BANDUNG, Indonesia — About 200 demonstrators from hard-line Islamic organizations in West Java on Dec. 12 disrupted a church’s worship service in Rancaekek district, Bandung, driving more than 100 worshippers from the building. Members of the Islamic Defenders Front, the Indonesian Ulama Forum and the Islamic Reformist Movement arrived with the Civil Service Police Unit of Rancaekek district and sealed the house used by the Batak Christian Protestant Bethania Church (BCPBC), thus leaving other churches that use it without a worship venue. The protestors also disrupted the worship of six other churches meeting in homes the same day, including the Indonesian Evangelical Tabernacle Church, the Pentecostal Tabernacle Church and the Church of Pentecost-Rancaekek.
In the BCPBC incident, the demonstrators removed by force more than 100 members of the BCPBC church on Teratai Street, the pastor said. “Because they were fearful, children and women were crying when they came out of their place of worship,” Pastor Badia Hutagalung said. Hutagalung said the church was using the house because it had not been able to obtain permission to establish a church building under conditions imposed by Indonesian law.
The Joint Ministerial Decree issued in 1969 and revised in 2006, which requires places of worship to obtain the approval of at least 60 people from the local community, mandates there be at least 90 church members and the church must be approved by the village head.
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