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Officials halt reconstruction of vandalized Ahmadiyah mosque
Followers of Ahmadiyah have long been persecuted in the country, with the government issuing a joint ministerial decree banning the group’s religious activities in 2008. The decree referred to a 2005 Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) fatwa that declared the teachings of Ahmadiyah heretical.
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An Ahmadiyah mosque stands in Purworejo village, Kendal regency, Central Java, in 2016, after an unidentified mob vandalized the house of worship. (Courtesy of the Ahmadiyah central executive board/-)
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uthorities in Sukabumi, West Java, have reportedly halted the reconstruction of a mosque belonging to an Ahmadiyah group in the regency, highlighting continued repression against the minority Muslim group since 2008 when the mosque was set ablaze by mobs.
The authorities are personnel from the Parakansalak Police precinct and officials from the Sukabumi regency administration.
Asep Saepudin, the leader of Jemaah Ahmadiyah in Parakansalak district, reported the intimidation to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Monday seeking justice.
Asep said the police precinct's head Adj. Comr. Slamet Irianto visited the mosque on Feb. 19 and told the construction workers who had commenced work the previous day to stop. The police chief said that a mob would come to the site and ransack the building if the builders continued.
The following day, officials from the Parakansalak Consultative Leadership Forum (Muspika) came to the site and covered mosque's doors with plywood.
Higher ranking officials from the Sukabumi regency administration visited the mosque on Feb. 21 to warn the congregation that "a more powerful attack is about to unfold if the mosque's renovation continues".
In April 2008, a group of hardliners set the mosque ablaze less than two weeks after a governmental Coordinating Body for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society (Bakorpakem) recommended Jamaah Ahmadiyah be outlawed.
