Another report of the news from Indonesia
This is not an update but another report from The Jakarta Post. The link to it is:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailweekly.asp?fileid=20080116.@04
In case this link changes in future, below is given its content. An interesting part of this news (see below) reads:
“Ahmadiyah also said they would not look to convert Muslims to their beliefs, but said they would instead strengthen relations with mainstream Muslims.”
January 16, 2008
Govt spares Ahmadiyah with no ban
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government said Tuesday it would not ban Ahmadiyah, defying a controversial fatwa by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) that had declared Ahmadiyah an heretical Islamic sect. The decision not to ban the group was made after Ahmadiyah leaders issued a statement saying they acknowledged Muhammad as the last prophet. The statement was an apparent reversal of its previous stance.
The MUI has considered Ahmadiyah a deviant Islamic sect because the group recognized Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, its founder, as the last prophet, rather than Muhammad.
But the Mystical Belief Supervisory Coordinating Board said it could change its decision should Ahmadiyah fail to commit to its new stance.
The board comprises the Attorney General’s Office, police, the State Intelligence Agency and the Religious Affairs Ministry.
“The government could accept their written explanation and give them the opportunity to do what they have declared,” board coordinator Wisnu Subroto, who is the deputy attorney general of intelligence, told The Jakarta Post.
“We will keep watching and evaluating their activities within the next three months,” he said.
“If Ahmadiyah fails to commit to their declaration, we will discuss later what actions to take.”
Ahmadiyah leader Ahmad Basit said his group had the same belief as mainstream Islam.
“Like other Muslims, Ahmadiyah followers also recite syahadat (the two sentences of faith), acknowledging Muhammad as the last prophet,” he told Antara.
“Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is only our teacher,” he said.
Ahmadiyah also said they would not look to convert Muslims to their beliefs, but said they would instead strengthen relations with mainstream Muslims.
Wisnu asked the public to respect Ahmadiyah’s goodwill and accept the board’s decision.
But more than 1,000 Muslims staged a protest in Bandung, West Java to demand the government disband Ahmadiyah, saying the group’s beliefs ran counter to those of Islam.
“The Ahmadiyah organization is as heretical as Al-Qiyadah al-Islamiyah,” said protest leader Hedi Muhammad from the West Java Alliance of Muslims.
The protesting alliance included hard-line groups Hisbut Tahrir and the Islam Defender Front.
Ahmadiyah was established in Pakistan in the 19th century by Mirza Gulam Ahmad.
Ahmadiyah is little known in Indonesia. It did not take root in the country until the 1980s. There is an estimated 200,000 followers in the country. (rff)
From Abdul Momin:
I can never reconcile myself with the notion that someone could be forced at gun-point or with the threat of legislation to “convert” to Islam. Reading all the stories about what is going on in Indonesia regarding the Qadianis makes me sick to the stomach. The “Ulema” in Indonesia have taken the same path that their Pakistani brethren took in the past and we all know where that has landed Pakistan. Must Indonesia suffer the same fate?
But didn’t the Qadianis themselves since 1914 show a belligerent attitude to all those with whom they did not agree? Notwithstanding their present day slogan of “Love for all, hatred for none”, lest we forget :
1. Maulana Muhammad Ali, a learned scholar, an intellectual, had to leave Qadian fearing for his life, at the time of the split in 1914. It is one thing for the Qadianis to disagree with his views. But a close associate of HMGA did not deserve to be treated the way he was in 1914 by the fanatic supporters of Mirza Mahmood Ahmad sahib.
2. A fanatic supporter of Khalifa II killed Mr Fakhruddin Multani, an Ahmadi. After the murderer was executed, guess who led his funeral prayers?
3. Maulana Mannan Umar Sahib, a son of Khalifa I was throw out from Rabwah unceremoniously.
4. The gem of all gems: Forgetting the country wide anti-Ahmadiyya movements during the 1930’s and in 1953 where the Qadianis were overwhelmingly outnumbered, over-zealous Qadianis attacked some students at Rabwah station in 1974 in response to a provocation. (They did not have the 200 million devotees in Pakistan that they claim they have today worldwide.) We all know what has happened since, don’t we?
If the Qadianis had not encountered people even more fanatic than themselves, there is absolutely no doubt that they would never have renounced some of their extremist beliefs (like calling other Muslims Kafir). But then, neither have they ever publicly renounced their earlier writings.
So would anyone take their word for it, if one segment of their jamaat (in Indonesia) says that they do not regard HMGA as a prophet? Does that branch still remain a part of the Qadiani jamaat? Or would this be just a temporary announcement until this latest anti-Ahmadiyya storm abates? And how would they explain to their oponents the Sufi terminology that HMGA has used with regard to his claims?
The Qadianis should remember they are dealing with people even more fanatic than the fanaticism the Qadianis have for their Khilafat. So if they try to mislead anyone this time with false declarations, they won’t be able to fool anyone. I know of non-Ahmadi relatives in Pakistan who are to this day considered by the common Muslims of being “Mirzais” just because they have Ahmadi relatives, no matter how many times they deny that charge. This is the depth to which the minds of common Muslims have degenerated because of the influence of the fanatic clergy in the Muslim world.