Church Closures, Demolition Spark Protest in Indonesia

Church Closures, Demolition Spark Protest in Indonesia
Pressured by Islamists, officials crack down on Christians in West Java

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (ANS) -- Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org) is reporting that hundreds of Christians hit the streets Jakarta, Indonesia's capital this week to urge government action after local officials demolished a church building and threatened to close others at the behest of Islamist forces.

Demolished Batak Protestant Christian Church (HKBP) building in Bekasi, outside Jakarta (Photo: Morning Star News)

According to their story, Christian protestors, joined by minority Ahmadiyya and Shia Muslims, held a shared prayer service and sang the country's national anthem in downtown Jakarta to mark their protest on Monday (April 8). "Many victims were part of the protest, which came weeks after local authorities spurred by an Islamic extremist group demolished the Batak Protestant Christian Church (HKBP) in the Taman Sari area of Bekasi, a Jakarta suburb in West Java Province," it continued.
"HKBP members continue to hold services at the site where their church building was razed on March 21, a week before Good Friday. The Islamic People's Forum in Taman Sari had protested against the church, alleging a building permit violation. Indonesian officials routinely delay or deny church building permits - besides the fact that requirements are beyond the ability of smaller churches to meet - thus providing Islamic extremists a pretext for protests and attacks."
Theophilus Bela, president of the Jakarta Christian Communication Forum, told Morning Star News, "The demolition was illegal - there was no written order by the district head of Bekasi." He added that church leaders were expected to file a lawsuit against the local government.
The pulling down of the church building hit the headlines in national newspapers, which carried photos of church members in tears - singing hymns, crying and begging local officials not to demolish their facility. Hundreds of police and army officers guarded the area while Muslim militants, shouting Koranic verses, cheered the excavator.

Muslims joined Christians in inter-faith worship to protest "government inaction" over attacks on Christians and church closures (Photo: Compass Direct)

"What is our sin, sir?" church member Megarenta Sihite shouted at district officers. "Is it a sin to pray? Show us where our mistake is. I thought this is a democratic country. Please, Mr. President, we were born here in this country with five religions. We never did anything bad to their houses of worship. Why are they doing this to us?" The church, said Morning Star News, had gathered 89 signatures of approval from local residents, required by law to acquire a permit, but an official refused to sign the document, claiming that most of the signatures were "fake."
Rather than an alleged building permit violation, area Christians suspect the actual reason behind the demolition was related to the re-election weeks earlier of West Java's Islamist governor, Ahmad Heryawan.
He had promised the extremist Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) to rid the province of the minority Ahmadiyya sect and instill Islamic values in return for receiving election support, according to The Jakarta Globe, and Christians noted actions against them as well. A week after the results of the election were announced, the Banua Niha Keriso Protestan (BNKP) church in Bandung, the capital of West Java, received a threat from the local neighborhood chief, Haj Ayi, an Islamist, warning that if they did not take down all Christian icons and vacate the building, they would face a confrontation with a large group of local Muslims, the Globe reported.
"It is feared that the BNKP church might meet the same fate as that of the GKI Yasmin church in Bogor and the HKBP Filadelfia church in Bekasi - both West Java churches were sealed by local authorities in the last five years in direct violation of Supreme Court rulings," said the story.
"The GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia congregations now hold joint services every Sunday on the street outside the State Palace in Jakarta, in order to draw the attention of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to their plight."
The Trigger
Refusal to grant building permits on various pretexts is one of the main triggers for church closures and anti-Christian violence, according to a Jakarta-based rights group, the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace. A 2006 joint ministerial decree requires signatures from congregations and residents living nearby, as well as approval from the local administration, to build a house of worship.

