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INDONESIA- RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS MINISTER DEFENDS WOMAN TEACHER ACCUSED OF “PROSELYTISING” BY TAKING STUDENTS TO VISIT A CHRISTIAN CHURCH
January 13, 2015 -
Indonesia,Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Indonesia's Religious Affairs Ministry has
intervened in a dispute involving an Islamic religious professor in Banda Aceh,
"guilty" in the eyes of some Muslim extremists of
"proselytising" in favour of Christianity because she brought a group of her students to a church.
Indonesia’s
Religious Affairs Ministry intervened in a dispute involving a Muslim professor
in Banda Aceh, who took her students to a church. He called the dean of the
university, asking him to protect the professor and her job. Despite death
threats against the professor, he also called her to "stay calm"
because the matter "has been addressed in the most appropriate way."
As a result of the
trip, Rosnida Sari, a Muslim, has become the victim of a vicious smear campaign
and has received death threats. Some fundamentalist groups have gone so far as
to "advise" her to "leave" the country.
In reality, all
that Prof Sari was trying to do was to promote interreligious dialogue and
mutual understanding among believers, starting in school.
Speaking to AsiaNews,
interreligious dialogue activist Joan Elga Sarapung, from the Interfidei Group,
said that Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin did call the dean of Ar-Raniry
Islamic University, and asked him to "intervene" on the professor's
behalf.
According to
Sarapung, Minister Saifuddin called Aceh police authorities, asking them to provide
protection for the teacher.
The Religious
Affairs Minister also spoke with the professor, who teaches Islamic religion,
and told her that she would not be fired over the issue. He asked her to
"stay calm" because the matter "has been addressed in the most
appropriate way."
The dispute was
sparked by the professor's decision to bring her class to visit a church and
meet a Protestant clergyman.
After pictures of
the visit were posted on the website of the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, someone launched a campaign to discredit the Muslim teacher by
claiming that she wanted to "convert" the youth to Christianity.
The original
event, which occurred last November, became controversial only a month later.
Indonesia, the
world's most populous Muslim nation, has often been the scene of attacks or
acts of intolerance against minorities, whether Christians, Ahmadi Muslims or
people of other faiths.
Unlike the rest of
the country, the province Aceh enforces Islamic law (Sharia), after the central
government signed a peace agreement with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
In many other
parts of the country (such as Bekasi and Bogor in West Java), a more radical
and extreme vision of Islam is also growing. (MH)