M

em>March 20, p. 4

A top official at the Religious Affairs Ministry claimed that attacks on religious minorities nationwide were orchestrated by political elites and a small number of hard-liners and did not reflect rising intolerance.

The head of the Religious Affairs Ministry’s research and development division, Muhammad Machasin, told The Jakarta Post recently that based on a study conducted by the ministry the majority of Indonesian Muslims were tolerant.

“We have found that most of our people do in fact maintain harmonious relationships with their neighbors. We’ve found that differences appear to be no problem among the people.

Your comments:

So when is the government going to arrest and prosecute members of the violent radical groups, who are known to orchestrate attacks instead of supporting them? Don’t hold your breath.

Sheldon Archer

It is very encouraging to see some good sense and realism coming from the Religious Affairs Ministry.

To support this good sense, the press (including the Post) must stop pretending that violence against minority communities, be they Ahmadis, Shiites or Christians, is carried out by “angry locals”, as if the violence was some kind of spontaneous event. This is clearly not true and insults the “locals” themselves.

The violence is pre-planned from quite high up, for political ends. The hired thugs can dress up in whatever clothes they like. They are still thugs.

Deedee S.

It is true the majority of the Indonesian population is not aligned with such radicals.

But the fact that the number of incidents increases from year to year shows that these radicals are encouraged by law enforcement and political elites.

Whatever way the ministry tries to spin it, they are paving the way for further intolerance which
increases daily.

It would all be so simple if they would lay off the moral bandwagon and stop pandering to organizations by staying out of peoples private affairs.

Your religion to yourself and I’ll keep my religion to myself.

Deddy K.

I quote: “Attacks on religious minorities … have been orchestrated by political elites and a small number of hard-liners and did not reflect rising intolerance”

It is the Religious Affairs Ministry that is at the forefront of the intolerance movement in Indonesia. This ministry has issued declarations against Shia and Ahmadis Muslims. We can confidently state that all the intolerance is orchestrated by the political elites and a number of hard-liners.

That would be true democracy, because democracy does not mean that the majority rules, but that all the peoples have freedom and liberty, with true justice for all citizens.

Brien

I quote: “The government is also responsible for the rising attacks on religious minorities nationwide by omission.”

Speak up ladies and gentlemen before you have a conflict that will simply never end.

Duncan