Around 50 Ahmadis in Bekasi, West Java, have sealed themselves in the Al-Misbah Mosque, which the municipal administration closed the day before in a crack down.

The Ahmadis have refused to leave the mosque, which has been surrounded by a corrugated sheet fence that was erected by the administration on Thursday.

The security coordinator for the group, Deden Sudjana, said on Friday that local Ahmadis had received several threats before the mosque was sealed by officials.

“The government should have protected us as citizens, not treated us cruelly like this,” Deden told The Jakarta Post.

“We just want to pray.”

Deden said that officials began to close down the mosque at 1 p.m., when 200 officers from the Bekasi Public Order Agency and the Pondok Gede police precinct and several soldiers from the Indonesian Military (TNI) arrived on the scene.

On Friday afternoon, according to Deden, around 400 police officers tried to evacuate the Ahmadis from the mosque following rumors that 2,000 members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) were planning to attack.

Police abandoned the evacuation attempt after a meeting with the Ahmadis that was moderated by representatives of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and the Wahid Institute, an NGO that promotes pluralism, Deden said.

However, Bekasi Police chief Sr. Comr. Priyo Widiyanto told the Post that the situation was at the mosque was “normal” and that no evacuation was attempted or needed, although 20 officers were on hand to provide security

Deden said that the local administration had justified shutting down the mosque under the terms of a West Java gubernatorial decree and the 2008 joint ministerial decree banning members of the Ahmadiyah Indonesia Congregation (JAI) from propagating their religious beliefs.

The YLBHI said in a statement that it condemned the Bekasi administration’s move to seal the mosque, which it said had violated provisions of the 1945 Constitution stating that “all citizens have the right to hold their beliefs and exercise their beliefs”.

The statement also questioned why TNI troops were on hand when the fence was erected, as the military’s principal duty was national defense.

The closure of the mosque is not a first for the nation’s beleaguered Ahmadi community.

In 2005, hundreds of Ahmadis in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), were evicted from their homes and lived in shelters in Mataram, NTB, for five years after an attack by a group that considered the Ahmadhis as deviant Muslims. (hrl)

Recent attacks on religious minorities

• March 21, 2013: HKBP Taman Sari members in Bekasi, West Java, watch as officials demolish their unfinished church on permit issues.

• Feb. 14, 2013: Bekasi municipal officials seal Al-Misbah Mosque in Pondok Gede after it is used by Ahmadis.

• Jan. 27, 2013: Islamic groups block the BNKP church in Bandung, West Java, from holding Sunday services.

• Oct. 25, 2012: Idul Adha celebrations in Bandung marred by attack launched by hard-line FPI members on An-Nasir mosque, home to hundreds of Ahmadis.

• Aug. 26, 2012: Two killed and dozens of homes destroyed as majority Sunnis rampage through Shia Muslim villages in Madura, East Java.

• Aug. 6, 2012: Officials seal St. Johannes Church in Bogor, West Java, after the local administration ignored a properly compiled permit application submitted in 2007.

• April 22, 2012: Local Muslim groups break up a HKBP Filadelfia church service in Tambun, Bekasi.

• April 20, 2012: Crowd of Islamic groups and local residents vandalize mosque used by Ahmadis in Tasikmalaya, West Java.

• March 16, 2012: Unidentified men fire 20 shots into Catholic church in Indramayu.

• Feb. 17, 2012: Crowd vandalizes Nur Hidayah Mosque used by 200 Ahmadis in Cianjur, West Java.

• Jan. 22, 2012: Supporters of two hard-line groups and public order officers halt Sunday services at GKI Taman Yasmin.

• Jan. 1, 2012: Hard-line Muslim groups attempt to prevent GKI Taman Yasmi from conducting its first Sunday service in 2012 near the sealed church.

Source: The Jakarta Post

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