AhlulBayt News Agency

source : AFP
Monday

8 April 2013

1:32:00 PM
407165

Indonesian minorities protest growing religious intolerance

Indonesian minority religious leaders from Batak Christian Protestant, Shiite Islamic march toward parliament building during a protest against Indonesian government's failures to guarantee freedom of religion in Jakarta on Monday, April 8, 2013.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Around 200 Christian, Muslim Shiite and Ahmadiyah leaders protested in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Monday against growing religious intolerance in the Sunni Muslim-majority country.

The rally of minority groups followed the demolition of a church and the closure of an Ahmadi mosque, both in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, in recent weeks after pressure from Muslim hardliners.

The leaders - most of whom were Christian - gathered outside the parliament building, singing the country's national anthem and shouting "we have rights" and "stop intolerance".

They also waved Indonesian flags and banners emblazoned with photographs of the demolished church and sealed Ahmadi mosque.

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