Analysis: Testing Prabowo's commitment to religious freedom - Academia

Resident Prabowo Subianto faced the first test of his commitment to religious freedom last week when police banned a nationwide gathering for followers of Ahmadiyyah, a sect that the majority Sunni community of Indonesia refuses to recognize it as Islam.

It would be premature and unfair to say that the president has broken the oath he took in October to uphold the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion. However, unless he responds quickly to this latest episode of religious intolerance, he could follow in the footsteps of his predecessors in their failure to protect religious minorities, thus contradicting the country’s claim to be proud of its diversity, including his beliefs and confessions.

The challenge for any president is to protect the rights of religious minorities while appeasing Muslims, who make up about 88 percent of the country’s 280 million population. The country has long been known for its moderate Islam, but Indonesian Muslims are becoming increasingly conservative and politically assertive, sometimes at the expense of tolerance for other faiths.

The recent incident involves the regency of Kuningan, West Java, which banned the local Ahmadiyyah movement from holding its annual meeting on December 6-8, citing a risk of public unrest. The regency administration also asked the police to enforce the ban, and many Ahmadiyyah supporters were turned away from the village of Manislor, where the meeting was to take place.

Although the ban on Ahmadiyyah meetings has occurred in the past, the latest incident is the first since Prabowo took office. The president made no comment on the matter, while Religious Affairs Minister Nasruddin Umar simply dodged journalists’ questions. This does not bode well for demonstrating the new administration’s commitment to respecting the right to religion.

Ahmadiyyah, which originates from Pakistan and India and has some 600,000 followers in Indonesia, has often been the target of persecution and violence in recent years.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), a powerful umbrella organization that works closely with the government, issued a fatwa (non-binding decree) declaring Ahmadiyyah a heresy.

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