Hard-liners confirm church closure in Bandung

Hard-liners confirm church closure in Bandung

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Respected scholar Azyumardi Azra demanded on Wednesday that the
police take action against a grouping of hard-line organizations
responsible for closing down over 20 churches in Bandung.

"The group has taken the law into their own hands and they
have to be punished in line with the law," said Azyumardi, quoted
as saying by detik.com news portal. Azyumardi, the rector of
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN), reiterated
that only the government had the authority to close down houses
of worship.

The controversial issue of church closure again came to light
after Andreas A. Yewangoe, an executive of the Indonesian
Communion of Churches (PGI) reported to President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono on Tuesday that 23 churches in Bandung had been
forcibly closed down by hard-line groups including the Islam
Defender's Front (FPI) between September last year and August
this year. The FPI is a right wing Muslim organization and part
of the Alliance of the Anti Apostasy Movement (AGAP), which has
been aggressively campaigning for the closure of churches in West
Java province.

In response to the complaint, the President ordered Minister
of Religious Affairs M. Maftuh Basyuni to investigate the issue
in a prudent manner.

The report was confirmed by the AGAP itself. The grouping of
Muslim hard-line organizations acknowledged on Wednesday that it
had closed down over 20 churches in West Java since last year,
the latest being three churches in Cimahi city and Bandung
regency. The three churches -- two in Cimahi and another in
Bandung regency -- were forced to close their doors in the past
two weeks through intimidation and acts of vandalism.

The Muslim hard-liner groups have claimed that the churches
were shut down due to complaints from local residents.

"We never closed down the churches on our own initiative,"
said Muhammad Mu'min Al Mubarak, the leader of the AGAP.

Further complicating the situation is the information that the
antichurch movement has been backed by Agus Zakia, the head of
Bandung district Dayeuhkolot.

Agus acknowledged that he had authorized the forcible closure
of a church in his district as no permit had been issued for its
establishment.

Under a Ministerial Decree jointly issued in 1969 by the
Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs,
houses of worship are required to obtain a permit from both the
local religious office and the head of the local neighborhood
unit.

Agus said the churches, whose members sought to convert
Muslims to Christianity, were often set up in residential areas.

Separately, John Simon Timorason, who heads the West Java
chapter of the board that oversees cooperation between churches
denied that the churches which had been forcibly closed lacked
permits. He said that dozens of churches, which had remained
closed since last year, possessed permits issued by both local
officials and the religious affairs office. Timorason claimed
that over 200 churches had been shut down by Muslim hard-liners
since 1996.

Responding to the dispute, West Java Deputy Governor Nu'man
Abdul Hakim called on both sides to peacefully resolve the issue.