Comment: Mob victim: No justice for minorities

Aug. 16, Online

A man wounded when hardliners launched a deadly attack on his minority sect questioned Indonesia’s commitment to religious freedom after he was sentenced to six months in jail — more than some of the  attackers caught on video.

Deden Sudjana, a security chief for the minority Muslim Ahmadiyah, said he was trying to defend 20 sect members holed up in a house in the village of Cikeusik when they were surrounded by a frenzied mob of 1,500.

The assailants, carrying wooden clubs, machetes and rocks, killed three people and chanted “God is Great!” as they pummeled their lifeless bodies, police looking on. Footage of the gruesome attack was posted on YouTube.

Your comments:

Breivik faces up to 21 years, which is the maximum sentence allowed under Norwegian antiterrorism laws. Critics might say this is not enough but prosecutors will certainly go for the maximum sentence possible within the country’s legal framework.

Now compare this to the Cikeusik trial where prosecutors (reportedly after repeated “lobbying” from Banten Muslim leaders) asked for ridiculously lenient sentences — about 1/10 of what is possible.

Nerdrage
Jakarta

There is a new kind of fascism at work here, but Islam is the victim of it, not the cause of it.

Andrew
Tangerang