Tag Archives: Country: Indonesia

Jakarta Globe: “About 4,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the government do more to protect Constitution-enshrined religious freedoms in response to Sunday’s brutal attack on two leaders of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi.”

Voice of America: “Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered police to hunt down and arrest assailants who attacked Christians heading to a religious service. Some advocates for pluralism here say the president has until now done little to prevent religious intolerance at home, although he urged President Obama to prevent a Christian group from burning Qurans in America.”

Associated Press: “Indonesia’s president ordered police to arrest the assailants who stabbed a Christian worshipper in the stomach and beat a minister in the head with a wooden plank as they headed to prayers.”

Euro News: “The hugely controversial plans for a mass burning of copies of the Koran in the US have already prompted angry protests among Muslims. In Kabul, several hundred Afghans, mostly pupils from religious schools, gathered outside a mosque, chanting ‘Death to America.’”

The Jakarta Globe: “The former editor in chief of the short-lived Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine is just one piece of paper away from starting a jail term after a 2009 Supreme Court ruling convicting him of indecency charges was revealed this week.”

The Jakarta Globe: “Despite Indonesia having a secular Constitution, devoutly Muslim Aceh was allowed to adopt parts of Shariah law, presumably to prevent the Acehnese from joining the rebellious Free Aceh Movement (GAM) . . . Five years later, the obvious question has yet to be asked: why was Shariah rammed through the national legislative system and ‘given’ to Aceh when neither the populace nor the GAM guerrillas ever asked for it and perhaps few people, with the exception of the provincial ulema council, actually want it?”

Associated Press: “Tired of government inaction, Christians and other religious minorities in Indonesia are pushing back against rising violence by Islamic hard-liners.”

“Tired of government inaction, Christians and other religious minorities in Indonesia are pushing back against rising violence by Islamic hard-liners.”

Wall Street Journal: “Indonesia notched another big victory in the antiterror fight this week with the re-arrest of Abu Bakar Bashir, the al Qaeda-linked spiritual leader linked to the 2002 Bali bombings, as the Australian National University’s Greg Fealy explains on a nearby page. If only the country’s leaders would pursue Islamic vigilante groups just as aggressively.”

Associated Press: “Indonesia’s best-known radical Islamic cleric was charged Wednesday with planning terrorist attacks, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death, police said.”

The Christian Post: “Leaders of a church in West Java, Indonesia, demanded justice from police after a fifth attack from Muslim protesters left at least a dozen people injured Sunday.”

Jakarta Globe: “As Muslims nationwide count down the days until the start of the holy month of Ramadan, so are followers of Ahmadiyah, but for a very different reason. Members of the controversial sect are currently living in fear of a repeat attack by hard-liners in the lead-up to Ramadan, one member told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.”

Associated Press: “A minority Islamic sect told followers Friday to prepare for war after rock-throwing mobs attacked one of their mosques in central Indonesia, calling its members heretics.”

ADF Attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “A story from Asia News relates that the Indonesian Police recently demolished a house for no other reason than that it contained a home church that met regularly. The Narogong Pentecostal Church in the village of Limusnunggal, Cileungsi sub-district, regularly met in the house for worship. The report also stated that ten people were detained, questioned and released.”

The Sydney Morning Herald: “A surge in anti-Christian violence in the satellite cities that ring Jakarta, almost always unpunished, has exposed alarming new fissures in Indonesian society. It has also raised concerns about the commitment of the police and the government to the country’s founding principle of religious freedom.”

AP: “Three Americans were expelled from Indonesia’s devoutly Islamic province of Aceh on Wednesday after locals accused them of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, a local government spokesman said.”

Jakarta Globe: “The highly divisive 2008 Anti-Pornography Law will be back in the Constitutional Court today. But unlike the previous judicial reviews that sought to annul the controversial law, or at least parts of it, this time the applicant wants the court to strengthen it.”

