Over 100 members of the Islamic Peoples Forum (FUI) staged a protest in front of the construction site of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church in Kranggan, Bekasi, on Saturday, demanding a halt to the ongoing construction project, which they claimed did not have a valid building permit for a house of worship.
The protestors threatened to demolish the half-completed building in an attempt to stop the project because the building permit, issued by Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi, was annulled by the Administrative Court in Bandung on Thursday.
The protest, which lasted for two hours, was dispersed by riot police that were deployed to safeguard the construction site.
Wawan, a spokesman for the Catholic community in Kranggan, said the community was alarmed about the increasingly violent actions of protestors.
"We have been coordinating with local police to increase security as a result of the administrative court's decision. This is not an isolated situation as violent protests have also been carried out on the construction sites of the HKBP Church in the Filadelfia housing compound in Bekasi and the Indonesian Christian Church at Yasmin Park in Bogor," he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Dozens of members of the two churches have held Sunday services in front of the Presidential Palace to protest the government's failure to support them regarding the building permits issued by the two municipal administrations.
The FUI held its protest only two days after the Administrative Court decision to annul the building permit, after a lawsuit was filed by 13 FUI members against the Bekasi mayor.
The court annulled the mayor's decision regarding the building permit after it was alleged that the backers of the project had bribed non-Catholic residents in Kranggan to provide signatures of consent to meet the legal requirements for the construction of a house of worship.
However, the court did not order the demolition of the half-completed church.
Wawan denied that the Catholic community had bribed local Muslim residents and added that the project had met all administrative and legal requirements, including consent from the Forum for Religion Tolerance in Kranggan and the municipality.
Atika Yuanita Paraswaty, a lawyer with the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) said the team of lawyers from LBH Jakarta, Bandung Legal Aid Institute, the Indonesian Legal Resource Center (ILRC) and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), who accompanied the church representatives during the legal proceedings, met with the Bekasi mayor on Saturday and agreed to appeal the administrative court's decision through the State Administrative Higher Court in Bandung.
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