Attack on Catholics is 'political, not religious'
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The Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) says the attack on a Catholic group in a house in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta, on Thursday was related more to political rather than religious issues, even though the attack occurred during prayer.
On Thursday night, a group of armed men attacked Julius Felicianus, the director of the Galang Press publishing house, Kompas TV journalist Michael Aryawan and 12 others, including women and children, as they prayed in Julius’s house.
“Group prayers held in homes are rarely targeted by fundamentalists. Julius is a local campaigner for Jokowi and Kalla, so this case is intertwined with politics,” said IPW chairman Neta S Pane as quoted by tempo.co during his visit to Julius at the hospital on Saturday. Neta was referring to the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla ticket backed by a coalition led by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in the coming presidential election.
Julius, currently being treated due to severe injuries, is a supporter of the Jokowi-Kalla team and has even established a secretariat for Jokowi-Kalla volunteers at his house.
“The attack could have been political, due to my activities in support of Jokowi,” Julius said.
Neta said the assailants had claimed that former Laskar Jihad commander Ja’far Umar Thali had given them the order to attack, and said this provided a clue as to the political dimension of the case.
“Several generals protected Ja’far when Laskar Jihad got involved in the Ambon riots a couple of years ago,” he said.
