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s many as 300 former members of the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) in North Sumatra have returned to their communities in various regions throughout the province, ready to restart activities that they left off when they joined the movement.

They arrived in the provincial capital of Medan on March 30 to receive a week of counseling before being sent back home. Previously, they were accommodated in Boyolali, Central Java, after being forcibly evicted from Gafatar’s communal farm in Mempawah regency, West Kalimantan.

Former chairman of Gafatar’s North Sumatra branch Dadang Darmawan was excited as he was finally able to return to the community that he and his family had left in November 2015 to join Gafatar in Kalimantan.

“We never thought our neighbors would still love us, or welcome us home,” he told The Jakarta Post at his house in the Menteng Indah housing complex on Saturday.

As he had returned, Dadang said he would like to start teaching again at the University of North Sumatra.

“I want to teach again and I will report to the university next week so I can start working,” Dadang, former chairman of North Sumatra’s Muslim Students Association, said.

He said that before being sent home, he had received mental and spiritual counseling from religious leaders. During the counseling, he said former Gafatar members who were Muslims proclaimed the syahadat (Islamic creed) as a sign that they acknowledged orthodox Islamic teaching.

While former members who were Christians, he added, had to vow in front of a pastor to follow the true teachings of Christianity.

“We didn’t mind proclaiming the syahadat again, because it’s what we must do so we can rejoin society just like before,” Dadang said.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) declared Gafatar a heretical movement as it mixed up, or syncretized, three religions, namely Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

Nevertheless, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin said Gafatar members should be protected from any kind of discrimination or violence.

Another former Gafatar member, Supriadi, 36, was also happy to be returning to the community where he used to live.

“After this, I plan to become a farmer,” Supriadi said during the homecoming ceremony of former Gafatar members at the Medan Municipality office.

Chairman of MUI’s Medan chapter Muhammad Hatta called on the people of North Sumatra, especially in Medan, not to shun former Gafatar members who had returned home.

“I urge people not to avoid former Gafatar members, because they are still part of our community,” Hatta said.

Head of the political, national unity and people’s protection division of the municipality administration, Ceko Ritonga, said they would continue to monitor the former members who had gone back to their families and communities.

He said counseling and several other educative programs by religious leaders and local leaders would still be provided for them.

“We will keep providing assistance for them until they can really mingle and interact with their communities just like in the old days,” Ceko said, adding that such efforts were aimed at minimizing any form of opposition in the community.
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