A new-age Muslim movement in Indonesia sparks a government crackdown

[inanna]

Source: Washington Post

June 28 at 4:00 AM

JAKARTA — In December, Dwiyanto Adi Nugroho quit his job as a financial analyst in the central Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, sold his belongings and moved to rural western Borneo to join a community set up there by a mysterious social-religious organic farming movement.

A few weeks later, police and soldiers stormed the compound, evacuated the residents and let local mobs burn their makeshift city to the ground.

Dwiyanto, 31, was flown back to his home province, along with an estimated 8,000 other members of the group, known as Gafatar, from various sites in Borneo. Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, calls the forcible evictions the largest-scale violation of a religious group’s rights in Indonesia in more than a decade.

That was in mid-January, but the persecution of former members of Gafatar is only picking up.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-new-age-muslim-movement-in-indonesia-sparks-a-government-crackdown/2016/06/27/6fe65f82-388e-11e6-af02-1df55f0c77ff_story.html

[SkyDaddy7]

1. So sad.

[ReRe]

2. Again...

... the world is turning backward. Those people just wanted to live free of religious persecution and removed themselves probably at great personal sacrifice & expense to do so.
These are the times when I look around and wonder where God is. And no one has been able to explain that to me. Not even the priest in catechism.

[roomtomove]

3. The real problem is...

people believing in God.

[ReRe]

5. I believe...

... in the personal liberties of Freedom of Religion and of speech, for the separation of Religion and the State. I don't have a problem with people who believe a certain way, as long as they don't try to cram it down my throat, and as long as they don't take over the government and then make religious edicts on everyone in the society. Yeah, we could definitely use a strong dose of reality along with the religiosity. In this country, we are great hairsplitters over the merest issues. We make laws, and then do everything to go around them.

[uppityperson]

7. The real problem is people hurting other people and the world.

[EL34x4]

9. You are posting this from a non-Muslim country, I assume?

Nice to be able to share such an opinion without fear of being executed for blasphemy.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. Well, they could be posting from Indonesia. No-one gets executed for blasphemy there n/t

[Odin2005]

4. Muslim Hippies? But the Islamophobes told me that Islam is inhierently backward!

[6chars]

6. not sure they are Muslim

That seems to be the problem.

"Most of its members, however, subscribe to Millah Abraham, a new messianic faith that draws on elements of Islam, Judaism and Christianity."

[MariaThinks]

13. is the point that they are NOT allowed to practice their religion being missed?

[MariaThinks]

8. This is why islam does not liberalize - anyone with different ideas in muslim majority companies

are forced to confirm to a way of living and thinking.

[Odin2005]

10. Absolute nonsense.

This BS is the result of the increasing influence of Wahhabi imams with Saudi funding and backing. Traditionally SE Asian Muslims were extremely tolerant.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. So is this incident an anomaly?

Or are Wahhabi imams replacing tolerance with strict adherence? Is SE Asia being radicalized?

[Odin2005]

14. IIRC SE and South Asian Muslims has been being radicalized by Saudi influence since the 60s.

Pakistan, for example, had a dictator in the 70s that promoted Fundamentalist BS.

[MariaThinks]

12. why don't you try giving some facts. Name a country with a muslim majority that has

thriving and protected minorities.

[Odin2005]

15. Until recently, Indonesia.

I take it you have no clue where Bali is and what religion they are?

[Violet_Crumble]

17. Damn. You just had to go and mention Bali!

That blows that whole clumsy argument out of the water.

I suspect that poster didn't bother reading the article that was posted. The crackdown is on the creation of new religions, while the Indonesian constitution provides freedom of religion and officially recognises six religions. So the problem isn't that no other religion but Islam is allowed (which is what MariaThinks seems to think), but that if anyone creates a new religion or is a follower of something that's not the big six, then the Indonesian govt is going to go into complete bastard mode on them...

From the article:

The majority-Muslim country’s constitution guarantees religious freedom, but only six faiths are officially recognized — Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism — and there is no recognition of agnosticism or atheism.

[Odin2005]

18. That poster is a notorious Islamophobe.

No use trying to reason with her, sadly.

[Violet_Crumble]

19. Yes, I know...

When I dared to ask her a question a while back, I was accused of hating on Christians and India. It was really bizarre stuff

[MariaThinks]

22. Posting real events is not islamophobic. Not doing so is dishonest

Not being clear about what a religion preaches is dangerous and dishonest.

In light of the brutal attacks by Islamic State all over the world in the name of an Islamic Caliphate should at least make anyone who wants peace question why so many youths from around the world have become radicalized monsters.

I'm wasting my time trying to talk reason

[MariaThinks]

21. how is any discrimination against a religion acceptable - new or not?

did you bother to read what you clipped? No recognition of agnosticism.

[MariaThinks]

20. that is until recently.

[MariaThinks]

23. i notice you didn't pick any country with a large muslim population

sad that TINY bali is the example of a moderate reaction to non-Islamic religions by the muslim majority.