In Indonesia, public Muslim prayers are causing angst for people of minority faiths

When hundreds of American-Muslims gathered in New York City's Times Square in April to mark the start of the holy month of Ramadan, Indonesians were watching with jubilation and pride.

Photos and videos of the event - the first time Muslims had prayed at the iconic US intersection - spread like wildfire across social media in Indonesia, where the seeds of a movement appeared to be taking root.

Days later, a man in the central city of Yogyakarta invited people to recite the Koran together at the major thoroughfare of Malioboro, while other mass prayers sprouted up in Bandung, Serang and Pekanbaru cities.

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Organiser Narko Abu Fikri said some 1,000 people in Yogyakarta showed up. "Praying is a positive activity, people should support this and they did," he said. "I saw several passers-by shed tears of joy at seeing us recite holy verses."

In the Sumatran city of Pekanbaru, Diana Sabrani's event drew thousands of believers, including government officials. "We will see to it that our movement of mass prayers will take place in more and more cities in the country," Diana told reporters.

But the trend has created angst among followers of minority faiths in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority state but which is constitutionally secular.

According to the 2010 national census, Muslims make up over 87 per cent of the population, followed by Christians at 9.87 per cent, and Hindus and Buddhists at 0.72 and 0.56 per cent, respectively.

Cinear, 44, a Hindu resident in Yogyakarta, said he did not think there was a need for Muslims to pray in public given there were around 800,000 mosques spread across the archipelago.

"There is practically a mosque in every village in this country, so why not pray there? Hogging public spaces, which should be for all Indonesians, for a religious spectacle seems very inconsiderate and insensitive to non-Muslims," he said.

According to Cinear, Muslims did not feel the same about religious minorities praying in public.

While visiting the ancient Prambanan Temple in mid-April, he said he witnessed an incident where Hindus were stopped from observing a ritual.

Prambanan, built in the ninth century, is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia and the second-largest in Southeast Asia after the Angkor Wat. It was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1991.

"I saw a group of Balinese Hindus on a pilgrimage praying and making offerings in front of the gateway of the main temple, when a security guard approached and asked them to remove their offerings", because they had not sought permission to pray at the site, he said.

Troubled by what he was hearing, Cinear stepped in to explain that Prambanan was open to Hindus as a place of worship. The guard finally relented after the pilgrims agreed to clear their offerings as soon as they had finished their ritual.

In February, several government ministries and regional governments signed a memorandum of understanding to designate Indonesia's four ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples - Prambanan, Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut - as places for worship.

"Even backed by a ministerial decree, we still find it a challenge to pray at a temple which is undoubtedly Hindu," Cinear said.

He added that when he visited the Demak Mosque, a 15th-century heritage site, he had witnessed Muslims praying at the mosque without any hindrance.

Adherents of Indonesia's minority faiths often point out that Muslims receive privileged treatment from the authorities. A particular bone of contention is the difficulty they face in obtaining a government permit for their places of worship.

According to a 2013 report by Indonesia's Human Rights Commission, 85 per cent of religious places in the country did not have permits. Most of these were mosques. While unlicensed places of worship for minority groups are regularly targeted, the shutting of a mosque over a licence violation is unheard of.

In March, the 23-year-old Batak Christian Huria Church of Rancaekek was closed by officials in Bandung after facing obstacles when collecting signatures of support from local residents - a prerequisite when applying for a permit.

"For Muslims, who already enjoy so many privileges, to parade their faith through events like mass prayers ... It really feels like they're rubbing it in," Cinear said.

Not all Muslims feel at ease with the growing number of mass prayers, however. Ahmad Ishomuddin, a cleric from Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation the Nadhatul Ulema (NU), characterised the movement as "tacky" and "politically motivated".

But such voices are drowned out by prominent advocates such as Hilmi Firdausi, a popular cleric with 450,000 followers on social media.

"The US allowed Muslims to pray at Times Square and the US isn't even a (Muslim-majority) country. So what's the problem with praying together in places like Malioboro?" he tweeted.

Jombang-based Muslim scholar Aan Anshori, however, said the comparison was flawed.

"Context is crucial in understanding the Times Square prayer," he said. "Islam is a minority faith in the US and yet the majority showed it tolerance by letting them perform their ritual publicly. So it is an act of generosity by the majority non-Muslims."

Islam, by contrast, is not the minority faith in Indonesia, Aan said, adding that he deeply regretted that many of his fellow Muslims had failed to understand these nuances.

"So if Indonesian Muslims want to emulate what was done in America, the proper thing to do is to show our non-Muslim brothers and sisters the same generosity of spirit and tolerance," he said. "Instead, many have chosen to lord it over them through unnecessary spectacles."

Michael Andrew, 26, a social activist at Surabaya's Roemah Bhinneka (Pluralism House), said the Indonesian government had a role to play in regulating relations between Indonesia's different faiths.

He noted that the Surabaya government's quick response towards a proposed mass prayer on April 21 came as a relief to the city's minority faith communities.

The evening before, Muslims had received a message inviting them to congregate at the city's historic Jalan Tunjungan thoroughfare to recite the Koran. But before it could take place, authorities announced the event had no permit and therefore was illegal, prompting organisers to back down.

"It goes to show that our government can act with impartiality according to the law if they choose to do so," he said. "Sadly, more often than not, they bow to pressures and demands made on behalf of the majority."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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