Church closures continue to cause public concern

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung/Jakarta

The closure of churches in Bandung and surrounding areas over the past two years has caused concern among people of different faiths who consider the incidents a threat to religious harmony in the country.

On Saturday afternoon, around 1,500 people of various religions rallied at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta to pressure the government to prove its commitment to religious freedom, Antara reported.

The demonstrators, who included former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and former House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung, also prayed together.

"We are concerned about the forcible closure of Christian houses of worship, which we consider a blow to brotherhood among people of different faiths here," one rally participant, Hendra Waskita, said.

After the rally, the crowd marched to the State Palace while unfurling banners that stated their demand that discrimination be eliminated and for religious harmony.

The latest forcible closures of house of worship occurred on Saturday, with Muslim hard-liners claiming that one church in Bandung and another in South Jakarta lacked permits.

The hard-liners have also accused the church congregations of converting Muslims to Christianity.

The Christian community in Bandung, where 23 houses of worship have been shut down by the Muslim hard-liners since 2003, have deemed a 1969 joint ministerial decree the root of the problem.

The decree requires that congregations wishing to build a house of worship obtain a permit from the head of the local administration and seek permission from local residents. With Indonesia being predominantly Muslim, minority Christians often have difficulties in building churches and instead use houses, shop-houses or hotels to hold services.

"We planned to renovate our church to accommodate the growing congregation, but the plan never materialized due to resistance from local people, who are mostly Muslims, even though the land belongs to us," said Rieska Wulandari, 26, a member of the Java Christian Church. The church was built in 1960.

She said there was no reason to close a church no matter what.

"How can people restrict others of a different faith from praying? It goes against people's rights," she said.

She called on followers of other religions to understand the difficulties facing Christians in building churches, which often prompted them to use other buildings as houses of worship.

Sugeng Sumaryadi, a Protestant, suggested that church congregations intensify communication with local people and government to prevent further incidents.

"The closures serve as a lesson for us Christians to enhance communication with all parties so that they understand our need for houses of worship," Sugeng said.

He said he understood that some people resented religious activities in their residential areas as they had the tendency to disrupt the tranquility of an area.

"If we wanted to turn a house into business premises such as a factory outlet, for example, we would be required to secure a permit. Before obtaining a permit from the government, it would be necessary to get permission from residents because activities or crowds of customers would certainly bother them," he said.

Meanwhile, head of West Java chapter of the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI), Hafidz Usman, said he had not heard of any church closures.

"They were private residences that served as houses of worship. Annoyed residents reported them to the authorities, which went unheeded. They finally protested to the local administration and demanded that action be taken," he said.

Hafidz said the joint ministerial decree regulated the issue accordingly. He said Muslims also faced difficulties in building mosques in predominantly Christian areas, particularly in eastern Indonesia.

He called on local administrations to quickly respond to people's aspirations in a bid to prevent similar incidents from occurring.