Compass Direct News: “The Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI) Taman Yasmin Church in Bogor, West Java, has filed a religious discrimination appeal with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, church leaders said. Since April 11 the congregation has held services on the roadside in front of the sealed church in stifling heat. The church pastor, the Rev. Ujang Tanusaputra, told Compass that the congregation has held Sunday services six times in front of the building that the mayor of Bogor sealed.”

Boston.com (AP): “A banner with a picture of a young, bespectacled Christian man is draped in front of a mosque, a fiery noose around his neck and the words, ‘This man deserves the death penalty!’ Churches are shut down. And an Islamic youth militia held its first day of training.”

Dallas Blog: “In a maneuver that could add to already boiling religious tensions in Bekasi, a new organization calling itself the Bekasi Islamic Presidium is planning a road show targeted at convincing every mosque in the city to prepare for the potential of ‘war’ against ‘Christianization.”

Christian Post (Compass Direct): “In a hearing in its lawsuit against a local government, a representative for a church that Bekasi, West Java officials summarily closed earlier this year told an administrative court that the action was unconstitutional. The Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) Filadelfia church had filed a lawsuit on March 30 against the local government for its Jan. 12 sealing of the building under construction. Regent H. Sa’adudin on April 12 issued a decree to cease worship and other activities.”

Adriaan Bedner and Stijn Van Huis, Plurality of Marriage Law and Marriage Registration for Muslims in Indonesia: A Plea for Pragmatism (June 1, 2010). Utrecht Law Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 175-191, June 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1625684 This …

Spero News: “Members of the Indonesian Christian Church (aka Yasmin Church, Gereja Kristen Indonesia in Indonesian) are preparing to appeal to the United Nations against a decision by the authorities in the West Java City of Bogor to close down their church. Municipal authorities have been trying to prevent Christians from expressing their faith publicly in response to Muslim extremists. Christians have argued instead that they have a right to profess their faith wherever they live, even if it means praying in the streets.”

Spero News: “Bogor authorities (West Java province) ordered the closure of a local church building that belongs to Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI), a Christian group also known as Gereja Kristen Yasmin Bogor. This has outraged hundreds of faithful and induced the Indonesian Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to file an official protest.”

Mohamad Mova Al ‘Afghani, Religious Freedom in Indonesia Before and after Constitutional Amendments (April 10, 2010). CRITICAL THINKERS FOR ISLAMIC REFORM, Brainbow Press, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1587256

“The Indonesian Constitution is very unique in terms of its relation between religion and the state. It is stated there that that the state is based ‘…on the belief in the One and Supreme God’ but at the same time, it never explicitly mentioned the name of any established religion in the world. Historical interpretation into the constitutional drafting process and revelation from the founding fathers on their understanding of ‘God’ and religion reveals that the Constitution is neutral with respect to religions. However, the Constitution does prefer a theistic worldview over the non theist. The consequences for this is that the state may provide financial and other supports to the followers of religions (provide for positive discrimination) but must not interfere with the freedom of followers of any other worldviews in professing their beliefs. Recent amendment to the Constitution reinforces this neutral stance. This would have a significant impact on the constitutionality of blasphemy laws.”

Al Jazeera: “An Indonesian court has ruled to uphold a 1965 blasphemy law that allows for criminal penalties and bans on people or groups that ‘distort’ the central tenets of six officially recognised religions . . . The law carries a maximum punishment of five years for beliefs that deviate from the orthodox versions of six sanctioned faiths – Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Confucianism.”

CNSNews: “Indonesia’s constitutional court upheld a controversial blasphemy law Monday that critics say limits religious freedom in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, ruling that the law is vital to religious harmony.”

Erlangga Agustino Landiyanto, Abortion Policy in Indonesia: Rights, Law and Religious Perspectives (April 2, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1583403

“Abortion became major issue in Indonesia. There are a lot of controversies behind the policy of abortion, but generally there are two poles of perspectives, pro-choice and pro-life. This paper tries to see abortion from different way and discuss macro-perspective of abortion from religious and legal perspectives as well as provides micro-analysis from individual perspectives to find the reasons why the women need to do abortion. With concerning to local and rights perspectives, this paper attempts to provide alternative or third perspective of abortion in Indonesia and provide alternative policy recommendation for this issue.”

