Muslims Block Worship at Two Churches in Indonesia
Home fellowship is told to obtain permits.
In West Java Province, a group of Muslims said to be led by a neighborhood official disrupted the worship service of mostly women at a house in Tambun Selatan, Bekasi, on Jakarta’s eastern border, according to the Twitter account @terang_media.
It identified the location as Blok S.2 Graha Prima Baru Mangunjaya, in Tambun Selatan. Video footage showed a man said to be the neighborhood official using harsh language against a woman trying to defend the fellowship.
In the video, a female pastor, later identified as Elysson Lase, tries to appease protestors, telling them the congregation didn’t construct a church building and was only worshipping in a private home.
“We want to hold a worship service – should I ask permission to worship from you when we want to hold worship?” Pastor Lase asks. “The important thing has been conveyed to the village office that we are not building a church. So what’s the problem? When we pray, where is the problem?”
She states that the Inter-Religious Harmony Forum (Forum Kerja Sama Umat Beragama, or FKUB) recently told a gathering of Muslims that Christians need no permission to hold worship services in a private home. The Twitter account writer states that Indonesian law does not require a permit for worship in a home, “but unscrupulous residents insist” it does.
The Rev. Henrek Lokra of the Communion of Christian Churches (Persekutuan Gereja-Gereja Indonesia, or PGI) said the disruption was illegal and the government should take strict action and enforce the constitution against such vigilante acts.
About 467 miles east of Jakarta in Central Java Province, a group of Muslims shouting the jihadist slogan “Allahu Akbar [God is greater]” on Sunday (June 18) blocked entry into a church building by placing a banner over the door stating that it had no right to exist, according to jpnn.com.
They put another banner on the road in front of the building of the house church, a Javanese Christian Church (Gereja Kristen Jawa, or GKJ) in Banyuanyar village, Banjasari Sub-District, in the municipality of Solo. The Muslims put up the banners as they completed a parade for the first day of the Dhu al-Hijja (Day of Sacrifice) celebration, according to jpnn.com.
The mayor of Solo, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, visited the site on Monday (June 19) with police and ordered his staff members to remove the banners, according to tribunnews.com.
The head of Banjarsari Sub-District, Beni Supartono Putro, said the opposition arose because local Christians lacked a permit to hold worship services in the building, according to jpnn.com.
“The reason is because they got no permit and held an unlicensed worship service,” he said.
Rights advocates say that the requirements for obtaining permission to build houses of worship in Indonesia are demanding and hamper the establishment of such buildings for Christians and other faiths. Indonesia’s Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 (SKB) makes requirements for obtaining permits nearly impossible for most new churches.
Even when small, new churches can meet the requirement of obtaining 90 signatures of approval from congregation members and 60 from area households of different religions, they are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths.
The Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 allows local government to permit churches to meet while applications are pending temporarily.
Indonesia ranked 33rd on the Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most challenging to be a Christian. Indonesian society has adopted a more conservative Islamic character, and churches involved in evangelistic outreach are at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremist groups, according to Open Doors’ WWL report.
