Imminent ban of Islamic sect divides Indonesians

The imminent banning of an Islamic sect deemed heretical has divided Indonesia's Muslims, with moderates saying the ban contravenes religious freedoms and radicals threatening to kill the sect's members if it is not outlawed.

Pakem, the body that oversees some religious activity in Indonesia, recently recommended that Jemaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia should be dissolved.

Pakem, or the Co-ordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society, now expects a joint government edict - from the Religious Ministry, the attorney general and the Home Ministry - banning the sect in terms of Article 156 of the criminal code, which carries penalties of up to five years in jail for blasphemy.

The minister for political, legal and security affairs, Widodo Adi Sutjipto, said that a decree would soon be prepared to ban the sect, which has continued to practise its beliefs despite being declared heretical in 2005 by the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI).

'We don't need the acceptance from the institutions or the MUI,' said Syaiful Uyun, a spokesman for Ahmadiyah's advisory council in Mataram, the town in Lombok where most of the attacks on sect members have taken place. 'Let our faith, our Islam, be acceptable by God only.'

The sect believes that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the sect in 1889 in India's Punjab state, was a prophet who came after the Prophet Mohammed.

Syafii Anwar, executive director of the International Centre for Islam and Pluralism, called Pakem's decision a huge violation of human rights.