Radical vigilantes becoming bolder in Indonesia

*Maybe I should wrote this message with the biggest font.

First of all I'm not wanna start a WAR.

Second of all, gees maybe, as Indonesian,

we should really concern about this.

I mean for real guys, i even got this article from a Malaysian website. Not from our local website, if they're concern enough to put it right there, why don't we?

INDONESIAN Christians in the city of Bekasi on the outskirts of Jakarta are feeling uneasy these days.

Apart from having their churches attacked by radical Muslim vigilantes in recent years, threats of “war” have now been issued against them.

Last Sunday, a group of extremists calling itself the Bekasi Islamic Presidium urged all mosques in the city to form armed militias to prepare for the possibility of war against Christianisation during a congress.

“The job of the militia is to monitor the activities of Christians as there are many cases of apostates, baptism,” said Murhali Barda, head of the Bekasi chapter of the radical Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), who participated in the meeting.

FPI, along with other Islamic groups, have also called for the implementation of syariah laws in Bekasi, a major industrial city of two million people located 30km east of Jakarta.

The intolerance and calls for syariah is a disturbing trend that is growing, threatening plural Indonesia which was founded as a secular state.

To date, dozens of syariah by-laws have been implemented in regencies throughout the country.

Indonesia has the world’s largest and also one of the most moderate Muslim population.

FPI and its ilk are a minority but the government’s hesitation to clamp down have given them the leeway to dominate public discourse.

FPI, a vigilante Islamist group, is famous for smashing up bars, attacking churches, the Ahmadiyahs, a tiny Muslim sect. The list of FPI’s thuggery is long.

While FPI is the most visible of the country’s extremist groups, they are by no means alone. There are other vigilante groups which carry out the same acts of intimidation and violence.

And they are growing bolder by the day, as FPI and its like-minded vigilantes are rarely sanctioned for their violence.

In February, FPI forcibly shut down the Galilea Church in Bekasi.

The Protestant Filadelfia Church in Bekasi have been holding services by the roadside since its church was shut down in January by another hardline group called the Islamic Communication Forum (FKUI).

“Since January, hundreds of demonstrators screaming ‘Burn!’, ‘Forbidden!’ will descend on us almost every weekend during service,” said Reverend Palti Panjaitan of Filadelfia Church.

“The site where we hold services are also often smeared with carcasses, animal faeces and rotten eggs,” added Rev Panjaitan.

No one was arrested.

Theo Bela, secretary-general of Indonesia Committee of Religions for Peace, rejected accusations Christians in Bekasi were converting Muslims.

“The Christians in Bekasi moved there from other parts of the country. As you know, some parts of IndonesiaFlores,” said Bela. are predominantly Christian like north Sulawesi,

The Filadelfia Church members, for instance, comprise mainly of Bataks, an ethnic group from north Sumatra which is predominantly Christian.

“There have been no conversion in my church. Everyone here is Batak and the service is conducted in the Batak dialect. It is not possible for non-Batak to participate in the service,” said Rev Panjaitan.

The vigilantes have grown so bold they even attacked three legislators in Banyuwangi, East Java on June 24 while they were discussing a new health bill. The attackers accused the meeting of being a reunion of communist members and their sympathisers.

The police allegedly stood by as the politicians were harassed. The MPs lodged a police report.

“Allowing violence is also an act of violence,” said Rieke Diyah Pitaloka, one of the MPs at the meeting.

“The government and the state are the ones who are most responsible for taking action against them (militias),” added Pitaloka, who is from the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP).

Legislators and moderate Muslims are now calling for FPI to be disbanded.

“It is not only FPI who should be banned but all militias,” said Yenny Wahid, executive director of The Wahid Institute.

The Wahid Institute was founded by her late father, moderate Muslim cleric and former president Abdurrahman Wahid.

“The lack of action against them have emboldened them to carry out thuggery in the name of religion,” said Yenny.

Yenny and legislators alleged FPI was established by the military toward the end of the late president Suharto’s rule in 1998.

“I suspect the police are reluctant to act against FPI because they are backed by the military and the military is considered to be their (police) seniors,” said Eva Kusuma Sundari, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP).

“I also see there is no firmness from the top leadership in dealing with such groups,” Eva added.

Yenny warned that the militia’s impugnity could trigger widespread conflict as many moderate organisations have their own militias but have been exercising restraint.

“If people get fed-up with such vigilantes and lose their patience, they can fight back. That’s really scary because this will mean civil war,” said Yenny.

By AMY CHEW

*taken from the http://thestar.com.my