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‘Barbaric act’: Rights groups condemn mob attack on Ahmadiyah mosque
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Members of the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) pray on the veranda of Nur Khilafat Mosque in Ciamis, West Java, on June 26, 2014. Local authorities closed the mosque and hung posters announcing that the religious minority group was prohibited from worshiping there. (Courtesy of Perkumpulan 6211/File)
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eligious and human rights organizations have condemned a "mob" attack on a mosque belonging to the minority Ahmadiyah community in Sintang, West Kalimantan, and have called on the government to take concrete action against intolerance and religious violence.
On Friday, a group calling itself Aliansi Umat Islam attacked Miftahul Huda mosque weeks after it was closed by the local government, leaving the building damaged and a shed behind it in flames.
In a widely circulated video, dozens of people use stones, bamboo sticks and sledge hammers to break windows and tear apart the mosque and the nearby shed, while some 300 police and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel stand by passively.
“You said it would be safe,” the man filming the video says to the officers. “Who should be responsible for this? Imagine your house being torched by a mob.”
After the incident, local media reported that 72 local members of the Ahmadiyah community were being "guarded to ensure safety".
It was the latest attack against one of the country’s most persecuted religious minorities.
For years, authorities and communities in Indonesia have discriminated against followers of the heterodox Ahmadiyah movement. Their members have, at times, been prohibited from building mosques and been driven out of their homes.
