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Mayor slammed for blocking Cilegon church
Rights advocates and a religious tolerance official have lambasted a Banten mayor's decision to back a public petition against the construction of a church in Cilegon, where Christians are a minority.
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he Cilegon mayor’s decision to refuse the proposed construction of a church in the city in Banten, a province widely known for its 16th century Islamic sultanate, has sparked widespread criticism from rights groups that have called the decision “unconstitutional” and contravening the human right to religious freedom.
The controversy was sparked when Cilegon Mayor Helldy Agustian, in response to a demonstration held last week by a group calling itself the Cilegon City Local Wisdom Defender Committee, signed a petition to ban the proposed construction of Maranatha church in Grogol district.
The new church is designated to be part of the Congregation of Batak Protestant Churches (HKBP).
Cilegon Deputy Mayor Sanuji Pentamarta also reportedly signed the petition.
Helldy told reporters on Saturday that he had signed the petition to “fulfill the wishes of the people of Cilegon”.
The following day, human rights watchdog Imparsial said in a statement that in opposing the church construction proposal, Helldy had discriminated against the city’s minority Christians.
“[Imparsial] urges regional heads to stop the politics of [making] policies that give special privileges only to a certain group,” said Imparsial’s Gufron Mabruri, as quoted by Kompas.
Abd Rohim Ghazali of the Maarif Institute, which campaigns for Islamic pluralism, also slammed Helldy for signing the petition, calling it an “unconstitutional move” that equated to barring Christians in Cilegon from worship.
That the mayor sided with the petition against a minority religion was “not only unconstitutional, but also violates the 2014 regional administration law”, he added, referring to a provision that called for regional heads to be nondiscriminatory in serving the public.
According to the Maarif Institute, Cilegon has 381 mosques and zero churches, while the 2010 national census showed that 9 percent of the city’s population of around 375,000 were Christians.
“Anyone can make up any excuse for the reason behind this discriminatory action, but for us, it is clear that the religious tolerance that is continually brought up in speeches […] is all just for show,” Abd said.
The group that submitted the petition has cited a 1975 circular issued by the Serang regent as its legal basis for opposing the proposed church construction. The circular stipulates that no churches can be built in Serang Regency, a part of which became Cilegon municipality in 1999.
However, Wawan Djunaedi, the head of the Religious Affairs Ministry’s Religious Tolerance Agency, said in a statement on Thursday that the 1975 circular was no longer a valid reason to ban the construction of a church. This was particularly so because the circular was based on a defunct 1969 joint circular from the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Home Ministry.
Wawan also underlined that regional administrations were obliged to facilitate the construction of places of worship, provided that it catered to at least 90 adherents in the area it served.
“So, there is no reason whatsoever for the regional head not to facilitate the construction of a house of worship when the potential [worshipers] exceed 90 people,” he said.
