So In West Java, Religious Liberty Is Now Conditional?
A few days ago we looked at the victims of sectarian injustice here in Indonesia, not all of them, by any means, but two congregations often covered in our blog, GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia.
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Barred by brutal ignoramuses in Bogor and evil savages in Bekasi, two cities in the Province of West Java…
Christ’s Ascension Day – Islamist Savages Pelt Congregation With Sewage, Urine and Rocks
Head-Scarfed Harpies Hurl Dung and Urine at Christians
X-Rated Xmas – Foul-Mouths Bully Christians, As ‘Moderate’Mayor Denies They Exist!’
…from their churches, they have worshipped on the street in Jakarta, across the road from the State Palace, in searing heat some days, in bucketing rain on others….
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The GKI people took their case all the way to the Supreme Court – and won!
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Jokowi
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But President Jokowi hasn’t ordered his police to enforce that judicial decree, so the oppression goes on.
Incidentally, a seat is always left reserved for the President on that pavement, by Christians who have heard his frequent boasts of Indonesia’s pluralism.
I have attended the services from time to time but Jokowi has never yet strolled the hundred yards from his palace to recognise their respectful loyalty.
Now, however, headlines in local media suggest light at the end of the tunnel of the torment.
Bima Arya And GKI Yasmin Agree to Build a Mosque next to the Church
Bima Arya is Mayor of Bogor, touted as a ‘moderate’ when he replaced a rabid Islamist a couple of years ago, and many (me too!) innocently assumed he’d do the decent thing and remedy the injustices.
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Bima Arya
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But instead he declined to act, and – as in our linked story above – ‘Moderate’Mayor Denies They Exist!’ – he even stooped to denying the congregation’s existence, despite the fact we could all see them suffer on the street every second Sunday.
That first Christmas after Bima took over, his local goon-squad – aka ‘civic militia,’ the SatPol PP – showed their true colours, as one Christian on the scene reported – “We were pushed, cursed with foul language, and threatened,” he said. http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2014/12/25/214630883/Natal-Jemaat-GKI-Yasmin-Diganggu-Satpol-PP
Yet suddenly that mean mayor’s agreeing with his goons’ erstwhile victims, and freedom of religion may be restored in his benighted city?
I’ll believe it when I see it!
And even were it to come to pass, according to the report this week, it would be CONDITIONAL liberty –
http://nusantara.rmol.co/read/2017/12/25/319646/Bima-Arya-Dan-GKI-Yasmin-Setuju-Bangun-Masjid-Bersebelahan-Gereja-
– the congregation’s clear constitutional right to use their own church only tolerated if a mosque is constructed next door.
What a mockery!
As to HKBP, no news at all.
But that’s what I have long expected from Bekasi, a place infamous for its intolerance.
Bekasi intellectuals articulate deep philosophical objections to religious liberty
Kezia is discussing. 
rossrightangle 
Kezia 14:15 on December 27, 2017 Permalink |
I am back to work again, Ross and I see you are still on holidays but still blogging.
Busy but happy I think you are happy only when you are busy!
It is very awful to be in Bekasi if you are in a minority religion. Bogor too,, with so many mosques so why need to build another beside the church.
I better not to say what I think about that Mayor there..,
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