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.