Attacks on moderate Muslim sect put Jakarta in a bind

Abdul Basit and his friends, dressed in dark trousers, batik shirts and traditional peci caps, look like many other Indonesian Muslims, but there are some who say they're not and are increasingly looking to do something about it.

Members their Islamic sect, Ahmadiyah -- best known for its differing belief that the Prophet Mohammad was not the last -- have been harassed by hardline, conservative Muslims since Indonesia's top body of clerics outlawed them as heretics over two decades ago.

In the last few years, however, Basit says the intensity and frequency of the attacks have increased. Last month thousands of conservative Muslims marched on their headquarters in Bogor, injuring followers by throwing stones, breaking windows and burning books pillaged from their library.

"We have been here for 80 years and our followers are almost all Indonesian people," said Abdul Basit, chairman of the group in Indonesia. "We've never broken any law, so how can people tell us we have to change our religion? It's absurd."

The attack has ignited a fierce debate between conservative and liberal Muslims in Indonesia, and has put pressure on the country's new leaders to show their hand on sensitive Islamic issues by forcing them to either stand up for a vastly unpopular Muslim sect or risk being seen as soft on protecting religious and other democratic freedoms.

"The government is in a very awkward position," said leading Indonesian Islamic scholar Azyumardi Azra.

Consistent their approach on such sensitive Islamic issues since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office last year, the central government has so far resisted calls to take a stance, beyond condemning the violence after the attacks.

The public showed overwhelmingly in the last national election that it is more concerned with rampant corruption and unemployment than the government's stance on sharia law or interfaith prayers.

"They're not going to support chopping off hands or even wearing headdress necessarily, but Indonesians are much more concerned with being good Muslims," said Greg Fealy, a research fellow and lecturer in Indonesian Politics at the Australian National University.

"A lot more Indonesians see the world as a hostile place," he said. "It's that seige mentality."

Evidence this can be seen in the nation's two largest Muslim bodies, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), with some 70 million members combined. Although different in doctrine, they've both long been considered strong forces for religious moderation.

The most recently elected leaders of the groups, however, are decidedly more conservative than their predecessors, and members say the shift in leadership has had a ripple effect down their ranks, evidenced by the increasingly biting rhetoric at party congresses against liberals.

"The governing bodies of both are filled with conservative people now," said Yenny Zannuba Wahid, daughter of former Indonesian president and NU leader Abdurrahman Wahid. "They disguise themselves easily by saying they're pious and religious and you can trust them, but you have to judge by their conduct, not by what they say."

But many are wondering how long the government can stay out of the debate between conservative and liberal Muslims, which has been intensified by a series of new fatwas, or religious edicts, issued by the top clerical body, the MUI.

The MUI, which consists of a range of Muslim groups but is dominated by conservatives, banned liberal religious thought, pluralism and secularism, among other things, at a congress late last month.

Liberals criticized the government for failing to act on the perpetrators of the attacks on the Ahmadiyah sect. The government's failure to take a strong public stand on the issue has allowed local authorities and officials to fill the vacuum.

The large protest at Ahmadiyah that ousted the group and wreaked widespread damage on their compound was the third in a week.

After failing to mobilize much support in the first protests, conservatives returned with a letter signed and stamped by local officials declaring their compound closed for activities against Islam.