Source: The Jakarta Post
Two members of British parliament, Siobhain McDonagh and Eric Lubbock, have condemned the recent lenient sentences handed down to 12 men involved in a brutal attack against members of Ahmadiyah sect in Cikeusik, Banten.
Siobhain, also the chairwoman of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said she was shocked at the sentences given Indonesia’s reputation for tolerance.
“These verdicts show a disturbing shift in the country’s commitment to freedom of religion and justice,” she said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Eric, who is a member of UK’s House of Lords and the vice-chairman of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Human Rights, said the verdicts were “a huge setback for Indonesia and in particular for its justice system”.
“In Pakistan, the attempt by extremists to have the very existence of Ahmadiyah faith made illegal has led to wholesale massacres, assassinations, destruction of mosques, and exclusion from public life. Indonesia must for its own sake avoid going down the same path,” the senior politician said in the same press statement.
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Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Human Rights, Indonesia