Compass Direct News: “An Islamic mob stopped construction of Santa Maria Immaculata Catholic Church in Citra Garden, West Jakarta earlier this month even as government officials in Yasmin Park, Bogor, West Java halted work on an Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) building . . .”

The Jakarta Post: “The minimum age of 16 years to marry under the prevailing 1974 marriage law is not a sharia-binding regulation for Muslims, according to Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) jurists.”

The Jakarta Globe: “Constitutional Court Chief Mahfud MD on Monday dismissed allegations that the court had been under intense pressure from conservatives to reject a challenge of the 2008 Anti-Pornography Law.” | Related: Indonesian provinces plan to ignore anti-porn law | Anti-porn statute to remain law of the land in Indonesia

Christian Post: “An Islamic mob stopped construction of Santa Maria Immaculata Catholic Church in Citra Garden, West Jakarta earlier this month even as government officials in Yasmin Park, Bogor, West Java halted work on an Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) building.”

AP: “Authorities in two Indonesian provinces said Friday that they will not comply with a controversial anti-pornography law they say would stifle traditional Balinese and Papuan culture.”

The Jakarta Globe: “The Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled to maintain the controversial 2008 Anti-Pornography Law, but failed to put an end to a debate that has divided the nation for years . . . The law defines pornography as ‘sexual material made by people in the forms of pictures, sketches, illustrations, photos, writings, voice, sounds, motion pictures, animation, cartoons, poems, conversations, body movements and other forms of communication through various mass media or public displays that can arouse sexual desires and/or violate public moral values.’” | Washington Post

AP: “Indonesian police ordered the cancellation Wednesday of a conference of Asian gay activists, saying it could prompt violent protests by conservative Muslim groups.”

The Jakarta Post: “Two more experts recommended Friday that the controversial 1965 Blasphemy Law be revised as critics warned of civil conflict if the law was changed . . . The court has been holding hearings since early February. Several human rights activists and pluralism supporters have contested several articles in the law, which stipulates the state’s authority to dissolve religious groups whose teachings are deemed heretic by religious authorities.”

Christian Post: “Efforts by local officials in this city in West Java to close a church met with stiff resistance this month, as a defiant lawyer and weeping women refused to allow it . . . The church had applied for a worship building permit in 2006, but local officials had yet to act on it, according to the church’s pastor, the Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak.”

Christian Post: “Hundreds of Muslims from outside the area where a 600-member church meets in West Java staged a protest there to call for its closure this month in an attempt to portray local opposition . . . ”

CNN: “Abuya, a 72-year-old preacher based in Malaysia, began lecturing on Islam and polygamy in 1968. He set up the company Global Ikhwan in 1997 and it has thousands of members around the world with clubs similar to the one in Jakarta in Europe, the Middle East and North America. The company provides homes, jobs, businesses, schools and medical facilities to its members. While being a polygamist is not compulsory, most people in the company practice it.”

Asia News Network: “The Indoneian Ulema Council (MUI) is throwing its weight behind the religious affairs ministry plan to outlaw unofficial marriage (nikah siri), a common practise in the Moslem-majority Indonesia.”

Jakarta Globe: “A prominent senior journalist, author and cultural expert appeared as a witness at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday to speak about his experience with a law that saw him imprisoned for five years. The court was hearing the fourth phase of the judicial review into the 1965 Law on the Prevention of Blasphemy and Abuse of Religion.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday held its first hearings in a challenge to the constitutionality of Indonesia’s Law on Prevention of Blasphemy and Abuse of Religion . . . ”

Asia News: “At least 1,000 people set fire to the Pentecostal community places of worship. According to local Muslims, the two buildings did not have the legal permits as ‘churches.’ The Nahdlatul Ulama admits the violence of radical Islamists against Christians. In 2009 in Indonesia, 35 cases of violation of religious freedom, 28 against Christians.”

