Indonesia Minorities Slam President’s Interfaith Award

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An Indonesian Ahmadi reacts as he checks the condition of an Ahmadiyah mosque in Tasikmalaya, West Java, after it was attacked by the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on May 5, 2013. Indonesian religious minorities slammed a decision by a US interfaith group to honor President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with a “World Statesmen” award at a time when attacks against minority faiths at home are on the rise. (JG Photo/Rezza Estily)

By Agence France-Presse on 6:39 pm May 20, 2013.

Indonesian religious minorities on Monday slammed a decision by a US interfaith group to honor President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a time when attacks against minority faiths are on the increase.

The Appeal of Conscience Foundation, which campaigns against crimes committed in the name of religion, has named Yudhoyono its “World Statesman” of 2013, and he is due to collect the award at a ceremony later this month in New York.

But attacks against minorities in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country have been rising in recent years, and Yudhoyono has been repeatedly criticized for failing to take action.

Minority Muslim groups, such as Ahmadiyah and Shiites, and Christians, have been targeted by Muslim radicals in the Sunni-majority country, with places of worship attacked and in some cases worshippers even killed.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesia-minorities-slam-presidents-interfaith-award/

http://www.appealofconscience.org/