Ahmadis Unequivocal in Response to Ban by MUI
The Al-Misbah Mosque in Bekasi was sealed off last year, and now another Ahmadiyah mosque in West Java faces the threat of closure. (JG Photo/Camelia Pasandaran)
Jakarta. An Ahmadiyah community in West Java has lashed out at a call for a ban on its activities by the country's highest clerical council, which only days earlier backed a declaration of jihad, or holy war, against another maligned minority group.
In an open letter sent on Thursday to the Indonesian Council of Ulema, or MUI, the Ahmadiyah congregation in Ciamis, West Java, questioned the clerics' authority to forbid them from practicing their faith.
"If the Ciamis chapter of the MUI or any residents' group has any objections with the Ahmadiyah, please address them according to the proper procedures, and don't take the law into your own hands," the letter said.
It noted that there was nothing in the law that permitted the MUI or any other group from trying to force a ban on Ahmadiyah activities, and that doing so would be a direct violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of worship.
The letter was in response to a letter issued by the local MUI chapter on Wednesday demanding a halt to all activities by the Ahmadiyah congregation at Nur Khilafat Mosque in Ciamis.
The MUI claimed the move was necessary to safeguard "the brotherhood among the Islamic faithful" in the district, and cited a 2008 joint ministerial decree and a 2011 West Java gubernatorial decree that both ban the spread of Ahmadiyah teaching — but not its continued practice by adherents of the faith.
In its response, the Ahmadiyah congregation pointed out that the Constitution safeguarded the right of every citizen to worship in accordance with their individual religion and belief."
"We gladly accept your advice as the MUI to create a peaceful climate in Ciamis district and brotherhood among Islamic people," the letter said. "The Ahmadiyah is indeed polite, tolerant and peaceful, and has always campaigned everywhere on the principles of loyalty, freedom, equality, respect and peace; and love for all, hatred for none.
"But concerning your request of halting all activities at Nur Khilafat Mosque, with all due respect, please accept our apology but we have to reject it," it said.
A mosque official said there had been rumors swirling even before the letter was issued that hard-liners from the notorious Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, planned to forcibly close the mosque.
"We heard before the legislative election" — on April 9 — "that the FPI, which doesn't like the Ahmadiyah, planned to shut down the mosque," Syaiful Uyun, the mosque's imam, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday. "What we don't understand is, why did the MUI issue this letter?"
Nur Khilafat Mosque was built in 1965, and serves a daily congregation of five to seven families, Syaiful said. He added that they had never had problems with their neighbors before.
"We have a close relationship with our neighbors," he said. "For example, there was wedding recently and we sat and ate together with those who are not Ahmadiyah."
Syaiful stressed that the MUI had no right to call for the congregation to stop worshiping.
"The MUI is just a mass organization, so it has no right to ban us," he said. "We said we're really sorry, but we can't fulfill their demand because praying is the obligation of every believer in Islam. So we can't stop the mosque activities."
The MUI's letter came just three days after the council backed a call by Sunni hard-liners in Bandung, the West Java capital, for a jihad against Shiites, another oft-persecuted minority Islamic community.
Ahmad Cholil Ridwan, a leader of the MUI, told the thousands in attendance at Sunday's declaration that the Shiites needed to be "purged" from the country.
"As long as we [Islamic parties] are not in power, we will never be able to purge the Shiites," he said. "We need to strengthen our political base. The ruling coalition must be controlled by Islamic parties."
Like the Shiites, the Ahmadiyah have long been the target of attack by Sunni hard-liners, particularly in West Java, where the governor, Ahmad Heryawan, has made no secret of his hostility for the minority groups, saying last year that religious intolerance against the Ahmadiyah would end if they gave up their beliefs.
In October last year, the FPI sealed off an Ahmadiyah mosque in West Java's Sumedang district after accusing the small congregation of flouting the ban on proselytizing.
In March last year, the Al-Misbah Mosque in Bekasi was likewise boarded off by officers from the Bekasi Public Order Agency, locking several Ahmadiyah members inside. They also sealed off the property with iron sheeting to prevent followers from getting into the mosque, but the Ahmadiyah are still able to get in and out through a house that abuts on the back yard of the mosque.
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