Reacting to IS atrocities, Indonesia claims to be a model of Islamic tolerance

JAKARTA, Indonesia — This country, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, holds itself up as an example for followers of Islam everywhere. Largely peaceful, increasingly prosperous and democratic, Indonesia’s government and religious leaders have issued swift condemnations of the Islamic State terror group.

Some Muslims have “lost their identity” and “need role models to follow,” said Indonesia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dino Patti Djalal. “Muslims in Indonesia can become the reference,” he suggested in early September.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called IS militants’ actions in Syria and Iraq “embarrassing” to Islam. He banned IS support in Indonesia, and said the authorities had taken decisive steps to stop its spread in the country.

“Indonesia is not an Islamic state. We respect all religions,” Yudhoyono stated during an interview with The Australian in August. “No one should be persecuted because of personal belief.”

Yet not everyone agrees with this idyllic assessment of tolerance in this sprawling country of 250 million.  

Consider Emilia Az, a Shia activist in Jakarta. She says she receives regular threats, her house has been stoned on several occasions, and her dog was killed — all because she advocates for the rights of Shia Muslims and other religious minorities. (Most Indonesian Muslims are Sunni.)

“Many Shia hide their beliefs, so they are safe. But I’m used to being threatened by [conservative Sunni] Wahabis in many ways because of my work.”

To her, Yudhoyono and his government are “weak,” and “have done nothing for us.”  

The president’s statement also left Indonesian human rights activists in dismay.

“It is not true,” said Andreas Harsono, Human Rights Watch’s researcher in Jakarta.

He says it’s easy for officials to condemn what happens in the Middle East, but much harder to admit that the situation in Indonesia is worrying. The truth is that Yudhoyono “has turned a blind eye to religious violence inside his own country,” Harsono adds, arguing that attacks against Shia, Ahmadiyah and Christian minorities have increased during the outgoing president’s 10-year term.

“His government institutionalized so many discriminations against minorities,” Harsono says. One example: a 2008 decree that prohibited the “deviant” Muslim Ahmadiyah sect from spreading their beliefs. He also points to a decree restraining construction of churches, which has led to assaults on Christian leaders.

Religious violence has been treated lightly in Indonesia in recent years. In 2011, a group of some 1,500 Islamic hardliners attacked a Ahmadiyah community in West Java. Three men were beaten to death. The brutal assault, captured on video, shocked the country.

Still, the perpetrators were only sentenced with three to six months in jail.

Rights activists say militant Islamic movements in Indonesia target minority groups with total impunity. “The government almost never takes action. When they do, the punishment is insignificant,” says Harsono.

The Islam practiced here is overwhelmingly moderate, however, and experts point out that religious violence is limited to certain areas. Nonetheless, it remains a top human rights priority.

Bonar Tigor Naipospos, the deputy director of Setara, an Indonesian institute that monitors religious violence, says officials were quick to condemn IS actions because they knew the country’s highly influential mainstream Muslim organizations agreed. Politicians “are very careful when it comes to religious issues,” he says. “The government will act quickly if they can count on the Islamic organizations’ backup. If not, they’ll stay silent.”

Still, he contends that the Shia community in Indonesia “is suffering from the conflict in the Middle East.”

Last April, a group known as the Anti-Shia Alliance organized a gathering attended by thousands to call for “preventive and anticipative” action against the “Shia threat.”

“It’s time that we declared jihad against [the Shia],” one of the speakers said. A call by Shia representatives to cancel the event was left unanswered.

President-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who’ll take power in October, has promised to focus on human rights. Harsono urges that the new leader should distance himself from Yudhoyono’s “bad and dangerous legacy.”

“Jokowi has to undo what Yudhoyono has done during the past 10 years.”

Setara's Bonar says it’s time religious minorities stop facing persecution, intimidation, hate speech, discrimination, and attacks on their places of worships. “The duty of the state is to protect all citizens, no matter what their religion or beliefs are.”