Indonesia: Persecuting a Muslim splinter sect

Ati Nurbaiti

The Jakarta Post

Indonesia is supposed to guarantee religious freedom, said Ati Nurbaiti. It’s right there in the constitution. But this year, more than two dozen regions and cities have enacted laws banning or restricting the Ahmadiyah sect. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, but they believe that an Indian man who lived at the turn of the last century was the Mahdi foretold by the Prophet Mohammed as well as the second coming of the Messiah foretold in Christian Scripture. Indonesian Muslims consider them heretics.

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Many of the bans were passed right after an appalling mob attack in Banten this year, when three Ahmadiyah men were lynched “with helpless police officers looking on.” The murderous assault was caught on video and posted on YouTube for the world to see, so the perpetrators could hardly get off altogether. But the 12 men who were prosecuted were given paltry sentences of three to six months each.

That’s because many Indonesians feel that “the real victims were the Muslims,” not the Ahmadis. They believe that the Ahmadis instigated the attack because they “insulted Islam and blatantly defied all civilized requests to stop proselytizing.” Such self-serving logic is becoming increasingly common in this country—and Indonesia’s Muslims are “becoming increasingly intolerant.”