> > HRW, August 15, 2013 > > hrw.org/news/2013/08/15/sufi-muslims-feel-heat-indonesia-s-rising-intolerance > > Sufi Muslims Feel the Heat of Indonesia’s Rising Intolerance > > By Andreas Harsono > > > It’s no mystery why Indonesia’s Islamist militants have been emboldened to extend their > acts of harassment, intimidation and violence against the country’s Sufis. > > The plight of the Al-Mujahadah Foundation madrassa in southern Aceh illustrates the perils > of rising religious intolerance for Indonesia’s religious minorities. The school, a > private institution that instructed dozens of students 8 to 25 years of age in the > principles of Sufism — devotion to more mystical interpretations of Islam — lost its > dormitory on July 5 due to an apparent arson attack. Less than a month later, on Aug. 1, > the wall surrounding the school compound was destroyed in what the school authorities > believe was an act of vandalism. Police are investigating the alleged arson attack, but > say the school’s wall collapsed due to faulty construction. > > Suspicions that the school has been singled out for harassment and intimidation aren’t > unwarranted. In February, Aceh’s Ulama Consultative Council (MPU), a government entity > that advises the government on Islamic affairs, demanded the school’s closure on the basis > that it was “strange” and its teachings “false and misleading.” > > The South Aceh regency government complied with that demand on March 4 by ordering all > students to leave the facility. It also told the school’s top administrators not to > receive guests in their homes as a way to derail possible home-schooling efforts. The same > day, a mob of around 70 local Sunni villagers destroyed the school’s front gate while > police stood by. Now the school sits empty. > > The attack on the Sufi community in southern Aceh marks a sinister new phase in the > ongoing campaign of intolerance by Islamist militant groups, such as the Islamic Defenders > Front (FPI). The targets of that intolerance and acts of related violence have long been > Christian groups, Shiite Muslims, and the Ahmadiyah, as well as members of native animist > faiths. > > Islamist militant groups seek to justify violence by espousing an interpretation of Sunni > Islam that labels most non-Muslims as “infidels,” and Muslims who do not adhere to Sunni > orthodoxy as “blasphemers.” The Jakarta-based Setara Institute, which monitors religious > freedom in Indonesia, reported earlier this year that the number of reported incidents of > violence related to religious intolerance jumped from 244 cases in 2011 to 264 in 2012. > Now the Islamist militants seem to have a new target: Indonesia’s Sufi population. > > Sumatra has become ground zero for this new wave of intolerance and related violence > against Sufis due to conservative Sunni clerics who have branded Sufi congregations as > “heretical sects.” Unlike in other parts of Indonesia, Sumatra’s Sunni clerics are less > constrained by the relatively tolerant Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia largest Muslim > organization, which accommodates hundreds of Islamictariqah (Sufi sects) under its > umbrella, but which is relatively weak in Sumatra. > > In September 2007, the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) in West Sumatra issued a fatwa, an > Islamic legal ruling, against the local Al-Qiyadah Al-Islamiyah Sufi sect on the basis > that they were “heretics.” Police responded to the fatwa by arresting the sect’s leaders. > In May 2008, a West Sumatra court sentenced Dedi Priadi and Gerry Lufthy Yudistira, the > sect’s father and son leaders, to three years’ imprisonment for “blasphemy.” Not to be > outdone, in April 2011 Aceh’s governor, Irwandi Yusuf, issued a decree that banned 14 > minority Islamic sects, including Sufi, Ahmadiyah and Shiite groupings. > > Expect more such intolerance: in March 2012, the West Sumatra prosecutor’s office > announced that the province hosted a total of “25 misleading sects” that merited official > censure. > > It’s no mystery why Indonesia’s Islamist militants have been emboldened to extend their > acts of harassment, intimidation and violence against the country’s Sufis. Human Rights > Watch issued a report in February documenting an alarming rise in religious intolerance > and related acts of violence. The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has > proven unwilling to confront the perpetrators, enforce existing law and judicial > decisions, and defend the rights to religious freedom embodied in Indonesia’s constitution > and international law. > > Indonesian government officials and security forces have often facilitated harassment and > intimidation of religious minorities by militant Islamist groups or stood by while > militants violently attacked religious minority communities. Such actions are in part made > possible by discriminatory laws and regulations, including a blasphemy law that officially > recognizes only six religions, and house of worship decrees that give local majority > populations significant leverage over religious minority communities. > > Indonesian government institutions have also played a role in the violation of the rights > and freedoms of the country’s religious minorities. Those institutions, which include the > Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in > Society (Bakor Pakem) under the Attorney General’s Office, and the semi-official MUI, have > eroded religious freedom by issuing decrees and fatwas against members of religious > minorities and using their position of authority to press for the prosecution of > “blasphemers.” > > Human Rights Watch warned in February that a failure by Yudhoyono to act decisively > against religious intolerance would foster a form of “toxic osmosis” that would only > encourage Islamist militants to target new victims. Instead, Yudhoyono’s spokesman > dismissed such concerns as “naive” and insisted that incidents of intolerance and violence > by militant Islamist thugs against Indonesia’s religious minorities were merely > expressions of “friction between groups.” > > When I taught at the Ar Raniry Islamic Institute in Banda Aceh in the 1990s, I got to know > some members of the religious minorities now under attack there. They deserve an end to > the hate campaigns. > > In May 2013, Yudhoyono promised that his government “would not tolerate any act of > senseless violence committed by any group in the name of the religion.” Indonesia’s > religious minorities, including the Sufis of Sumatra, need him to deliver on that promise. > > Andreas Harsono is an Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch. >
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 05:23:15 +0000
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