Letter: Ahmadiyah: political scapegoat

Mon, 06/23/2008 10:35 AM  |  Reader's Forum

Ifdhal Kasim's article which appeared in The Jakarta Post on June 16, stating that the anti-Ahmadiyah decree is a human rights violation, will surely get the support of many.

Law No. 12/2005 ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, stating that the government can restrain a group's religious rights only for the sake of maintaining public order, public morality and people's rights and freedom.

Ahmadiyah has indeed never violated the above-mentioned law. No government has the right to forbid a certain religion. This is done in communist countries, but Indonesia is a democratic country, upholding human rights.

This decree, however, reflects the hostile stance of the Indonesian government against a particular religious affiliation. Who will be next? The Christians, Balinese Hindus, the Toradjans with their unique death culture, the Sunda Wiwitan religion of the Badui?

The government should realize that this is a pluralistic multi-cultural country with a number of different religions that should be respected by all. By issuing the anti-Ahmadiyah decree, religious tolerance has now gone down the drain.

Members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) have committed crimes and have violated human rights using Islam as an excuse to justify their criminal actions ever since 2001, regularly destroying private property, carrying out "sweeps" in hotels, threatening and beating up people, yet they are protected by the government.

Why are these criminals not being prosecuted? Why is the government stalling and what is the political motive behind all this? Is the current government using Ahmadiyah as a political scapegoat? Are they afraid that they will lose votes if they make the wrong decision? Well, with this decree the current government has already lost many votes, including mine.

Ahmadiyah has been in Indonesia since 1926, to restrict them now is absolutely ridiculous. Religion is a very private and personal matter, it is between the believer and God. No human has the right to judge a certain religious group because that is the prerogative of Allah. Let us pray for Indonesia because we are back on the road to communism.

LYNNA VAN DER ZEE-OEHMKE
Bogor, West Java

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