Violence against religious communities and religious freedom abuses
increased in Indonesia in 2016: says the Report on Religious Freedom in
Indonesia 2016, carried out and just published by the "Wahid Institute",
a study center based in Jakarta in 2004 and entitled by former
Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, known Muslim leader.
The
institute, animated by Muslim researchers, has regularly monitored
religious freedom in Indonesia since 2008.
In the year 2016, according to the Report sent to Fides, there were at
least 204 episodes and 313 acts of abuse on religious communities,
especially minorities, with an increase of about 7% compared to 2015,
when the number of violations reported was 190 episodes and 249 acts of
violence.
As the document highlights, the vast majority of violations (130) in
2016 were committed by state actors, the remaining are the work of
non-state actors, such as private entities, organizations, individuals
or groups of citizens.
"And if one considers the episodes already surveyed in early 2017,
violations are on the rise by a further 7%", said Alamsyah M Jafar, a
researcher at the "Wahid Institute".
Observing the distribution of violence in different areas of the
Indonesian archipelago, religious freedom violations occurred in 25
provinces: the majority in West Java (46 episodes), followed by the
province of Aceh, in Sumatra (36 episodes), then in the metropolitan
area of Jakarta (23 episodes), Yogyakarta (10 episodes), East Java (9
episodes), Lampung (8 episodes), Banten and central Java (7 episodes
each).
Even the Christian press and Catholic communities in Indonesia also
talked about the Report. Father Paulus Rusbani Setyawan, at the head of
the Commission for the Laity of the Diocese of Bandung, capital of the
province of West Java, which is 97% Muslim, took note of the Report and
pointed out to Fides: "If we look at the daily life of the population in
West Java, we realize that, as a general rule, people do not care about
the ethnicity or religion when relating with others. There is a
peaceful coexistence at the base".
However, he adds, "some intolerant attitudes, which then infect society
with the virus of intolerance and violence, are the result of teachings
offered by some religious and political leaders, who speak of the
alleged superiority of a given community to another".
"It is a very sad and serious fact that some social or religious
leaders, even some educators in public schools, intentionally or not,
fuel attitudes of intolerance and discrimination in Indonesian society",
he adds.
Often, for example, "the truth of one religion over another are
emphasized and other religions are defamed, or the rites and practices
of students with different beliefs are riduculed", he notes.
"If one
allows these poisonous attitudes to proliferate, one will end up
destroying the unity and integrity of the Indonesian people", warns the
priest, recalling that "the real face of Indonesia is that of peaceful
coexistence, inclusiveness and tolerance".