Islamic Conference Pushing For Religious Rule in Bekasi

June 20, 2010

Ulma Haryanto

Islamic Conference Pushing For Religious Rule in Bekasi

In a sign of increasing religious tension in Bekasi, members of hard-line groups gathered on Sunday to discuss a coordinated response to bring the city neighboring Jakarta more in line with Islamic principles.

The meeting on Sunday of the Islamic Congress of Bekasi came after video circulated on the Internet showing a high school student in the city defacing the Koran, and after a Web site bearing the name of a local Catholic school displayed pictures and writings seen as disrespectful to Islam.

It also follows the removal of a controversial statue of three women at a Bekasi housing complex.

Abdul Qodir Aka, a local official with the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), told the Jakarta Globe that the congress’s objective was to “create recommendations for the Bekasi administration on what steps it should take in the wake of recent incidents of defamation” of Islam.

Abdul Qodir was referring to Abraham Felix, a 16-year-old student of SMA 5 high school in Bekasi. Pictures of Abraham stomping on a Koran, the Islamic holy book, and one of him allegedly putting it in a toilet were posted on a blog, enraging the local Islamic community.

Police arrested Abraham in May on suspicion of creating the blog. He was charged with Article 156 of the Criminal Code for religious blasphemy.

That same month, the St. Bellarminus Catholic school in Bekasi was attacked by a group of people over another blog post, suspected to be Abraham’s work, which displayed the school’s name and posted pictures and writings that defamed Islam.

Abdul Qodir said on Sunday that the Islamic Congress was supported by the Bekasi administration, and was the culmination of talks between members of the local FPI chapter and Mayor Mochtar Mohamad.

“We also demanded the removal of the “Tiga Mojang” [“Three Girls”] statue. It is known as the Three Flashy Ladies, according to an Islamic boarding school in Bekasi,” Abdul Qodir said.

The statue in the Harapan Indah residential complex was taken down on at 12 a.m. on Saturday by the Bekasi administration, following pressure from the FPI, which deemed the statue, which some called “pornographic,” at odds with conservative Muslims’ views.

The Islamic Congress of Bekasi is scheduled to continue on June 27 at the Al-Azhar mosque in Kalimalang.

“We have more than 200 people attending from various Islamic organizations, educational institutions, Islamic study groups, women’s groups and mosque representatives from Bekasi, so this is not an FPI congress, even though [FPI leader] Habib Rizieq Shihab delivered our keynote speech this morning,” Abdul said.

“According to Habib Rizieq, the phenomenon of ‘Christianization’ is happening not just in Bekasi but all over Indonesia.”

Also on Sunday, the congregation of the HKBP Filadelfia Protestant church in Bekasi, which has been holding services on the roadside after the city prohibited the church from holding religious activities, faced angry demonstrators demanding they pray elsewhere.

“Around 6:30 a.m., there was an announcement at the mosque next to our church calling people to demonstrate. Half an hour later around 200 people crowded in front of our church with drums, shouting statements about jihad,” said the Rev. Palti Panjaitan, leader of HKBP Filadelfia. He called the police, who drove the protestors away at around 8:30 a.m.

“When the protesters saw some members of the congregation they hurled terrorizing statements. A lot of my members cried and immediately went home, refusing to come back to church. The protesters called us names, calling us haram [forbidden by Islam], and threatened to kill us,” he said.

‘Call to Arms’ the Latest Chapter in City’s Simmering Religious Tensions

A new move by hard-line Islamic groups in Bekasi to push for the creation of Islamic militant units to fight the “Christianization problem” and serve as morality police is just the latest in a string of incidents highlighting the increasing religious tension in the city just east of Jakarta.

On June 19, the 17-meter “Tiga Mojang” statue at the Haparan Indah housing complex was dismantled because “it does not posses a permit.” But it followed protests by about 1,000 members from 60 hard-line Islamic organizations.

A day later, the first day of the Bekasi Islamic Congress, the Pondok Timur Indah Church was shut down “because the congregation held prayers in a place where they were not supposed to.”

In May, St. Bellarminus, a Catholic school in Bekasi, was attacked by a group of people offended by a student blog that displayed the school’s name and posted pictures and writing reportedly defaming Islam.

In February, members of the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) forcibly closed the Galilea Church in Bekasi, alleging that the congregation had been trying to convert Muslims.

But this latest plan, announced on Sunday at the conclusion of the Islamic congress, could be one step too far, pluralism advocates warned.

“The call to ‘enforce’ a certain group against the other could provoke the disintegration of the community and cause useless political tension,” said Syafi’i Anwar, the executive director of the International Center for Islam and Pluralism.

Speaking on behalf of the Wahid Institute, Yenny Wahid demanded the government be more assertive toward hard-line religious groups.

“Anarchism on behalf of religion is increasing, and the government seems to fear any group that uses Islam,” she said.

“We do not want to be like Afghanistan under the Taliban.”

Rev. Palti Panjaitan of the HKBP Filadelfia congregation in Bekasi, which has been refused a permit to build a church, agreed, saying that recently members of “several groups have become freer to do whatever they want.”

“The current situation makes me want to separate myself from Indonesia,” he said.

Yenny theorized that support from government officials could be fueling the situation.

The Bekasi Islamic Congress, for instance, was held after Islamic organizations including the FPI and the Bekasi Islamic Missionary Council (DDI Bekasi) had warned Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad of more demonstrations targeted at his administration should the congress not be allowed.

“I wonder why a lot of officials are so cowed by the intimidation from these Islamic groups,” Yenny said.

On the other hand, Palti surmised that the people of Bekasi, just outside the capital, had seen an increasing number of migrants in the past few years and perhaps were not ready to deal with them.

“We heard rumors of people saying that our church was an effort of Christianization,” he said. “That’s why they pressure the government to never issue us a building permit for our church.”

Palti said his church was strictly for Batak Protestants as they used the Batak dialect in their services.

Regardless of the reason, both Syafi’i and Yenny say the situation in Bekasi should not be tolerated.

“Shariah in Islam ensures justice and fairness for all,” Syafi’i said. “Rahmatulillalamin , not rahmatulilislam [Blessings to all, not blessings to Islam],” he said, quoting a verse from the Koran.

Indonesia is a pluralistic country, so enforcing Shariah law would violate the Pancasila and 1945 Constitution, he added.

Yenny said the Indonesian state was one based on the supremacy of the law.

“This country does not punish those who would change their religion,” she said. “In fact, the freedom to worship is enshrined in the 1945 Constitution.”


(it looks as if this mouse is going to have a long tail, of which the end is nowhere in sight yet!, siK)