Ahmaydiyah mosque torched in Indonesia
Hundreds of protesters chanting “Kill, kill” set fire Monday to an Indonesian mosque belonging to a Muslim sect they claim is heretical, police said.
A policeman was wounded in the head when the crowd stoned the mosque in West Java province before setting it ablaze, said police spokesman Col. Dade Ahmad. Several suspects were taken in for questioning.
The attack was the latest targeting the Ahmadiyah sect in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Most mainstream Muslims consider Ahmadiyah heretical because it does not consider Muhammad to be the final prophet. The sect was founded at the end of the 19th century in Pakistan.
Last week, a team of prosecutors, religious scholars and government officials said the sect “had deviated from Islamic principles” and recommended it be outlawed. There have been several acts of vandalism targeting Ahmadiyah since then.
About 300 people torched the mosque and destroyed an Islamic school building inside the Ahmadiyah compound in Sukabumi town just after midnight. Many sect members have since fled the area, seeking refuge with friends and relatives.
“We heard the attackers chanting ‘Burn, burn’ and ‘Kill, kill,’” said Zaki Firdaus, one of the sect’s members. “It was horrifying.”
Around 200 people living on the mosque’s compound got away before the crowd arrived. The police were called, “but the attackers came faster,” Firdaus said.
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“Mainstream Muslims” do not consider the Ahmadiyah sect Muslim. Shias do not consider Sunnis Muslims and vice versa. So who is the real Muslim?
Muslims have been fighting each other since Muhammad’s death, and they will continue to do so long into the future.
So much for Islam being a monolithic religion! So much for Islam being the religion of peace!
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