Susilo: Freedom of worship guaranteed

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stressed on Sunday that the state guaranteed every citizen religious freedom and called on the police and members of the public to act to prevent violence against any faith.

The President, according to his spokesman Andi Mallarangeng, has ordered Minister of Religious Affairs M. Maftuh Basyuni and heads of local administrations to quickly find a solution to the closure of Christian houses of worship.

"The President called on them to find the right solution, with the principle that the state and the Constitution guarantee the freedom to worship," Andi said in a statement.

The President made the comments after Muslim hard-line groups to forcefully close at least 23 churches in a number of cities in West Java and Banten on the grounds that they were operating illegally.

Thousands of Christians and a number of leading Muslim figures, including former president Abdurrahman Wahid, rallied on Saturday to protest the closures.

Some Christians have also called on the government to revoke a 1969 ministerial decree issued jointly by the ministries of religious and home affairs that requires local public leaders to approve the construction of non-Muslim houses of worship.

The President, nevertheless, said that the government would not hastily revoke the joint ministerial decree. But he agreed that the decree needed some changes.

To prevent conflict, Susilo said, real estate developers would be required to build houses of worship for people living in housing complexes.

The President also expressed alarm over violence committed by hard-line groups against followers of other sects or other faiths.

"SBY also calls on any organization or community not to take the law into their hands on this issue of worship," Andi said.

"The National Police chief (Gen. Sutanto) is instructed to uphold the law against any perpetrators of violence, including the instigators."

Some Muslim hard-line groups recently attacked the premises of the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect after the Indonesian Ulema Council issued a fatwa against the group, calling it illegitimate. No one has been prosecuted for the violence committed against the sect.