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Ahmadiyah mosque burned as protests grow
VIOLENCE AND TEARS: Followers of Ahmadiyah pray during a religious gathering in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, on Monday
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VIOLENCE AND TEARS: Followers of Ahmadiyah pray during a religious gathering in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, on Monday. (JP/Panca Nugraha)
A group calling itself the Jamaah Al Mubalighin Communication Forum burned down a mosque belonging to the "deviant" Ahmadiyah sect in Parakan Salak village in Sukabumi regency, West Java, early Monday.
Sukabumi Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Gunthor Ghafar told The Jakarta Post the incident began when the forum members met Sunday for a Koran reading session at At-Taqwa Mosque, about 700 meters from Ahmadiyah's Al Furqon Mosque.
The forum members then issued a five-point ultimatum to the Ahmadiyah members, including a demand they "return to Islam" and take down the Ahmadiyah sign from Al Furqon Mosque.
Head of Ahmadiyah in Sukabumi, Asep, told the forum members they needed time to discuss the ultimatum.
The two sides then held a meeting around 7 p.m. on Sunday. During the meeting, Ahmadiyah agreed to remove its sign from the mosque, with the promise that the forum members would not vandalize Ahmadiyah property.
However, forum members attacked the mosque and burned it down shortly after midnight.
Earlier this month a government team -- the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society (Bakor Pakem) -- recommended the Ahmadiyah sect be banned because its doctrines deviate from the teachings of Islam.
An Ahmadiyah spokesman told reporters in Jakarta the board's recommendation to ban the group on the grounds that it is heretical had led to an increase in attacks on its mosques.
"The recommendation has caused an escalation in the destruction of mosques run by Ahmadiyah across Indonesia," the spokesman, Shamsir Ali, said as quoted by Reuters.
A policeman guarding the Sukabumi mosque was reported to have been hurt in the attack and police questioned eight people in connection with the incident. The National Police later announced two men had been named as suspects.
"We are still investigating this case. We are still discussing the case with the (Sukabumi) prosecutor's office and military command," said Gunthor.
Asep demanded the police provide protection for the some 3,000 sect members in the regency. He also hoped police could catch and punish those responsible for the attack on the mosque.
In Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, Ahmadiyah followers, who have been accommodated at the city's Transito building for months after being evicted from their homes, read their creed at the shelter's mosque.
The reading of the creed was intended to show the public that their beliefs are the same as other Muslims.
"Herewith I swear in the name of Allah and Rasulullah (the Prophet Muhammad) that we have no other God other than Allah, no religion other than Islam and no last prophet other than Muhammad ...," M. Syaiful Uyun, an Ahmadiyah official in West Nusa Tenggara, said in leading the other members.
The members hoped their demonstration would counter claims the group was heretical and deserving of a ban.
"Bakor Pakem's recommendation is not based on facts and is blasphemous," said one Ahmadiyah member who asked not to be identified.
The members urged the government not to issue a joint decree banning Ahmadiyah, which they said would violate the Constitution, the laws of the country and human rights.
