Indonesia at risk of renewed religious unrest, group says

Jakarta - Indonesia is at risk of fresh religious unrest as hardline Muslim groups gain greater influence over government policy, a published report said Tuesday.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think-tank, said radical Islamic groups are enjoying a level of influence disproportionate to the support they have in the wider community.

A recent government decree restricting the activities of the controversial minority Islamic sect Ahmadiyah was the result of five years of lobbying, said the report.

"The decree demonstrates how radical elements, which have little political support in Indonesia, have been able to develop contacts in the bureaucracy and use classic civil society advocacy techniques to influence government policy," it said.

Under the decree issued in June, the Ahmadiyah sect's members have to stop practising their form of Islam or face possible imprisonment if they continue to deviate from the mainstream faith.

However, hardline orthodox groups claim the decree does not go far enough, and are demanding that Ahmadiyah either be dissolved or forced to declare itself non-Muslim.

In the week leading up to the issuance of the decree, stick-wielded Muslim militias attacked a rally by group of interfaith supporters, injuring dozens of people. Ten radical militia members were arrested.

The Ahmadiyah sect views itself as Muslim but it has been branded a heretical group by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the secular country's highest Muslim authority, which has issued a fatwa, or edict, against it.

Mainstream Muslims reject Ahmadiyahs claim of the prophethood of its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in 1908 in India. Most Muslims believe that Mohammed is the last of the prophets.

The ICG said the decree increases the likelihood of religious vigilantism, with government officials saying the public will act as the "watchdog" to ensure the decree is enforced.

"The prospects of unrest have in fact increased because of the way in which hardline groups have worked the issue both at the grassroots and top levels of government. Having won this victory, they'll look for others," said John Virgoe, ICG's South-East Asia Project Director.

The ICG's senior advisor, Sidney Jones, blamed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia, the world's most-populous Muslim nation.

"The Yudhoyono government made a serious error in 2005 by inviting MUI to help shape policy," said Jones. "It opened the door for hardline groups to press for greater state intervention to define orthodoxy and legislate morality."

Nearly 88 per cent of Indonesia's 225 million people are Muslim. Most of them are moderates who tolerate other beliefs. (dpa)