Indonesian President Joko Widodo has warned his nation’s “devout Muslims not to use violence to enforce a fatwa handed down by the nation’s Islamic council in 2016 against Christmas celebrations, urging tolerance for other faiths. Police also announced that authorities had green-lighted a plan to deploy nearly 200,000 officers nationwide to protect Christmas celebrations and displays.”
“For at least 20 years, every December, Indonesian Muslims have been reminded of the fatwa by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) that calls it haram for Muslims to greet Christians with the words ‘Merry Christmas’ during the holiday season.”
Although Joko Widodo has reportedly warned that the Indonesian “constitution guarantees the freedom of religious belief,” Indonesia is turning toward Sharia. “Born-again” Muslims have been driving social changes, encouraging Muslim-targeted housing, Sharia banking and in general shifting the country’s economy in order to ground it in “conservative Islam.” Religious freedoms in Indonesia are dwindling.
And as this article shows, non-Muslims must live with the constant threat of violence.
“Indonesia to Deploy 200,000 Police to Defend Christmas from Jihad,” by Frances Martel, Breitbart, December 18, 2019:
President Joko Widodo of Indonesia warned the nation’s devout Muslims on Tuesday not to use violence to enforce a fatwa handed down by the nation’s Islamic council in 2016 against Christmas celebrations, urging tolerance for other faiths.
Police also announced that authorities had green-lighted a plan to deploy nearly 200,000 officers nationwide to protect Christmas celebrations and displays.
While governed by a president who presents himself as moderate and friendly to the West, Indonesia has seen an increase in Islamic intolerance in the last decade, particularly radical Islamic violence at the hands of jihadists. Local Muslims have also increasingly opposed being governed by those of other faiths, notably leading to a blasphemy trial against a previously beloved Jakarta politician after 150,000 Muslims took the streets condemning remarks he made that Muslim politicians were misreading the Quran purposely to hurt his campaign for governor. Indonesia has also experienced the growing prevalence of traditional Islamic legal punishments like public whipping for haram sexual activity.
Suspected Islamists have also attacked cemeteries and desecrated Christian tombs in the past year.
Following the fall of the Islamic State “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, governments in Southeast Asia have also increasingly faced jihadist attacks by returning terrorists and jihadists fleeing the war zones of the Middle East, including a failed assassination attempt against Widodo’s security minister. Widido’s government has responded by sentencing preachers associated with the organization harshly, including handing down one death sentence to a cleric preaching violence in the country.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country, though it hosts some regions, like eastern Papua, which are Christian-majority.
Widodo reportedly warned against “sweeping” in particular, an activity that the Asian outlet Coconuts describes as “illegal raids” on businesses exhibiting lively Christmas displays as a way of enforcing the fatwa, which carries no legitimate legal weight in Indonesia.
“In this country, our constitution guarantees the freedom of religious belief,” Widodo reportedly warned, announcing that police had explicit orders to “sternly” shut down any mob activities against Christmas and Christian celebrations.
National Police spokesman Argo Yuwono followed up Widodo’s remarks by announcing that the police force has assigned 192,000 officers to specially protect civilians during Christmas and the New Year holiday, which also often comes under Islamist attack. Yuwono suggested police had reason to believe that jihadists were planning attacks this year against non-Muslims, particularly Christians, and Muslims comfortable with other religions. The police will deploy 10,000 units in Jakarta alone. The total, Channel News Asia noted, is about 30,000 more officers than authorities believed were necessary to protect the country on Christmas and New Year’s last year.
“Based on intelligence data, there are potential risks … so we’re taking preventive measures but we are also ready to take proactive action,” Yuwono said. Other officials hinted that among the potential terrorist plots concocted are the burning down of churches during Christmas, not just shopping mall attacks against Christmas decor….