WSJ: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono leaves office this year, and already assessments of his legacy are ramping up. He has most often been described as, among other things, a force for religious moderation in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority democracy. The reality is different, however. He has presided over a steady erosion of freedom of religion for a decade. As a result, his successor will face a major challenge: stopping the rise of extremist Islamism and tackling increasing religious intolerance.
Mr. Yudhoyono has been neither a force, nor particularly moderate. Year after year, incidents of harassment and violence against religious minorities have increased to 264 in 2012 from 200 in 2009, according to democracy watchdog Setara Institute. The Communion of Churches in Indonesia says that at least 430 churches have been attacked, closed down or burned in the past decade. It’s fairer to say that Mr. Yudhoyono has failed to stand up to extremists or protect minorities, and instead has exacerbated the problem.
Mr. Yudhoyono gave a speech in 2005 to the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), the highest body of Islamic clerics in the country, promising them “a central role in matters regarding the Islamic faith” and pledging openness to their fatwas “at any time.” Interpreting this as a green light, within days the MUI issued a series of fatwas rejecting the religious pluralism on which Indonesia was founded and called for a ban on the Ahmadiyya, a Muslim sect regarded by conservatives as heretical.
Categories: Asia