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Yogya sees conflicts over houses of worship on the rise
At least five churches and a religious tourism site in Yogyakarta are on the edge of being forced into closure this year following pressure from local Muslim groups, an NGO has said
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t least five churches and a religious tourism site in Yogyakarta are on the edge of being forced into closure this year following pressure from local Muslim groups, an NGO has said.
Friends of Freedom of Religion and Association (Sobat KBB) activist Agnes Dwi Rusjiyati said that, as of earlier this month, two churches in Bantul regency, two in Sleman regency, one in Yogyakarta municipality and a Catholic shrine in Gunungkidul regency had received warnings from local Muslim groups. These Muslims groups are protesting against the use of the buildings as places of worship.
The groups, according to Agnes, have also claimed that the churches and the religious tourism site were built without proper building permits and that their request to close down the Christian houses of worship had received support from local Muslim residents.
'Among the five regions in Yogyakarta province, only Kulonprogo regency has no public dispute regarding church establishments,' Agnes told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Efforts to close the churches had also been undertaken during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan, which began on June 18 and will last until Thursday, she added.
On July 5, representatives from the Yogyakarta Islamic Congregation Forum (FUI) met with Muslim residents in Saman hamlet, Bangunharjo sub-district, Sewon district, Bantul and asked them to stage protests against the establishment of an Indonesian Baptist Church in the area.
'The hamlet chief said that the building had received a building permit application. However, he was unaware that the building was intended to be used as church,' Yogyakarta FUI head Muhammad Fuad said, adding that his organization was ready to help the local Muslims settle the dispute.
Saman hamlet chief Kuat Slamet, however, has a different point of view regarding the status of the 75 square-meter church, which has been operating in the hamlet for 20 years and facilitating congregation members from Bangunharjo sub-district and neighboring areas, to that of Fuad.
Defying claims from the FUI, Saman said that he had never received complaints from residents of the hamlet regarding the activities of the church. He confirmed, however, that the church currently lacked a proper building permit for its activities.
'After Idul Fitri, we will discuss this matter,' he said.
The church's sextons, meanwhile, refused to comment on the matter, citing safety concerns.
In 2011, the Yogyakarta office of the Religious Affairs Ministry reported that 3.2 million, or 92 percent, of Yogyakarta's 3.5 million residents were Muslims.
Last week, a group of people representing the Gunungkidul Muslim Youth Forum, the Yogyakarta FUI, and local residents, urged the Gunungkidul regency administration to immediately demolish the Cave of Mary religious shrine in Sampang sub-district, Gedangsari, citing long-standing public protests against the religious tourism site.
According to a 2006 joint ministerial decree, a new house of worship must have the support of at least 90 congregation members and 60 local residents of different faiths.
Eko Riyadi, director of Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Islamic University's Center for Human Rights Studies (Pusham UII), said that the decree had made it difficult for religious minorities in Muslim-majority Indonesia to build new houses of worship.
Eko urged local authorities to treat conflicts regarding building permits for houses of worship as civil disputes instead of inter-religious ones, because the religious angle would almost certainly put religious minorities on the losing side of the conflict.
'It will be difficult for local administrations and the police to stay neutral should they treat disputes over houses of worship as religious conflicts,' he said.
