“And the Ahmadiyya Muslim community is perhaps the most persecuted of all”.
Benedict Rogers
(East Asia Team Leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission)
Source:
A Christian, a Muslim and an atheist sounds like the beginning of joke. Instead, it could the beginning of a broader-based struggle for freedom of religion and belief, in the face of rising religious intolerance around the world.
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Growing radicalisation of a minority of Indonesian Muslims, combined with the passivity of the majority and the weakness of the government, is a cocktail which threatens to destroy Indonesia’s tradition of pluralism and religious harmony. Some Islamic think-tanks in Jakarta, such as the Wahid Institute, founded by former President Abdurrahman Wahid, the Liberal Islam Network and the Maarif Institute, are speaking out for religious minorities and introducing counter-radicalisation programmes in schools and university campuses, but unless the Indonesian government tackles intolerance by upholding the rule of law and the rights of all Indonesians, such efforts may be in vain.
Perhaps the most worrying sign of extremism is intolerance towards fellow Muslims. Earlier this month, radicals attacked a lecture by liberal Canadian Muslim Irshad Manji. Shia Muslims are increasingly under threat. And the Ahmadiyya Muslim community is perhaps the most persecuted of all. Last year I met victims of one of the worst outbreaks of violence, an attack on Ahmadis in Cikeusik on 6 February, 2011 which left three people dead.
One man described how he was stripped naked, beaten to a pulp, a machete held at his throat with a threat to cut off his penis. He was dragged through the village and dumped in a truck like a corpse. Another fled into a fast-flowing river, pursued by attackers throwing rocks and shouting “kill, kill, kill.” He hid in a bush, dripping wet and extremely cold, for four hours. A third suffered a broken jaw, while a fourth, pursued by men armed with sickles, machetes and spears, was detained by the police for three days, treated as a suspect not a victim. Of the 1,500-strong mob which attacked 21 Ahmadis, only three men were arrested and prosecuted. Their sentences were between three and six months. Where is the rule of law and functioning justice?
Read More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ben/hitchens-jesus-and-freedom_b_1543415.html
Categories: Asia, Extremism, Indonesia, Religious persecution
Religion is a personal relation between men and God. I had seen the religious persecution of the Ahmadiyyah Muslim minorities on YouTube by Indonesian brainless fanatics….I think those mobsters are paid by irresponsible elements to destroy the Ahmadiyyah followers in that remote area….what made me sick is the police was only watching like a dog! what a shame on the Indonesian Government,
Innalillah,wainnaalaheyrajeoon, we all belong to God, and one we have to return to Him. Alas! due to religious differences,the inhuman brutish manner in which three human beings of Indonesian birth-roots, of and on the soil of Indonesia, were brutally killed by the Islam-loving agitating people of same Indonesia, of same soil, same roots and origin, Ah, alas, three Indonesian Ahmadi Muslims of same area/locality were killed with inhuman heart-lessness, and in the manner about which no one would have thought of before this shameless event took place.Look at the low level of thinking and its public practicing and action of this largest Muslim majority country, what a sham of a group of 1500 Islamic slogan chanters, the so-called lovers of Islam, had performed their shameful acts in such an un-bearable way that even Al-jazeera TV could not tolerate the barbaric scenes and it dare not show such naked in-human brutal scene. This bad, devilish killing spree in the name of Islam is nothing but a permanent bad source of negative reputation for the largest Muslim country. It is necessary and imperative to revive the image of a tolerant peaceful progressive Indonesia as was its form and shape in the mind and thinking of the founding fathers of Indonesia.Similarly the leaders and people of Pakistan too, must pay full attention to the golden principals/ideals as well as his practice politics, if they want to be a great country and a worthy model for other muslim and non-muslim nations, too, as Khaire Ummah, the best of all the people of the world.