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ozens of residents and members of mass organizations under the Islamic Reform Movement have called for a halt to the planned Batak Karo Protestant church in Kawaluyaan in Bandung, West Java, saying that the congregation had breached the agreement that no church would be erected in the area.

The residents sealed the entrance gate of the soon-to-be-church building with a chain as part of their protest on Sunday.

Buah Batu Police precinct head, Comm. Maria Horethera, and Ringkas Sembiring, a member of the congregation, were on the scene when the incident occurred.

The building was previously owned by someone who later donated it to the Batak Karo Protestant group in 2003.

The group aimed to turn the building into a church, but since it had yet to obtain a legal permit, the project was halted and the building temporarily functioned as badminton courts for locals.

“We strictly reject the idea of a church in the area. If they want to turn the building into a sports center, go ahead.

How could they get the building permit, while we, local residents, have rejected the plan?” said Amin Safari, the coordinator of the protest.

Amin said that there had been a stamped agreement saying the building would not be used to hold masses as long as there was no legal building permit.

The agreement, he continued, was signed by the representatives of the Batak Karo Protestant group and local officials such as the sub district head, district head and the police, on January 8, 2011.

Should there be a breach in the agreement, the building would be sealed. Amin said that the Batak Karo Protestan group had breached the agreement as its members held meetings in the building every Wednesday.

“We had yet to give any recommendation on the church construction,” said neighborhood head Adang Sudrajat.

David Ginting, the committee secretary of the church construction project, said that there was nothing wrong with the construction, saying that his group had started to collect support from 60 residents and 90 more users of the building to be able to obtain the building permit.

“In the meeting, there was a conclusion that we were allowed to start arranging the permit. And that’s what we did. We went to residents as well as the various neighborhood heads,” David explained.

After gaining support from locals, he said the church committee asked for a recommendation from the Religious Affairs Ministry.

The ministry, David said, made clarification twice before issuing a recommendation on the project. “We later reported our project to the Forum of Religious Harmony,” David said, adding that his side obtained the written recommendation on the church construction permit on Dec. 3, 2011.

On Dec. 20, 2011, he said, he filed for a permit to the Bandung Spatial Planning Agency before coming to the Agency of Permit Service (BPPT).

“The building permit was finally issued on June 20,” he said, adding that he met members of the group in the building in July to raise funds for the church construction.

“It means we did not breach any agreement,” David said, adding that residents should file complaints to the Bandung Administrative Court if they rejected the plan.

Disputes over a religious community’s right to build a place of worship have occurred in many parts of the country over the years, with cases such as the Filadelfia Congregation of Batak Protestant Churches (HKBP) in Tambun in Bekasi, West Java, and the Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) in Bogor, West Java, being two examples.