The attack was videotaped as a crowd shouted “Allahu akbar!” and young boys recorded it on their mobile phones. The savagery of the murders did not lead, as one would logically expect, to enhanced protection of Ahmadis within Indonesia, but to the opposite. They were essentially blamed for causing the attacks by existing, and banned outright in multiple provinces. In West Java, they cannot identify themselves as Ahmadis.
And now, this, from Modern, Moderate, Tolerant Indonesia. “Indonesian court lets anti-Ahmadi mob perpetrators off ‘lightly’,” from Agence France-Presse, July 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):
SERANG, INDONESIA: In what seems to have been a light sentence, an Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced religious fanatics who killed three members of the minority Ahmadiyah Muslim sect in a frenzied mob attack to between three and six months in jail.
Dani bin Misra, a 17-year-old who smashed a victim’s skull with a stone, received three months for manslaughter. While Idris bin Mahdani, who led the mob of more than 1,000 Muslims in the February attack, was convicted of illegal possession of a machete and received five months and 15 days in jail.
Twelve people stood for trial, but none faced murder charges in what human rights activists termed was a travesty of justice in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
The unprovoked violence against the Ahmadiyah sect members in Cikeusik, western Java, was one of the most horrific in a long line of attacks on the minority group in Indonesia in recent years.
Ahmadiyah, unlike mainstream Muslims, do not believe Mohammed was the last prophet and are regarded as heretics and blasphemers by conservatives in places like Indonesia and Pakistan.
A secretly filmed video of the attack brought religious violence in Indonesia under the international spotlight, and provoked condemnation from the United States, Italy and international rights groups.
“When the Cikeusik video went viral, people around the world were shocked and appalled by the savagery of the mob kicking and slashing three men to death,” Human Rights Watch Deputy Director for Asia Phil Robertson said.
“But instead of charging the defendants with murder and other serious crimes, prosecutors came up with an almost laughable list of “˜slap-on-the wrist” charges.
“The Cikeusik trial sends the chilling message that attacks on minorities like the Ahmadiyah will be treated lightly by the legal system. This is a sad day for justice in Indonesia.”
It’s not the first, and it won’t be the last. One will also recall the equally laughable sentences given to the members of a mob that went on a rampage against Christian targets in February. And by rewarding bad behavior, as the judiciary must know, it is encouraging more of it.