Seven more named suspects in Cianjur attack

Seven more named suspects in Cianjur attack

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

West Java Police named on Wednesday seven more people as suspects
in an attack on properties owned by a controversial Muslim sect
in Cianjur, West Java, on Monday night. A total of 12 people have
now been named as suspects in the attack.

Cianjur Police deputy chief Comr. Rudi Marfianto said the
seven suspects lived near the Ahmadiyah sect in Cianjur regency.

"All 12 of the suspects, including the seven (named on
Wednesday), are charged with violating Article 170 of the
Criminal Code on assault, which carries a maximum sentence of
five years in prison," said Marfianto.

The 12 suspects are thought to be among the hundreds of people
who attacked mosques, houses and cars belonging to the Ahmadiyah
sect in Campaka district, some 120 kilometers southeast of
Jakarta. It was reported that the mob, mostly local residents and
students at a local Muslim boarding school, vandalized four
mosques, 33 houses, four elementary schools and three cars.

West Java Police arrested 48 people immediately after the
attack, but after questioning only named 12 suspects.

The West Java chapter of the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation
(JAI) strongly condemned the attack. Abdul Wahab, an executive at
the JAI, also asked why Ahmadiyah members were under attack now
although the group has been in the country since 1953.

A religious leader in West Java shared Wahab's concern.
Religious leader Sofyan Yahya called on all Muslims to maintain
restraint and remain coolheaded. Sofyan, the chairman of the West
Java chapter of Nadhlatul Ulama, the country's largest Islamic
group, said taking the law into one's own hands was
counterproductive and would only tarnish the image of Islam.

Another religious leader, Hafids Utsman, the head of the West
Java chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), also called
on people not to resort to violence to resolve their disputes. He
urged the public to let the government and the police deal with
problems stemming from differences of faith.

The attack on Monday was the latest against Ahmadiyah, which
was recently branded as heretical by the MUI, the highest
authority on Islam in the country. Members of Ahmadiyah, unlike
mainstream Muslims, believe that the last prophet was not the
Prophet Muhammad but Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the sect in
the 19th century in what is now Pakistan. Ahmadiyah property was
attacked in July in Parung, Bogor, West Java. No arrests have
been made in connection with this earlier attack.

While Indonesian Muslims generally follow a tolerant version
of the faith, some hard-line Muslim groups have been making
inroads in the country.