Govt aims to speed up revision of religious decree

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Home Affairs M. Ma'aruf said that the government would try to speed up the revision of the controversial 1969 decree on the establishment of houses of worship.

He said on Monday that officials from his ministry and the Ministry of Religious Affairs had set a deadline to complete the revision before the end of this year.

"We'll try to finish it sooner. The sooner, the better," he told reporters following a meeting between Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono and several Muslim clerics here.

Ma'aruf explained that there were a number of remaining items that had to be thoroughly discussed in revising the decree, and those included the operational concept of the decree in accordance with local traditions.

The minister's statement came in the wake of a fresh attack against a Christian house of worship late on Sunday in South Sulawesi.

Witnesses said that at least 150 people vandalized a house in Patalassang district, Takalar regency, about 45 km south of Makassar.

There were no reported injuries as it was empty when the group arrived, but earlier in the day it was used as a place of worship for local Christians.

For the past six months, the Takalar Muslim community forum had protested about the use of the house by Christians. The Muslim group claimed that the worshipers did not have the necessary permission to use the building for religious activities.

Head of the Takalar police department, Yayat Jatmika, said that the use of the house as a place of worship was against the law, but he added that the attack on the house was unfortunate.

"The Muslim forum had previously filed a protest with the police and the local legislative council, which had been trying to settle the case amicably. But unfortunately, they were not patient enough to wait," Yayat explained.

The central government has been under pressure to revise the 1969 decree issued by the ministry of home affairs and ministry of religious affairs following dozens of similar forced closures by Muslims extremists over the past year, mostly in Bandung and neighboring districts in West Java.

The decree obliges those wishing to build a religious place of worship to obtain permission from local authorities and local residents. In some areas it is next to impossible to secure such permission, and minority Christians have had to turn houses and shops into temporary places of worship without a permit.

Moderate Muslims have criticized the hard-liners for taking the law into their own hands.

Ma'aruf said that the revision of the controversial decree was part of efforts to help curb interfaith violence in the nation with the world's largest population of Muslims.

He said that the decree would be revised so it would be consistent with Law No. 32/2004 on regional administration.