Mob Threats Lead to Closure of Church Building in Indonesia

North Sumatra congregation unable to withstand pressure from local officials, Muslim clerics.

JAKARTA, Indonesia, August 13 (CDN) — Police and local government officials joined forces with a Muslim mob to close a church in North Sumatra Province on July 30, with church leaders forced to promise never to hold services at the site.

The Rev. Leritio Panjaitan of the Binanga HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestant) Church on the Gunung Tua-Sibuhan Highway in Siboris Dolok Village, Sipirok, North Sumatra Province said government officials and mobs threatened to burn the facility if worship continued there.

Pastor Panjaitan said rejection of the church was aided by the presence of a Quranic boarding school, Darul Hasnah Madrassa, which appeared in the vicinity six months ago.

“I have received information that the leader of that madrassa [Islamic school], Dr. Gong Matua Siregar, has incited citizens to reject the presence of the church,” Pastor Panjaitan said.

She said that a local government official admitted to her that the head of the madrassa had pressured him to close the church.

Pastor Panjaitan added that the church had applied for a building and worship permit long ago but that authorities had not acted on it, and that all necessary administrative requirements had been fulfilled.

The head of the Sipirok Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Assembly of Indonesian Muslim Clerics, or MUI), Haji Fahri Harahap, has said it is clear that the residents of the area, long predominantly Muslim, do not want a church there.

The closure means 80 people have lost their worship place.

“At this time, we haven’t decided if we are going to move to another place,” Pastor Panjaitan said. “But temporarily, the congregation will worship by moving from house to house.”

 

Threat

The congregation had first used the building in 2005. After several months, objections began from a Muslim group called the Congregation of the Binanga Sipirok Islamic Forum.

They wrote a letter to church officials requesting that the congregation no longer hold worship services in the area, as the majority in the area were Muslim and there was a fear of “Christianization.”

With no answer from the church, the Islamic group asked the local government to apply pressure, and local government officials wrote to the church requesting that all worship activities cease in order to avoid disturbances with area Muslims. The church leaders and congregation agreed and did not use the building from March 2006 through 2009.

During that time, the congregation worshipped in another building at a distant location, requiring members to incur travel expenses. As the area Christians were largely poor, they asked church leaders to consider using the building again. The elders questioned local residents about the reopening of the church building, and in February the congregation began using it again.

On July 23, however, Regent Basyrah Lubis warned the church to stop worship activities.

Up to that point there had been no problems with the local people, church leaders said, noting that the village leader had no objection to the presence of the church.

With pressure building, however, church leaders met with regional government officials and the MUI, who said many groups opposed the presence of the church and ordered that all Christian activities in the area cease.

Otherwise, the officials and Muslim clerics said, the local government would not be responsible if protestors came and burned the church.

In spite of this brazen threat, church officials decided to continue worship services. Pastor Panjaitan said worship is a human right.

“This is a matter concerning human relations with God, and government should not interfere,” she told Compass.

Noting that their threat was not heeded, government officials again called church leaders to a meeting on July 29. This meeting included the MUI, the district officer, the head of the Department of Religion, and demonstrators who objected to the presence of the church. They forced elder L. Situmorang to sign a letter pledging not to use the building and not to hold worship services on the property, church leaders said.

Initially Situmorang declined, asking for three days to consult with other church leaders, church leaders said, but the next day he was called and forced to sign the letter to stop worship.

Report from Compass Direct News

Two Partially Constructed Church Buildings Burned in Indonesia

Outside agitators torch structures; Christians have waited years for building permits.

JAKARTA, Indonesia, January 29 (CDN) — Suspected Islamic extremists burned two church buildings under construction in a village in North Sumatra on Jan. 22.

The attackers came from outside the area to burn the partially constructed buildings of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church (HKBP) and the Pentecostal Church (GPdI) in Sibuhuan village, Padang Lawas Residency, during daylight hours, said the Rev. S. Lubis of the HKBP church.

“It was a quiet day when suddenly hundreds of people arrived on motorcycles and burned the empty church,” he said. “After that, the mob moved 200 meters down the road and burned the empty Pentecostal church.”

No people were hurt in the fires. Lubis said that those who burned the church buildings were not from the area.

“We didn’t know any of the mob who burned the church,” he said. “When we asked our neighbors, they didn’t know them either, and they did not help burn the church.”

Lubis said that his church had been worshipping at the site since 1970, and that in 1981 they had erected a simple structure. In 2009 – after local officials had held up an application for a permit to erect a permanent building for five years – the church began construction. Area Muslims stopped the construction before it was finished.

“All this time we never had problems with the local citizens,” Lubis told Compass by telephone. “Outside agitators provoked the local people to reject the church.”

The Rev. Marolop Sinaga, HKBP district pastor for south Tapanuli, told Compass that church officials held a meeting in December with the local Indonesian Muslim Leaders Council and the Padang Lawas government. The Muslim leaders demanded that construction stop because no building permit had been issued.

The church complied and stopped construction, even though the building permit had been in process for five years, Sinaga said. Later local Muslims demanded that church dismantle the parts that had been built, to which the church agreed.

The dismantling of the partial construction began on Jan. 13 but apparently did not proceed fast enough for the mob that gutted the two church buildings, Sinaga said.

The HKBP church in Sibuhuan has 272 members. Members of the congregation have been traumatized and many have fled fearing for their safety, church leaders said.

The Rev. Charles Hutabarat of the Pentecostal Church said his congregation began worshipping in homes in 1990. Having waited three years for their permit to be approved, they were in the middle of their building program, he said.

“Because the local citizens had approved the presence of the church, we were surprised that our church was burned like this,” Hutabarat told Compass.

The head of Padang Lawas Residency, Basyrah Lubis, told Compass that the government will facilitate the granting of building permits for houses of worship.

“We have met with other residency leaders such as the police chief, the military commander, the department of religion officials, and other Padang Lawas leaders, and we have decided to process the building permit applications quickly,” he said. “Also, the two churches will be moved; we are searching for a location which will be free of problems in the future.”

Lubis also said he would guarantee the safety of the congregations.

“In addition, we are going to form an Interfaith Harmony Forum for the residency, because we have never had one previously,” he said. “By Feb. 15, this forum will be established. In the meantime, the two congregations will hold services in member homes.”

Report from Compass Direct News