Bogor disperses Ahmadiyah, sends followers home

Bogor disperses Ahmadiyah, sends followers home

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Bogor Police were still guarding the vacant compound of the
Ahmadiyah Indonesia Congregation (JAI) on Jl. Raya Parung in
Pondok Udik subdistrict, Kemang district, on Saturday, following
a violent protest over its presence on Friday.

As the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) had issued an edict in
1980 which declared the teachings of Ahmadiyah forbidden,
strengthened recently by the council's Bogor branch, the Bogor
administration asked the congregation to leave late on Friday.

Public order officer Imam said the administration had noted
that the 700 JAI followers who lived in the compound had been
sent to their respective hometowns.

Detective First Insp. Anjas said that the followers were
evacuated to the bigger City Hall, not the Bogor Prosecutor's
Office as planned.

"We finished recording their identities at about 10 p.m. and
sent them to their hometowns in Jakarta, Depok and Tasikmalaya in
West Java, Sulawesi, and even as far as Papua," he said.

Some 10,000 people from the Indonesian Muslim Solidarity group
attacked the JAI compound on Friday afternoon, which was locally
known as Mubarak campus as it housed a boarding school.

Armed with stones and batons, the attackers damaged the
buildings and set fire to the women's dormitory.

The Jakarta Post met some school staffers and students who
went back to take their belongings before leaving for their
homes.

"We're leaving until it's safe to come back," said Soleh, a
teacher, who came back to pick up his cellular phone.

Rejecting the accusation that Ahmadiyah's teachings ran
contrary to Islam, the students said the only difference was that
Ahmadiyah saw Islam as a peaceful religion.

"Talk to us, you don't have to vandalize or burn our homes. We
only fear God, not preachers," Soleh said.

Ahmadiyah was established in Pakistan in the 19th century by
Gulam Ahmad Khan. It is estimated that there are 200,000
followers of Ahmadiyah in Indonesia.

The attackers said that Ahmadiyah was not a Muslim group as
the teachings say that Prophet Muhammad was not the last prophet
and that its followers could be considered a hajji by carrying
out a ritual in an area in the compound which was made to look
similar to Mecca.

"I don't understand why violence is necessary? The people from
Ahmadiyah never created a disturbance here. Actually, we are more
afraid of those protesters," said Ali, a chief of a neighborhood
unit in Pondok Udik subdistrict.