‘Police protection not enough for Ahmadis’

The Jakarta Police said Tuesday that it would provide protection for at least 13 Ahmadi compounds in Greater Jakarta areas following the Pandeglang attack, a move that skeptics said would do little to stop prosecution against them.

“We will conduct surveillance and a patrol on the Ahmadi complex to anticipate possible attacks,” Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Baharudin Djafar said on Tuesday.

Baharudin said that police personnel had been deployed in 13 locations where Ahmadis lived in Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi. Some police personnel had gone undercover on the mission, he said. “So far, the situation remains calm, but we cannot let down our guard anticipating a possible further attack,” he told reporters.

On Sunday morning, three Ahmadis were killed and five injured in the attack against an Ahmadi compund in Umbulan village, Pandeglang regency, Banten.

A public outcry soon followed the attack, especially after videos detailing lynching against the Ahamdis appeared on YouTube.

In a full-length video shown by the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), locals were displayed stoning and beating the bodies of two Ahmadis. In another video, the attackers were shown beating the bodies of Ahmadis while chanting “Infidel, infidel!” and “Allahuakbar [God is great].” Others were seen applauding the barbaric act.

Other footage shows dozens of locals, armed with bamboo sticks and machetes, putting on a blue ribbon on their lapels, mobbing the homes of Ahamdis and hurling verbal abuse. A police officer is seen trying to stop the lynching but his call fell on deaf ears. A rights group was quick to doubt the police’s sincerity in providing security to the Ahmadi compound.

Setara Institute human rights watch director Hendardi said that everybody had the right to doubt the police’s intention in guarding the compound.

“After all, it was the National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo who said that the Ahmadis were the ones who provoked the attack,” Hendardi told The Jakarta Post. “After hearing him say that, how can we trust the police to protect the Ahmadis? The National Police have continuously showed their negligence whenever there is an attack on Ahmadis,” he added.

Hendardi also deplored police naivete in treating the attack against Ahmadis as only a criminal case. “The police must work hard to find the instigators behind the continuous attacks on Ahmadis,” he said.

Ahmadis, have been under attack from Muslim fundamentalists in recent years. Muslim fundamentalists deem Ahmadi teachings as heretical.

The Ahmadis identify themselves as Muslims and abide by the Koran but also believe that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of Ahmadiyah, was the last prophet, not Prophet Muhammad.

While early incidents of violence against the Ahmadis date back to the early 1950s, it was not until 2005 that the hostility intensified dramatically. In 2010 alone, there were at least 10 recorded attacks against the minority sect.

The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been asked by rights groups to condone violence against Ahmadis, after Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali suggested the Ahmadiyah sect be “disbanded”.

Suryadharma is also the chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), an Islamist-based party.