Places of worships to be relocated

JAKARTA (JP): East Jakarta Mayor Andi Mappaganty insisted on Monday that he would not revoke his order that local Christians stop meeting at seven houses in the Pulo Gebang Permai housing complex.

The owners of the houses as well as the congregations are urged to obey the order, he said.

"I'm afraid that if they persist in staying there will be unrest because certain parties have threatened trouble," Mappaganty said without elaborating.

In the mayor's letter of instruction received by executives of the congregations on Saturday morning, Mappaganty stressed that the use of the houses by the congregations breached a 1991 governor instruction which prohibits residential buildings from being used as places of worship.

He therefore ordered the seven congregations to stop meeting at the houses. The mayor said the congregations should worship at two halls located inside the housing complex and at a gutted shopping center located at the nearby Taman Modernland complex.

According to Rev. J.J. Lumanouw from GBIP Kharis, one of the congregations which meets in the houses, the mayor's instruction was based on a written protest lodged by a local Muslim institution.

"We oppose the instruction. It's not only due to the fact that we were asked to move our service in one night, but the fact that the administration has also discriminated against us," he said.

Governor Instruction No. 39 instructs city mayors to prevent religious services from being held in residential buildings because of the possibility of disturbance and unrest.

Across the country, including here in Jakarta, many Christians establish private residences as houses of worships by performing church services in the homes, which are licensed only for residential use.

Because Indonesia has a number of religions, local authorities are careful in their handling of religious matters, including where houses of worship can be located, in an attempt to build religious harmony.

"But we have been here since 1986 and our existence has never disturbed the area. Moreover, most of our neighbors are Christians," Rev. Lumanouw said.

His lawyer, Hotma Timbul Hutapea, said the governor instruction could not be applied because it "contradicted the 1975 Ministry of Religious Affairs instruction which never forbade the use of residential houses as places of worship".

The seven houses at Pulo Gebang Permai complex are used to hold services by Christians from various denominations. Two churches are located in the complex, which also has six mosques.

According to local church activist Jerry Zaidir, the congregations complained about the matter to the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama Muslim, Abdurrahman Wahid, and the chairman of the Indonesian Council of Muslim Ulema, Ali Yafie.

"Both of them support our existence. Ali Yafie even said that he was embarrassed by the occurrence. He said forbidding other congregations from performing their religious services was not part of Islamic teachings," Jerry said.

Both Abdurrahman and Ali Yafie could not be reached for comment. (ind)