Govt called on to deal with religious sects wisely<\/p>\n
Hera Diani and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta\/Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
Heretical, schmeretical! We have been hearing a lot of such
\naccusations directed lately against, for instance, the imam who
\nled Islamic ritual prayers in the Indonesian language, or against
\nthe Ahmadiyah congregation.<\/p>\n
And now, the finger has been pointed at followers of Mahdi, a
\nreligious sect leader living near Palu, Central Sulawesi, who has
\nallegedly asked his followers not to practice some of the tenants
\nof Islam or Christianity.<\/p>\n
Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the nation's second largest Muslim
\norganization Muhammadiyah, quickly branded the Mahdi sect
\n\"blasphemous and misleading\", and urged the government to
\nsupervise and to assist the sect followers.<\/p>\n
They are people with low educational backgrounds, live in an
\nisolated mountainous area and are financially repressed, he said,
\npresumably as a way of explanation for their chosen beliefs.<\/p>\n
He also called on a group calling itself the team of religious
\nfaith monitoring (PAKEM) to improve their work.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia has a vast area with a diverse population. It
\ncreates a very wide access for any religious faith. We have to be
\nvery wise in taking care of it,\" Din, also deputy chairman of the
\nIndonesian Ulema Council (MUI), said in Yogyakarta on Friday.<\/p>\n
He did, however, say that he regretted the deadly clash
\nbetween police and Mahdi's followers on Tuesday, in which five
\npeople were killed -- three officers and two sect members.<\/p>\n
The clash occurred as 16 police officers went to the
\nmountainous Gawalise area outside of Palu city to try to question
\nMahdi and they met strong resistance from his followers.<\/p>\n
Reports about several officers being held hostage prompted
\nCentral Sulawesi Police to launch a large operation against the
\ngroup, with over 300 heavily armed men assisted by a helicopter.<\/p>\n
Three police officers were later found alive with serious
\ninjuries on Thursday, while around 100 sect followers surrendered
\nto police as the search for Mahdi commenced.<\/p>\n
Another Muslim scholar Komaruddin Hidayat said that heretical
\nstigmatization of slightly different groups should be avoided
\nbecause no person or group has the right to judge others as
\nblasphemous.<\/p>\n
\"What are the criteria for religious deviation? Because
\ncorruption is also another form of deviance,\" said the Islamic
\nstudies professor from the Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State
\nUniversity (UIN).<\/p>\n
Religious splinter groups and cults, Komaruddin said, can also
\nbe triggered by poverty, low education and a feeling of not being
\naccommodated or served by the government.<\/p>\n
He said the government should have asked the Mahdi followers
\nfor a dialog first, as it could have prevented the clash.<\/p>\n
\"The government should have been pro-active and held
\ndiscussions with the followers. The government should have
\napproached them nicely instead of confronting them with a platoon
\nof police.\"<\/p>\n
Islamic jurisprudence scholar Siti Musdah Mulia accused the
\ngovernment of violating the Constitution by detaining people it
\nperceived as religiously heretical.<\/p>\n
\"As long as any religious group does not commit violence or
\nforce others to follow their precepts, the government should let
\nthem be free. The state should even protect them,\" said Musdah,
\nwho is secretary-general of the Indonesian Conference for
\nReligion and Peace (ICRP).<\/p>\n
The government, Musdah said, has been taking a discriminatory
\nstance by only recognizing five religions, while there are so
\nmany other \"local\" religions spread across the country (and the
\nworld).<\/p>\n
\"Let people choose their own beliefs, because that is a
\npersonal matter. There are so many problems in this country, like
\npoverty, that the government should focus on those things to
\nresolve them instead.\"<\/p>",
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