06-13-2008, 10:14 AM
<b>Indonesia minority sect fears hardline backlash</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->JAKARTA - LIFE for Indonesia's Ahmadis has taken a frightening turn.
<b>Their mosques and sympathisers have been attacked by violent militant groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), and they are under pressure to say they are not Muslim</b>.
Near one of their onion-domed mosques in Jakarta, a lone police patrol car provides protection for the sect, even though at a Jakarta rally earlier this month, FPI supporters beat up and injured participants as they called for tolerance for Ahmadiyya.
'Of course, we are afraid and worried,' said Mr Deden Sudjana, who handles Ahmadiyya security.
'It is very human if everybody is traumatised, especially children and women because they saw blood, how they trampled on the elderly, beat them and kicked them.
...................Indonesia's top Muslim religious council has declared Ahmadiyya a deviant sect, and hardline groups want them banned.
Earlier this week, vice-president Jusuf Kalla said the government would not ban Ahmadiyya as long as its members do not preach or try to convert others.
A ministerial decree issued this week stopped short of banning the sect but warned followers could face five years in jail for tarnishing religion.
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<b>Their mosques and sympathisers have been attacked by violent militant groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), and they are under pressure to say they are not Muslim</b>.
Near one of their onion-domed mosques in Jakarta, a lone police patrol car provides protection for the sect, even though at a Jakarta rally earlier this month, FPI supporters beat up and injured participants as they called for tolerance for Ahmadiyya.
'Of course, we are afraid and worried,' said Mr Deden Sudjana, who handles Ahmadiyya security.
'It is very human if everybody is traumatised, especially children and women because they saw blood, how they trampled on the elderly, beat them and kicked them.
...................Indonesia's top Muslim religious council has declared Ahmadiyya a deviant sect, and hardline groups want them banned.
Earlier this week, vice-president Jusuf Kalla said the government would not ban Ahmadiyya as long as its members do not preach or try to convert others.
A ministerial decree issued this week stopped short of banning the sect but warned followers could face five years in jail for tarnishing religion.
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