Lulu Andryani, a resident of the Bali View housing estate in Cirendeu, south of Jakarta, said she was surprised when members of her twice weekly Koran recital group distributed flyers calling on people to shun religious tolerance.

“When I first joined the session, held in a mosque in Pamulang [south of Jakarta], early this year, it felt normal. There was a Koran recital and a discussion on Islam. But after the third session held at the Pondok Indah mosque, it turned ugly,” she told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

“It is wrong to claim that only Islam is the best [religion]. We live in a pluralistic society; we have to respect others,” she said, adding that she left the group immediately after the session.

Bona Sigalingging, a member of the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) congregation who lives in the Taman Yasmin housing complex in Bogor, said that some residents accused the church of proselytizing.

“They announced an invitation through the local mosque loudspeaker for people to attend an ‘exposé’ on proselytizing,” he said.

Bona also recalled that in April, some residents and several members of the hard-line Indonesian Muslims Communication Forum (Forkami) sealed off his under-construction church.

However, Bona said he believed intolerance occurred in any pluralistic society irrespective of the predominant religion.

He said he saw similar intolerance in his predominantly-Christian hometown of Tarutung in North Sumatra. “But by using our conscience, we can stop such cycles of hatred.”

The Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) said at least 11 churches and Christian institutions in Greater Jakarta were either destroyed or sealed off between January and August this year.

Across the country, there were a total of 24 such cases. There are no figures on the number of attacks on mosques and places of worship of other religions.

“I feel sorry for law enforcers who fail to address the growing intolerance and tend to turn a blind eye,” the PGI’s Jeirry Sumampow said.

The horrific face of intolerance was in full view on Aug. 8 when Islamic hardliners attacked the congregation of the HKBP Church in Bekasi who were holding Sunday service. Dozen of church members, mostly women, were injured in the fracas.

Jeirry said people today were quicker to resort to religious intolerance than during the New Order era,   when people spoke much less openly about religious differences.

Under the repressive regime of former president Soeharto, the government imposed stiff regulations on any activities claimed to instigate conflict among different religions and ethnic groups, branding the activities subversive or a threat to national security.

Rudi Dodo, a resident of Bumi Serpong Damai in South Tangerang, recalled an incident that broke out when Saint John Catholic School was built in the area in 2006.

“Some people started up a petition to protest the building of the school,” he said. “A security guard in my neighborhood brought the petition. It was open, so anyone could see who had signed on.”

He refused to sign, saying he was not sure what was behind the issue.

The protest, however, did not affect the construction of the school, which has been running normally since. (ipa)

Popular

Festive Indonesia celebrates 80th Independence Day

SoftBank to invest $2b in Intel to become top-10 shareholder

Religious Affairs Ministry vows crackdown on intolerance