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Attack on church sparks widespread outrage
Muslims nationwide have condemned a hard-line Islamic organization for an attack on a church group on Sunday, saying the incident had tarnished the image of Islam
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uslims nationwide have condemned a hard-line Islamic organization for an attack on a church group on Sunday, saying the incident had tarnished the image of Islam.
The public reaction surfaced in response to an assault allegedly carried out by the Islamic Community Forum (FUI) on Sunday morning against the HKBP Filadelfia church congregation in Bekasi, West Java, injuring about 20 people, mostly women.
The attack, just one day after Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo and Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Timur Pradopo met with the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI), an FUI affiliate, sparked outrage among people from social analysts to laymen.
On the social networking website Twitter, the FPI was the fourth most discussed topic globally at press time on Sunday despite the group’s leader, Rizieq Shihab, having denied FPI’s involvement in the attack.
One harsh “tweet” was posted by Wanda Chairunisa, who said: “FPI has no correlation with Islam, they don’t belong to Islam, they don’t even belong in this country.”
Another topic under discussion titled Dismissing FPI (Bubarkan FPI) appeared on Twitter with posts denouncing the FPI as “Indonesia’s biggest enemy”.
Most comments have called on the government to dismantle the hard-line organization, whose history is marred with violence.
Sociologist Imam B. Prasodjo said strong reaction from the public was a sign of growing public impatience with the government’s policy of turning a blind eye to organizations that use certain beliefs to justify violence.
“This is the climax of the government’s inaction to solve the problem,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Hard-line Islamic groups, in-cluding the FPI, which was established in 1998, have been involved in several cases of violence in the country targeting minority groups such as Christians and followers of the Ahmadiyah sect of Islam.
Sunday’s incident in Bekasi is the latest effort by hardliners to stop Christian congregations in the area.
No investigations have been carried out to stop those responsible from carrying out further attacks despite efforts from the locals to report cases to the police and human rights commissions.
Instead, the authorities have embraced the FPI, involving them in efforts to enforce a city bylaw banning entertainment centers from operating during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
This close relationship became apparent Saturday with the attendance of Governor Fauzi and city police chief Timur at the 12th anniversary of the FPI at the organization’s headquarters in Petamburan, Central Jakarta.
The visit by Jakarta’s two highest authorities confirmed their support for the FPI, while just a day earlier, a FPI leader visited Jakarta Police to offer their service in enforcing the city’s bylaws.
The move has received strong criticism from the public.
“Fauzi was supported by many parties to become Jakarta governor because of his pluralist platform. [But] now he embraces the [non-pluralist] FPI. Surprising,” Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla posted on Twitter.
Analysts also believe that the authority’s apparent coalition with hard-liners will only prove its inability to protect the public.
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