The Jakarta Post,
Political pragmatism by major political parties, that have long pandered to majority Sunni voters, has prevented the parties from protecting the rights of minority Muslim groups such as the Ahmadiyah and Shia.
Although nine political parties in the House of Representatives have provisions in their statutes to protect the rights of minority groups, some of them, particularly the Islamic-based National Awakening Party (PKB), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), have openly supported the Religious Affairs Ministry’s decision to maintain regulations deemed discriminatory against minorities groups, including the 2008 Joint Ministerial Decree that bans Ahmadis from practicing their faith over fears of blasphemy.
For Islamic parties, religious freedom is acceptable as long as it does not contradict the basic tenets of Islam or aqidah principles, which according to them, have been breached by Ahmadis and Shiites in Indonesia.
“This is why we believe that there is no other solution for them [Ahmadis and Shiites] but to repent and submit themselves to true Islam,” Hasrul Azwar, leader of the PPP faction at the House, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Religious Affairs Minister Sur-yadharma Ali, who is also chairman of the PPP, has repeatedly said that Ahmadis and Shiites have “deviated” from the true path of Islam and that they had brought discrimination upon themselves on account of their deviant teachings.