AsiaNews: “Hundreds of members of the Huria Batak Protestant Christians Group (HKBP) of Bekasi, West Java, streamed before the National Human Right Commission (Komnas Ham) to demand that their right to religious freedom be upheld. They complain that Muslim hard-line groups and their local authorities have forcibly stopped their activities and cancelled their Sunday services.”

Wall Street Journal: “Abdurrahman Wahid, who died last week at the age of 69, was the first democratically elected president of Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest country and third largest democracy. It has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world. Although he was forced from office after less than two years, he nevertheless helped to set the course of what has been a remarkably successful transition to democracy.”

AsiaNews.it: “Last night a crowd of angry Muslims, including women and children, attacked the Church of Saint Albert, in Bekasi Regency, about 30 kilometres east of Jakarta. The situation is now under control but the local Catholic community is afraid of an escalation before Christmas.”

The AP reports on the new law that covers adultery, pedophilia, homosexuality, and rape.

The Christian Post: “Members of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church (HKBP) in Cinere village, Depok, West Java appeared in court on June 29 to contest the mayor’s revocation of their building permit in March, while students of the shuttered Arastamar School of Theology (SETIA) demonstrated in Jakarta on June 15, asking officials to honor promises to provide them with a new campus.”

Antara News reports: “The abortion rate in Indonesia reaches around 2-2.6 million annually, or 43 abortions per 100 pregnancies, Dr Titik Kuntari, a lecturer at the medical faculty of the Indonesian Islamic University (UII) said.”

: “This article considers the Indonesian state’s attempts to regulate Islamic law on polygamy and mixed marriages, and to reform Indonesia’s Islamic courts, and the resistance that some Muslim groups have put up in response. It shows that the contest between the state and Muslim groups over the extent to which the state should enforce Islamic law is ongoing and is unlikely to end in the foreseeable future, but that the state clearly has the ‘upper hand’. This is largely because it controls the administration of law in Indonesia and because the majority of Indonesians appear to reject the expansion of the role of Islamic law.”

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) has promised to have the controversial pornography law annulled should it win the upcoming elections.

Justice and Human Rights Ministry Andi Matalatta acknowledged Tuesday that local infrastructure was weak in handling human trafficking.

The number of child sex workers in Indonesia has more than doubled in the past decade, with the majority operating around resorts amid the country’s booming tourism industry, an NGO has warned.

The NY Times reports: In a sign of its growing prominence, Indonesia’s Council of Ulemas moved its headquarters from the basement of a major mosque here into an expensive new office tower in the heart of downtown. The council was established …

The 1st Circuit has issued an opinion in Kardi v. Mukasey, NO. 06-2599  (1st Cir. Sept. 30, 2008). Excerpts follow: TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge. Zulkifly Kadri, a Muslim native of Indonesia, came to the United States on a non-immigrant visa. He …

FoxNews.com reports: Hundreds of Christian theology students have been living in tents since a mob of angry Muslim neighbors stormed their campus last month wielding bamboo spears and hurling Molotov cocktails. The incident comes amid growing concern that Indonesia’s tradition …

Christian Today reports: “A local mosque loudspeaker called on Muslims to drive ‘drive out the unwanted neighbour’, as hundreds of protesters wielding machetes, sharpened bamboo and acid, attacked the school.”

The AP repoorts: Indonesia has up to 500,000 children — or 0.6 percent of the country’s roughly 85 million children — living in institutions, one of the highest rates in the world, the report said. Of those, 90 percent still …

CNA reports: Muslim extremists who are members of the Islamic Defenders Front recently attacked 200 moderate Christians and Muslims who protested for religious freedom in the Indonesian capital, threatening the protestors with death and attacking them with machetes and sticks. …

. . . the ongoing persecution of the Ahmadiyya, a small Muslim sect founded in late 19th century India, underscores Indonesia’s – and the Muslim world’s – trouble guaranteeing a bedrock democratic value: freedom of conscience.

Muslims and religious minorities in Indonesia are raising their voices against the spread of local laws inspired by sharia, and denouncing the inaction of the central government, which in spite of its promises is doing nothing concrete to confront the phenomenon.