President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Sampang on Madura Island on Wednesday to inspect Sunni-Shia reconciliation efforts as the displaced Shiites continued to languish in a shelter in Sidoarjo, East Java.
The President met with local Sunni Muslim clerics, community leaders and members of the government-sanctioned team tasked with facilitating the reconciliation talks, in which the Shiites claim never to have been involved.
"The team [led by the rector of Surabaya's Sunan Ampel State Institute of Islamic Studies, or IAIN, Abdul A'la] reported that although security was currently stable, there had still been disagreements on beliefs," presidential spokesperson Julian Aldrin Pasha said on Wednesday.
Julian said the President had ordered the team to work harder to speed up reconciliation efforts, but stopped short of saying whether the Shiites could return safely to their homes.
The eviction of the Sampang Shia is just one of numerous cases of religious intolerance that have tarnished the reputation of Yudhoyono's administration. The government argued that the action was for their own safety because their Sunni neighbors would have otherwise harassed them had they returned to their villages.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto, who also attended the meeting, said the government supported the reconciliation program and would keep pushing for the
Shiites to return to their homes.
Nevertheless, Djoko said there was no deadline for the process, indicating it could only be followed through successfully if local residents did not show resistance. "The most important thing is that there is no more violence. Communications between the two sides are being maintained," he said.
Iklil Al Milal, leader of the Sampang Shiites, slammed Yudhoyono for not visiting their shelter in Sidoarjo, saying that doing so would have given him a better picture of the situation. "[The President] only assessed the situation based on one-sided reports. He failed to fulfill his promise of letting us return home before Idul Fitri this year."
"This is the way it has always been. We have never been involved in the reconciliation process. Suddenly decisions are made that we must adhere to. Religious Affairs Minister [Suryadharma Ali] also still wants us to convert," Iklil added.
Last month, Suryadharma said there was a possibility that the Shiites would be able to return to their homes in the near future, saying that local clerics in Madura were willing to accept the internally displaced persons.
Yet, some believed that the statement was the result of heavy international pressure on Yudhoyono to solve the problem.
In a closed-door meeting at the Grahadi Building in Surabaya in August, Yudhoyono expressed his disappointment in regards to the Sampang incident, asking that the case not be treated lightly as the world was closely following it.
The plight of the Sampang Shiites began in December 2011 when a mob attacked an Islamic school owned by their leader, Tajul Muluk, who had been accused of spreading deviant teachings of Islam.
Tajul was convicted of blasphemy on July 12, 2012. After the verdict, a mob attacked and ransacked
more than 30 houses owned by Tajul and his followers, killing two people.
In September 2012, the Supreme Court increased his sentence from two to four years in prison for telling his followers that the original version of the Koran was still in the hands of Imam Mahdi.
Around 235 of his followers have been in shelter since the 2012 attack and are living temporarily in a relocation site in Sidoarjo.
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