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Ex-Gafatar leaders charged with blasphemy and treason in Indonesia
Sydney Morning Herald - June 7, 2016
In January an ex-Gafatar community in West Kalimantan was torched by a rampaging mob and members forcibly returned to their home villages to be "re-educated" by religious leaders. The three ex-Gafatar leaders are followers of Millah Abraham, a belief system banned in Indonesia in February by a joint ministerial decree.
Indonesian authorities say that Millah Abraham combines the religious teachings of Islam, Judaism and Christianity and is therefore heretical. The Indonesian state ideology, Pancasila, only recognises six official faiths – Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism -although Indonesia's 1945 constitution explicitly guarantees freedom of religion.
Police also accuse the ex-Gafatar of trying to establish an independent state known as Negara Karunia Tuhan Semesta Alam (State gifted from the Lord of the Universe), which they say is treasonous.
The accused – spiritual leader Ahmad Mushaddeq, his son Andry Cahya and ex-Gafatar leader Mahful Tumanurung – were arrested on May 25. They are the first people to be charged with treason and blasphemy by the government of Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Amnesty International is urging the international community to appeal to Indonesia to release the men, drop the charges, ensure they are not tortured and rescind the ministerial decree banning Millah Abraham. "They have been arrested solely for peacefully exercising their human right to freedom of religion," it said.
Human Rights Watch also called on the government to stop using the blasphemy law against religious minorities in Indonesia.
Gafatar was founded in 2012 but was disbanded by its members in August 2015, after the government refused to register it as an organisation. Its members say it was a community organisation, not a religious group, but many were Millah Abraham followers.
Several thousand ex-Gafatar members moved to West Kalimantan to establish a farming community aimed, they say, at creating food security to help Indonesia survive a global food crisis.
"Indonesia is [an] importer of rice, which is ironic because we all eat rice," says one of Gafatar's founders, Farah Meifira. "We have a strong belief the country will run out of food."
Ms Meifira said the former Gafatar community expected to be rewarded for assisting the government to carry out its goal of food self-sufficiency. Instead it was accused of blasphemy and treason.
"According to documents, they divided Indonesia into 12 regions, each region has a governor, their country has a president and a vice-president," Agus Andrianto from the National Police told Fairfax Media.
"There were phases of building the state – first was recruitment, second was spreading their teachings, the third was 'hijrah' or migration when they went to Mempawah (in Kalimantan), the fourth was physical struggle. Look, we have documents that support our case, we don't make it up."
But the ex-Gafatar insist they had no intention of establishing their own country. "We are not trying to grab authority. Nothing like that," Ms Meifira tells Fairfax Media. "We are just a small community, like the Amish, for example."
The ex-Gafatar say many have faced stigma and discrimination, including from their own families, after returning to their home villages. This hardship is exacerbated by the fact many sold all their assets to buy the land in Kalimantan and must start again. They also claim some had holes punched into their ID cards and can't access free medical treatment. Muslim clerics have been sent to the villages to re-educate the ex-Gafatar about Islam.
"It's like we have a stamp on our forehead because we have been so exposed in the media," says Agus Setiawan, a former Gafatar member. "They treat us like the communists back in the day. It's unbelievable." (With Karuni Rompies)
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