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Indonesia Tries To Stop Intra-Muslim Jihad

From those defenders of the faith at Al Jazeera:

Indonesia unveils curbs on sect

Monday June 9, 2008

The Indonesian government has announced restrictions against a minority Muslim sect after thousands of angry Muslims called for holy war against the group.
A joint ministerial decree, approved by the government on Monday, stopped short of a total ban on the Ahmadiyah group, which was demanded by protesters.
Two cabinet ministers and Hendarman Supanji, the attorney-general, signed the document.
The government has ordered the Ahmadiyah sect to “stop spreading interpretations and activities which deviate from the principal teachings of Islam”.
It is not clear whether the ministerial decree means that Ahmadis can continue to worship privately without “spreading” their faith.
“There has been no dissolution,” Supanji said on Monday.
The activities prohibited include “the spreading of the belief that there is another prophet with his own teachings after prophet Muhammad”.
Ahmadiyah followers believe the sect’s founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the final prophet of Islam and not Muhammad.
Thousands of Muslims threatened on Monday to launch a holy war against Ahmadiyah in protests outside police headquarters in central Jakarta.
The protesters carried banners calling members of Ahmadiyah “infidels” that should be “exterminated”.
“If the president doesn’t dissolve Ahmadiyah then there is no other way but jihad,” said Abdurrahman, from one of the main Islamic groups in the country who co-organised the protests.
Critics will see the step as a failure by the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president, to uphold the young democracy’s secular values.
In Indonesia the Ahmadis number only about 200,000 people out of a total population of about 230 million.
They have been peacefully practising its faith in Indonesia since the 1920s.