Indonesia: Hardline Islamic groups increase influence
Jul 22 2008
Postings >> Indonesia

Hardline Islamic groups are wielding ever-increasing influence over Indonesia’s politics, according to a new report.

The International Crisis Group study considers why the authorities in Jakarta have issued a decree ‘freezing’ the activities of a minority Muslim sect, the Ahmadiyah. And it concludes that hardliners have leant on government officials to sideline the Ahmadiyah, who have lived in Indonesia since 1925.

ICG sees the decree, which orders Ahmadiyah to stop practising their faith, as a worrying development for non-Muslims as well as for any Muslim not conforming to conservative orthodoxy.

Hardline Muslims have campaigned for the Ahmadiyah to be outlawed for decades – so the timing of the government decree is seen as significant. One of the main catalysts for the decree is the huge influence of the Islamic Scholars Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia or MUI) over President Yudhoyono’s administration.

Ultra-conservative Islamic groups are not well represented in parliament but this is no obstacle to their political ambitions. ICG claims these groups have close links with certain officials and are using other radical groups at grassroots level to lobby for policy reform.

ICG also says that, in the run-up to next year’s national elections, President Yudhoyono will not want to risk upsetting the coalition of Islamic parties which helped him win the 2004 ballot. Recent polls suggest he is losing ground to his main political rival, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.

(Sources: BBC, International Crisis Group, Spero News)

Pray that the democratic process would prevent unelected Muslim clerics from gaining further influence over the current Indonesian administration.

Pray for Christians in Indonesia, increasingly sidelined under the growing influence of these clerics.