jakarta Globe; The government has no plans to disband the Ahmadiyah congregation in Bekasi, despite a request from the municipality.

“The government’s position is to uphold the constitution, which guarantees religious freedom and freedom to one’s own beliefs,” Coordinating Minister of Security, Political and Legal Affairs Djoko Suyanto told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday. “There must not be any coercion or violence by anyone to anyone else.”

Djoko, who is on a state visit to Poland alongside President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said that his office came to its conclusion yesterday in a meeting led by the ministry’s secretary. Officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Attorney General’s Office, the National Police and the Military and State Intelligence Agency were in attendance.

Djoko said that the government would uphold a joint ministerial decree to preserve religious tolerance.

In a letter dated July 26, the Bekasi municipality requested that President Yudhoyono disband the local Ahmadiyah congregation. If the denomination were to be allowed, Bekasi asked that  Yudhoyono reclassify it by presidential decree as an accepted religion other than Islam.

“The request is the result of the community of believers and its leaders, in their discussion of the Ahmadiyah presence,” Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi told Indonesian news portal Antara.

Jumhana Lutfi, Bekasi’s municipal assistant, said that the city had brought the request to the central government because local authorities did not have the power to decide. Calls from local clerics, along with social unrest, prompted the request, he said.

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