Another church that was attacked in Indonesia

On Jan. 27, added Morning Star News, about 50 men from the FPI scaled the gates of a 400-member Pentecostal church (locally known as GPdI) in Mekargalih village in Jatinangor sub-district of Sumedang town in West Java. The mob vandalized the place of worship and assaulted pastor Bernhard Maukar - at one point using his necktie to strangle him, according to the Globe. The men claimed that the 26-year-old church did not have a valid permit to operate. Police arrested Maukar two days later for holding services without a valid permit. The pastor is serving a three-month sentence at the Sumedang prison, as he could not pay the fine of $2,600. On Feb. 12, the pastor's wife, Corry, was warned that she, too, would be arrested if she held a worship service.
Protests against churches often turn violent, as Pastor Anna Nenoharan from the Evangelical Christian Church (Gekindo) in Bekasi's Jatimulya area narrated at Monday's protest.
"I was knifed in my neck and my tummy," she was quoted as saying in relation to a 2005 incident. FPI members who claimed the church did not have a valid permit stabbed her, she said, and the church building was later demolished.
"The FPI attacked me, and the law didn't do anything to protect me," she reportedly said. "They are still free . We have protested in front of the State Palace, but nothing has been done . Our church can be pulled down, but our spirit will always remain high . . . We are ashamed of our government, but we are proud to be Indonesian."
Government Denial
"The Indonesian government has done little to protect rights of the minorities despite the international human rights community taking note of growing animosity in a country whose constitution is based on the doctrine of Pancasila - five principles upholding the nation's belief in the one and only God and social justice, humanity, unity and democracy for all," stated Morning Star News.
"The Setara Institute cited 371 acts of intolerance and violence reported across Indonesia last year alone, revealing that Christians were the main target in the Sunni Muslim-majority country. While Indonesia's population of 240 million is believed to be largely tolerant, a new trend has emerged of local Muslims - not just extremist groups - leading violent attacks, Setara noted.
"The government, however, continues deny such trends. In February, Bahrul Hayat, secretary general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told local media, "Indonesia is a good place to see religious harmony," and added that incidents of violence were not a cause for alarm."
Days later, Human Rights Watch blasted the Indonesian government for failing to protect minorities. The government is "undermining its claims to being a rights-respecting democracy," said Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, urging President Yudhoyono "to insist that national laws be enforced, announce that every violent attack will be prosecuted, and map out a comprehensive strategy to combat rising religious intolerance."
HRW's 107-page report, "In Religion's Name: Abuses against Religious Minorities in Indonesia," released on Feb. 28, highlighted local officials' role, saying they "too often have responded to acts of arson and other violence by blaming the victims."
"Most perpetrators have received little or no punishment" the report states. "In two cases [related to the two churches in Bogor and Bekasi], local officials refused to implement Supreme Court decisions granting minority groups the right to build houses of worship. While some national officials have spoken out in defense of religious minorities, others - including the minister of religion, Suryadharma Ali - have themselves made discriminatory statements."
HRW also said violence and discrimination were "in part made possible by discriminatory laws and regulations, including a blasphemy law that officially recognizes only six religions, and house of worship decrees that give local majority populations significant leverage over religious minority communities."
Indonesian government institutions - including the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society (Bakor Pakem) under the attorney general's office, and the semi-official Indonesian Ulema Council - have eroded religious freedom by issuing decrees and fatwas (religious rulings) against members of religious minorities and using their positions of authority to press to prosecute "blasphemers," the report added.
Christians hope the call for the protection of Christians and other minorities will not fall on deaf ears yet another time, Bela said.
Ambassadors for Peace

Ameal Haddad and Garry Ansdell

Last March, I travelled to Indonesia with a team from Southern California-based Ambassadors for Peace (www.am4peace.com), which has been leading the way internationally for many key members of different religious beliefs around the world to come into agreement for a Religious Rights Resolution. The group, which is based in Bellflower, California, was headed by Canadian-born Dr. Garry Ansdell, now a U.S. citizen and senior pastor of Hosanna Christian Fellowship, and the Rev. Ameal Haddad, an American citizen who is from a Jordanian background. The aim of the visit was to "foster religious tolerance, the right to faith, freedom of speech, and freedom from reprisal or persecution".
During our time in Indonesia, the team met with my leaders from different religions, including Muslims, who all agreed that what was needed in their country was "a Religious Rights Resolution," that Ambassadors for Peace is suggesting.
Every leader agreed with the need for dialogue between the different faiths and we found no animosity from the Muslims we met towards Christians.
The group even spoke to both faculty and students at the huge 23,000-student State Islamic University (Syarif Hidayatullah) in Jakarta and had been invited to Jakarta by Mohammad Hassan Dawodieh, the then Jordan's Ambassador to Indonesia, a hugely likable and gregarious multi-talented journalist, politician and diplomat, who has thrown his support behind Ambassadors for Peace.

The extraordinary turn-out of Arab Ambassadors invited by Mohammad to learn about Ambassadors for Peace

He even arranged for the team to a special gathering at his home of other Arab Ambassadors based in Indonesia. They included those from Egypt, Palestine, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Oman and Sudan, who all showed interest in the presentation by Haddad and Ansdell about Ambassadors for Peace. Afterwards I asked Mr. Dawodieh for his views about Ambassadors for Peace?
He replied, "Ambassadors for Peace could serve as a unifying bridge for inter-religious misunderstandings and diverse cultures exist in our society and with its relentless efforts could provide an outstanding example and guidance of how people of all walks of beliefs co-exist peacefully and interact."
After reading the draft of this story, a supporter of Ambassadors for Peace wrote the following:
"After reading this article about Indonesia and the demolition of the church, I know that this is only a drop in the bucket of all the raging fire spots around the world fueled by extremists from all religions
"God opened a way for you, and enlightened your hearts and minds and guided you to something that He did not guide any one else in the world to except you by giving you this document (resolution); therefore, you must do your best to run with it and work to implement it.
"And if you, who are the chosen people on earth to do this, do not act to deliver the vulnerable minorities from all oppressive religions and beliefs, and give them their rights to worship as they want, who else will save them?
"If you do not redeem the time and move forward, God, one day, will take back from you the light that He has entrusted to you because you did not spread it as you should have.
"By the name of God (invoking the name of God to validate the truth of his statement), I started to melt in peace and for the love of peace which was caused by the moments that I lived it with you (means with Pastor Haddad) , and you taught me how to live in peace first within myself. But what has been entrusted to you did not reach many.I beg you spread your light."
If you would like to learn more about Ambassadors for Peace, please go to: www.am4peace.com