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Police, local officials 'behind' many religious freedom violations across Indonesia
State officials have acted against individuals from religious minority groups by issuing policies disadvantaging the groups and limiting them - and even arresting them - for their activities.
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GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia congregation members sit together outside the west gate of the National Monument (Monas) to hold a Sunday service as a reminder of their fight for religious freedom in this 2016 file photo. (JP/wnd)
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overnment officials still play a large role in the oppression of religious freedom across the country, human rights groups have reported.
According to the latest survey conducted by religious freedom watchdog Wahid Foundation, at least 130 religious freedom violation cases — out of a total of 276 cases found in 2018 —were committed by the authorities. The number had increased from 95 violations carried out by government officials the previous year from a total of 265 cases.
The largest violators were police personnel and local administration leaders, who were involved in 34 and 23 cases, respectively.
The form of violations varied, from imposing criminal punishments based on someone’s religion and limiting one’s religious activities to expressing hate speech against minorities.
One of the 48 cases categorized as “criminalization” against religious groups in the study involved a religious sect known as Kerajaan Ubur-Ubur (Jellyfish Kingdom) in Banten.
The police detained the sect’s leader, Aisyah Tusalamah Baiduri Intan, after receiving pressure from local residents, then named the 39-year-old a suspect for spreading hate speech on social media and charged her under Article 28 of the 2018 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.
“As a group of people with the same system of belief, the sect should have been protected by the authorities as long as it didn’t disturb public order,” said Wahid Foundation executive director Mujtaba Hamdi.
