Jakarta Globe:

Almost exactly one year ago, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the following on the occasion of Independence Day: “I want to underline the importance of maintaining and strengthening our brotherhood, harmony and tolerance as a nation… In everyday life, we still find cases that don’t reflect the harmony, tolerance and mutual respect … related to religion, ethnicity, tribe and regions. We must not ignore such a situation.”

People in Medan protesting against violence in the name of religion and urging the government to act against those behind the anti-Ahmadiyah violence in Cikeusik earlier this year.

I guess no one was listening. Monday’s court verdict finding the victim guilty of inciting the mob that nearly took off his arm with a machete and killed three fellow members of the Ahmadiyah sect last February, set a new low for justice.

Deden’s crime was being there. And for that he was given a six month sentence. On July 28, the same court gave 12 men involved in the violence, including the leader of the mob, sentences of 3-6 months for carrying out the attacks, which millions have seen on YouTube.

The district court in Banten province found Deden Sujana at fault because he was one of a handful of Ahmadiyah members who attempted to stop a crowd of about 1,500 people as it attacked the house where they were staying. By the logic of the court, if Deden had fled the area nothing would have happened and his three friends would not have been beaten and hacked to death. By such reasoning, banks should be robbed because they have money in them and pedestrians are only killed by runaway drivers because they are walking on the street.

“I, the victim, am sentenced in a trial held under political pressure,” Deden told the court Monday, noting that he was also convicted of violent assault, a crime he was not even charged with. “I was treated the same way as the uncivilized murderers of my three friends. Where is the justice?”

The strange thing is, the sentence was neither a surprise nor an aberration……

In that same hearing, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali defended a 2008 joint ministerial decree that restricts the Ahmadiyah’s activities and bans Ahmadis from spreading their faith. The decree, which is frequently cited by those who attack the sect for being heretical to Islam, is really there to help Ahmadiyah, the minister said. “The decree was not made to discriminate against certain groups, it was aimed at maintaining religious harmony, including protecting the Ahmadiyah.”

Last year, Suryadharma called for outlawing Ahmadiyah altogether. “To ban [the Ahmadiyah] is far better than to let them be… To outlaw them would mean that we are working hard to stop deviant acts from continuing,” he said.

So it is in this upside down world where victims are criminals and intolerance is cited in defense of minorities.

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