Religion, juggernauts and the street violence
Moh Yasir Alimi, The Jakarta Post:
The fatal car crash in Gambir, Central Jakarta, on Sunday gives us a vivid illustration that can help us understand the nature of religious freedom in Indonesia.
A driver, intoxicated after consuming alcohol and crystal methamphetamine, has been implicated in the wrongful death of nine people after she allegedly lost control of her car and crashed into a crowd of people.
Many others, however, drunk on religion, have “crashed” into more people just as brutally throughout the country.
I am sure you still remember the Ahmadiyah brutality in Cikeusik, West Java, in 2011, which resulted in the death of four Ahmadis. I am sure you also remember the members of GKI Yasmin, who are still experiencing intimidation and cannot access their church, although they have won a ruling from the Supreme Court.
The mayor of Bogor still barricades the church with Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) officers to prevent the church followers from entering and violent groups also still regularly visit the church to intimidate GKI Yasmin members as they conduct religious services.
The Jakarta Post reported that a Sunday mass held at the house of a congregation members attended by around 50 members of the GKI Yasmin church was forced to stop when a group of protesters arrived and demanded that the congregation halt its service.
Like Apriyani Susanti, the driver in the car accident, the people in Cikeusik and Bogor were drunk and drove a huge machine called religion and crashed into many Muslims and non-Muslims they supposed were different in their beliefs.
The writer is a researcher at the Center for Cultural Pluralism, Democracy and Character Building, Semarang State University.
Just as drunk drivers need treatment and law enforcement these religious drunks also need therapy as well as law enforcement strategy.
The best therapy comes from basic religious teachings such as tolerance, humanity first, respect for all religions and mutual harmony and peace. Whereas law enforcement stems from the law enforcement authorities who need to remind themselves that their job has priority over their personal beliefs. A broad principal of separation of state and religion needs to be advocated.