Word: indonesian
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...willingness of the generals to even entertain the idea of outside help was enough to excite Burma watchers who have been waiting for decades for something - anything - that might augur a sliver of openness from the military leadership. Hopeful aid workers point to the Indonesian province of Aceh, where the 2004 tsunami galvanized warring factions to lay down their arms. But Burma's seclusion is more akin to that of North Korea, a country that gulps down foreign aid without reciprocal political concessions. And corruption is so rampant in Burma that NGOs worry about how much aid will actually reach...
...Ahmadiyah beliefs deemed contradictory to the basic tenets of Islam - Ahmadiyahs believe, for example, that Muhammad was not Islam's last prophet, and that the sect's founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the Mahdi or Messiah. The sect is banned in Pakistan, although it has coexisted peacefully with Indonesian Muslims since being established in the country in 1925. The group is estimated to have around 200,000 adherents in Indonesia today...
...Habib Rizieq said there was no basis for fears of violence, and promised that his group, along with the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, would help "re-educate" followers of the group. "If the government issues the ban we will tell our followers to protect them," he told reporters at a press conference. Rizieq said recent clips of an FPI member on the Internet calling for the death of Ahmadiyah followers were taken out of context, as the video was filmed at a closed gathering of FPI members and did not represent the views of his organization, a puritanical group best...
...Indonesian officials had been expected to issue an official ban this week, but delayed the announcement pending further study. Civil liberties groups argue that the Ahmadiyah are protected under Indonesia's Constitution, which guarantees the right to religious freedom. "The case should be taken to the Constitutional Court because any ban would violate their right to practice their religious beliefs," proposed Hendardi, a lawyer and head of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace. "It also reflects decreasing religious tolerance in society worsened by the government's interference in people's private lives...
...When contemplating outlawing the Ahmadiyah, the government may also be reminded of the consequences of the ban on the Indonesian Communist Party in the 1960s - a decree that was accompanied by the slaughter of an estimated 500,000 communists and suspected communists. While violence against Ahmadiyah followers has reached nowhere near those levels, some fear that government legislative action could provoke a wider torrent of violence against the sect. "It was a joint ministerial recommendation that triggered this latest violence," notes Hendardi. "Imagine what would happen if it became an official decree...