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Villagers in Lombok Ransack, Destroy Ahmadiyah Homes
Fitri R. | November 27, 2010

A gang of youths in West Lombok district destroying an empty home belonging to the Ahmadiyah community in November. Questions are being raised over the Religious Affairs Ministry’s decision to honor West Nusa Tenggara Governor Zainul Majdi, who has pushed for a ban on Ahmadiyah (JG Photo/Fitri) A gang of youths in West Lombok district destroying an empty home belonging to the Ahmadiyah community in November. Questions are being raised over the Religious Affairs Ministry’s decision to honor West Nusa Tenggara Governor Zainul Majdi, who has pushed for a ban on Ahmadiyah (JG Photo/Fitri)
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marko1
10:53am Nov 29, 2010

Indonesia Government wake up otherwise I will get Wiki leaks to turn its attention to you !

marko1
10:52am Nov 29, 2010

Police, please use your mandate TO SHOOT ON SIGHT! We dont need these people in this world anymore rioters in Indonesia at all... If you break the law you go to jail its that simple...

kales
10:45am Nov 29, 2010

And the mob yelled, "Destroy the Ahmadis who bring shame to Islam!"

It's certainly not the Ahmadis who bring shame to Islam!

Good,Bad and Ugly
9:28am Nov 29, 2010

In the long evolution of mankind, all around was mystery and fear. The number of questions were immense as little was understood about the nature and operations of the earth and the cosmos.

All objects had spirits, a religio-magical set of rituals originated. This was the start of the religious philosophy of Animism.

As there were many sorts of men, it followed that there were many sorts of gods. That is the personification stage of religion. Polytheism and its many myths were prevalent throughout the world. The common theme was 'Salvation'.

Eventually the concept of a single most powerful god became the leading philosophy. Monotheism was the new cult. With it came the full system for control of behavior in a society.

As science developed and began answering the many mysteries, Humanity also began to question the necessities of authoritarian mythologies and religions to dictate all behavior. Freedom of thought and action, and individual equality has finally evolved and with it Atheism.

Humankind has matured and can now think for itself and has put aside the fables and myths of its naive past.


Roland
8:01am Nov 29, 2010

@SirAKB - your predictions may be quite correct - but I think as long education and understanding does not take place people will with force hold on to their religious beliefs, as these people are simply not able to provide for themselves a skeptical stand in regards of religion! One example may be a post a bit further down, in which one reader claims that that earthquakes and other natural disasters are the wrath of God - even leaders of this country do the same (just remember Titaful's remark after the Padang earthquake!)

People are getting artificially held uneducated because that is the power base for religion (and not only religion) to fill the vacuum in the minds of people. Lots of blood will be flowing and brothers will turn with violence against brothers until religious intolerance will be eliminated. And not, because people learn, but only they will die in battles.

While people in Jakarta pray to their new Gods (cars, BB's, internet, fashion)others will find their enemies in people who believe differently and will make chopped meat out of them without any second thoughts, because they believe deep in themselves that they are the righteous ones (a stand of course also enforced by their religious leaders who just look for a stronger power base) and cannot and do not comprehend that all they do is vicious intolerance and a crime against their own brethren! And of course the police is completely powerless, cause either agreeing silently with the majority or actually just not interested to get personally involved. It would be the same to put cutout pictures of police on the street...

Mataram. Villagers in West Lombok district on Friday destroyed 22 homes belonging to Ahmadiyah families in the latest wave of violence there aimed at the minority Muslim sect.

Exactly a week earlier, local officials drove 12 Ahmadiyah families out of Gegerung village following growing opposition from the rest of the village.

No injuries were reported in the latest incident as the homes had all been abandoned following evictions in 2006 that saw 133 Ahmadiyah followers forced to take refuge at a temporary shelter in Mataram, the West Nusa Tenggara capital, where they remain to this day.

Friday’s incident saw a mob of several hundred villagers, including women and children, tear down 21 homes and burn one other to the ground.

The chain of events leading up to the rioting began earlier, during a meeting led by district head Zaini Arony after Friday prayers.

Zaini called on the villagers not to resort to violence following last week’s animosity, assuring them his administration would resolve the long-standing issue.

Following the meeting, however, angry villagers began arming themselves with machetes, crowbars and swords in preparation to raid the empty homes.

“If you don’t come out of your homes, we’ll tear and burn them down. So come out or we’ll come and get you!” the mob yelled while pelting the empty houses with rocks. “Destroy the Ahmadis who bring shame to Islam!”

About 100 armed police officers managed to hold back the crowd for some time. However, they later scattered as the violence intensified.

The mob ransacked the houses and then went on to completely demolish them. The authorities claimed they had successfully prevented further damage by seizing a jerrycan of gasoline from the rioters.

Syahudin, Gegerung’s village chief, said he had lost all control of the situation.

“It was impossible to get under control,” he said. “They even drove me away from the scene when I tried to stop them.”

The crowd finally dispersed after the army sent in soldiers to secure the area.

West Lombok Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Supriyanto said his officers were now investigating the motivation for the attack, but had not yet made any arrests.

“Our next step will be to secure the Ahmadiyah neighborhood until the situation calms down,” he added. The police had made a similar pledge following the evictions on Nov. 19.

Agus rebuffed accusations his men had allowed the villagers to run amok, saying they were taking “the persuasive approach, given that most of the mob were youths and children.”

In his town hall address before the violence, Zaini offered the villagers four options to ending the animosity with the Ahmadis.

The first, he said, was to strictly enforce a 2005 bylaw that banned members of the sect from West Lombok.

The second option was a controversial plan to relocate all Ahmadiyah families in the district to remote Teluk Sepi, in Lombok’s south, which has been widely criticized by rights activists.

“Given that they’re not accepted here, I feel it’s my humanitarian duty to find someplace else for them,” Zaini said. “But they haven’t agreed yet and instead keep asking about the facilities to be built for them there.”

The third option was to relocate them to Kalimantan or Sulawesi, while the fourth was to compensate them for the property lost in Gegerung and let them start new lives elsewhere.

Zaini said his administration had already set aside Rp 710 million for the compensation deal, but the families wanted Rp 1.5 billion.

Sarim Ahmad, one of those forced to flee Gegerung on Nov. 19, said he hoped the authorities would come up with a better solution that would not foster more hatred against the community.

“We’ll go anywhere, as long as there’s legal certainty for us and our families,” he said at the shelter in Mataram. “To date, we’re not accepted as citizens of this country because the authorities continue to deny us ID cards.”