Moderate Islamic Sect Forbidden in Indonesia
Members of a Muslim sect – who believe that Mohammed was not the last prophet and who deny that Jihad is a spiritual requirement for all Muslims – have been told by the Indonesian government to return to mainstream Islam or face imprisonment.
The reasoning of the government? Many believers are insulted by what the members of this sect believe, and may choose to do something about the sect on their own. That would create chaos, thus the sect has to be outlawed.
Of course, there are also those who believe that it would make much more sense to simply protect the members of this sect, but that thought seems to never have occurred to the rulers of Indonesia.
As an aside I must agree with Andy McCarthy; if the AP is right in saying that the far majority of Indonesia Muslims are moderate, this outlawing would never have happened.
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The Ahmadiyyah are not Muslims to begin with.
JDsg,
God decides who is Muslim.
Michael,
I am not sure where they are "moderate". German scholar Hiltrud Schröter (herself a questionable person) has written some quite interesting things about them. Still, the Indenesian government’s behaviour is obviously inacceptable.