In Indonesia, attacks by the extremist IDF against religious minorities are occurring with greater frequency. But despite religious freedoms enshrined in the constitution, authorities are responding with ambivalence and President Yudhoyono is reacting hesitantly to the latest violence. Anett Keller reports from Jakarta.
The latest violent attack on representatives of a religious minority in Indonesia has left the nation in shock. Shortly after a church service on Sunday, 12 September, a leading representative of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP), Hasian Lumbantoruan Sihombing, was stabbed in the city of Bekasi to the east of Jakarta. Sihombing had to be treated at the intensive care unit.
Pastor Luspida Simanjuntak, who tried to rush to his aid, was attacked with sticks by the assailants and sustained minor injuries. The police, who apparently did not manage to protect the victims at the attack site, have meanwhile detained 10 suspects, among them Murhali Barda, the leader of the radical Islamic Defender Front (FPI) in Bekasi.
These are the latest in a series of worrying attacks on religious minorities that is currently undermining the faith that many Indonesians have in their traditional and constitutionally pluralist homeland.
Between January and July of this year alone, the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace recorded 28 attacks by primarily radical Muslim groups on Christians – as opposed to 17 in the year 2008 and 18 in 2009. Most of these attacks took place in Jakarta and several cities in West Java...
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