Youth group 'seal' Catholic school

Urip Hudiono and Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group calling itself the Islamic Youth Front set up a blockade at a private Catholic school on Jl. Raden Saleh in Ciledug, Tangerang, on Sunday, after becoming enraged that the building was "inappropriately being used to hold services for another religion".

Another organization known by the same acronym, FPI or the Islamic Defenders' Front, denied having formal links with the youth group, called the Front Pemuda Islam.

The local Catholic community uses the school building for church services on weekends.

The group's action could disrupt classes this week at the Sang Timur Catholic school, which is owned by the Sang Timur Foundation. The foundation operates the school, which includes classes from elementary to high school level as well as a school for children with disabilities.

Secretary of the local Saint Bernadette parish, Eko Pranowo, said that Catholic families from six districts of Ciledug, Karang Tengah, Larangan, Pinang, Pondok Aren and Serpong, had been using the building on Saturdays and Sundays for mass over the past 12 years.

He explained that they still had to use the building because they were unable to build a church at a nearby site.

"We were granted a building permit for the site last year, but still do not have enough funds to build it," he said.

Eko said the same group of youths had held two other demonstrations in August, after the Tangerang office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs sent the parish a letter in May, telling them to stop using the building for religious services.

"The newly elected subdistrict chief in the area had also heeded their calls and forbade us to hold mass in the building," Eko said. The former subdistrict chief, however, had given them permission to hold religious services in the building.

"But we have not been given a solution on where we can hold our religious services, and we were never asked to talk about the matter."

Eko also criticized the Islamic Youth Front's act of physically barring all entry to the building. "Is it not the basic right of citizens in this country to worship freely according to their beliefs?"

A representative of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) denied having any formal links with the youth group. Cleric Awid, secretary of the FPI's Jakarta chapter, said that FPI only gave moral support to the Islamic Youth Front of Karang Tengah subdistrict.

"The local youths came to us, asking for support for their protest demonstration on Sunday. We were not involved in the closure of the Sang Timur building, even though we did send some of our members to show our support," Awid said.

He added that the youths told FPI that they were upset because the Sang Timur school was used as a place for Catholic mass.

"They told us they had contacted the police to settle the matter, but the police ignored them so they asked for our support," he said.