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ctivists championing religious pluralism blame widespread disturbances targeting churches in the past few years on growing hatred and intolerance campaigned by some hard-line groups.

“The real issue is the growing intolerance within our society,” Bonar Tigor Naipospos, the deputy chairman of the Setara Institute, an NGO advocating religious freedom and pluralism, said Tuesday.

He urged the government to address growing intolerance by hardliners who insisted on spreading hatred in pluralistic communities.

“Most of them are not local residents who live near disputed houses of worship,” Bonar said, adding that he suspected that these groups moved from place to place in the past seven years, provoking locals.

“The government must take firm action against these groups,” he said, adding that the government press criminal charges against the groups for instigating conflict or using violence to assault other worshippers.

Recently, two officials from the HKBP Protestant Church in Bekasi, West Java, were injured in a drive-by attack by people reportedly dressed in traditional Muslim attire. Police have named the leader of the Bekasi branch of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) in the assault.

“A permanent and fair solution is needed as this kind of incident may occur again,” Bonar said.

Bona Sigalingging from the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) in Taman Yasmin, Bogor, West Java, said the local administration did not help mediate differences even when the tensions spiked.

He said the GKI had fulfilled all legal requirements to construct a church, however, the Bogor administration had sealed off the construction site, forcing the congregation to hold Sunday service on the sidewalk since April this year.

The administration revoked the church building permit on Feb. 14, 2008, claiming protests from local residents against the church as the reason. The Bandung Administrative Court later overturned the ruling in favor of the church. The church construction continued in January this year, but in February, the administration again revoked the building permit.

Other churches, including HKBP Cinere in Depok, HKBP Filadelfia in Bekasi and Santa Maria in Purwakarta, West Java, were reportedly also victims of similar intolerance and threats.

Mayong from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute blamed the government’s incompetence for preventing the spread of religious intolerance.

“The government remains hesitant about nipping in the bud any seeds of hatred leading to conflict,” he said. (not)