legislators this week perpetuated state discrimination against religious minorities.
 
As the Jakarta Post reported,the House of Representatives approved on Tuesday an amendment to the civil administration law that forbids followers of indigenous faiths to state their religion on identification cards.
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e-KTP-contoh

KTP – Indonesia’s ID Card – note the religious identification, fourth line from the bottom

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What is surprising, shocking even, is that NOT ONE MP voted against the iniquitous Article 64, although
Arif Wibowo, of ex-President Megawati’s PDI-P did warn that “We want to remind the government that in spite of this article, the government must uphold fairness and non-discriminatory principles.”
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But a fat lot of good that’s going to do while President SBY keeps Islamist bigots like Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi in his Cabinet.
That fanatic took the opportunity for a snide reference that made clear the main target of this discrimination would be Ahmadiyah, the minority most persecuted here.
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The Minister lacked the courage to spell out his intolerance. “I don’t want to name names.”
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WHY NOT, MINISTER? FINALLY DEVELOPED A SENSE OF SHAME?
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Hardly.  
“But we know for certain that there are groups that have different views from the teachings of mainstream religions and they will demand that their faith be put on the ID cards if we don’t keep it [Article 64].”
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And why the heck shouldn’t they?
Why can’t they hold views different from the big denominations?
And if they do, why can’t that difference appear on their KTPs?
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  • gamawan-fauzi- Fanatic Gamawan
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Gamawan said that once subscribers of non-denominational faiths were allowed to declare their beliefs it would pave the way for people to promote their own interpretations of major religious teachings.

So? All the better – it’s called thinking.

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  • Ministers should try it more often.

Again I ask why the heck shouldn’t people promote their own interpretations of major religious teachings? It’s fundamental to religious liberty that every single citizen should be free to interpret every conceivable teaching.

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  Aand in any case, what business is it of any government to preserve the right of any denominational in-crowd to define what’s true and what’s not?  The Islamist ‘scholars’ of the MUI, for example, come out with deranged drivel about female circumcision being a human right!

Yet Gamawan bows to their fatuous fatwas, like the one condemning Ahmadiyah. Indeed, the whole government is tainted by this bigotry with their Tri-Ministerial Decree which provides the basis for persecution.

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Jackboot

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But never mind.

With an eye to the ever-growing international audience which watches Indonesia’s slide into shariah, Gamawan instantly resorted to Orwellian logic.

Having declared himself for blatant denial of equal rights for minorities to have their religions listed on the ID cards, he simultaneously pledged that the government would provide equal treatment to all citizens regardless of their faith.

“I will summon all relevant government officials and order them to run a public campaign about the amendment of the law. They have to make sure that minority groups are not discriminated against in the future,” he said.

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SomethingWickedbcweb

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But they will be. Article 64 is an unequivocal act of discrimination. Indonesia’s oldest religions are refused recognition, denied parity of esteem with late-comers like Christianity and of course Islam…. and here’s how it works.

Ayal Kosal, a 72-year-old subscriber of Kaharingan, a native religion of the Dayak tribe in Kalimantan, said that the failure to identify faiths outside of the six religions recognized by the government had given them enough problems.  Ayal said that his first son Arjan was forced to put “Islam” on his ID card so that he could apply for a job as a teacher in a local public school.

Pretty sickening.

“He had no choice but to sacrifice his true faith, otherwise he would not get the job,” Ayal said on Tuesday.

And Gamawan has done nothing to remedy this evil injustice. Nor should we expect him to, for he is the man who, in his Sumatra days, imposed viciously discriminatory shariah by-laws.

  • Shariah Controlled Zone_thumb[1]

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Sejumlah massa dari Front Pembela Islam (FPI) melakukan aksi di depan Gedung Mahkaman Konstitusi (MK), Jakarta, Rabu (27/1).

———— National Assets?

He is also the man who called the IslamoNazi thugs of the FPI a ‘national asset‘ only a few months ago. https://rossrightangle.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/shariah-minister-lets-coach-islamonazis-why-not-hells-angels-too/

So what hope has old Ayal got of justice at the hands of such a Minister, or the Minister’s bigot minions across the archipelago?

Ayal, a leader of the Dayak tribe in the Loksado village in South Kalimantan, said that more than 6,000 of his fellow Kaharingan believers dealt with similar problems. “Some of us give up our faith for administrative reasons. Meanwhile, others are still fighting to gain access to basic public services by getting around the rules and regulations,” he said.

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  • orwell-nineteen-eighty-four-large-cover And second-class status is equality
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  • But Gamawan is only one Minister, albeit a fanatic of the worst kind. 
  • Freedom of religion is denied to hundreds of thousands, like Ayal’s son, NOT because of Gamawan Fauzi but because the rest of the Cabinet won’t lift a finger to curb his cruel, unjust rules AND because not one single MP dared vote for basic fair play for minorities.
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