Organizations from various religions said earlier that they would join a peaceful rally and prayer vigil every Sunday in front of the Palace to put pressure on an “indecisive” Yudhoyono to take immediate action to clamp down on religious violence. The group calling itself the Forum for Religious  Freedom and Solidarity plans to hold an interfaith prayer gathering today at noon at the National Monument.

“Recent attacks on church congregations may be too small an issue for the President to take notice of and respond to, but it reflects the tip of the iceberg of a larger looming conflict that threatens religious harmony in the country,” Izzan Budi, a student at Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, West Java, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Izzan cited a recent attack on the congregation of the HKBP Pondok Timur Indah church in Bekasi, West Java, last week by a mob from the Islamic Community Forum (FUI). Dozens of congregation members, mostly women and children, were injured in the attack.

Izzan urged the President to act to stop the religious violence and better protect the rights of the people.

“The President should provide a solution by at least issuing strong orders to the police to protect the congregation during their Sunday service until they have a permanent house of worship,” Izzan said, adding that the Indonesian state ideology Pancasila gave the President strong grounds to take action.

The President had previously spoken about religious freedom, stating that he would protect people’s rights to freely practice their religions because the state ideology guaranteed such freedom.

University of Indonesia researcher Agysa Vieny said the government had the authority to disband hard-line groups which provoked their followers to carry out acts of violence against people from other religions.

“If the President does nothing about these attacks, we can only rightly assume that he is afraid of these groups,” Agysa said.

Muhammad Taufan, an employee of a private company in Jakarta, said he believed Yudhoyono had not done enough to deal with religious violence.

“If the President feels that the police are failing in their jobs and not arresting the instigators behind the attacks, he should call them up on it,” Taufan said.

He said he believed Indonesians still retained great tolerance toward different faiths.

“Religious conflicts are stoked by firebrands who don’t want peace in this country. As the leader of the country, the President should have these people immediately arrested to prevent deeper and wider conflict,” he said.

Members of HKBP congregation have recently complained that the authorities have not arrested anyone involved in the attacks on their church, even though the President through his spokesman, Julian Aldrin Pasha, had instructed the justice and human rights minister and the police to take action against those responsible.

Catholic priest and advocate for religious freedom, Benny Susetyo, also expressed his disappointment over Yudhoyono’s limp response to the matter.

“If the President fails to get things done through his own men, we should start questioning his leadership ability,” Benny told the Post. (rch)

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