Open Letter to Jokowi from Rev. Rinaldy Damanik: Destruction of Houses of Worship And Prohibition Of Worship

OPEN LETTER

Subject: DESTRUCTION OF HOUSES OF WORSHIP AND PROHIBITION OF WORSHIP

To the honorable,

1. The President of The Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Jokowi and all his staff.
2. All religious institutions in Indonesia.
3. The people of Indonesia and the world.

Destruction, burning down, and shutting down of houses of worship and the prohibition of worship still take place in Indonesia. Some examples are the incident in Tolikara, Aceh Singkil and a number of previous incidents: the case of GKI Yasmin, HKBP Filadelfia, etc. The reason behind it: THEY DO NOT HAVE THE PERMIT TO BUILD A HOUSE OF WORSHIP!

If that is the reason, please check, DO ALL HOUSES OF WORSHIP HAVE THE REQUIRED BUILDING PERMIT? Furthermore, do houses of worship which have no building permit have to be burned down, vandalised, destructed, attacked, sealed, and do the people have to be banned from worship, or killed, or kicked out?

Is there a religious teaching which allows its people to commit acts of violence towards people from other religious beliefs? If so, which religious teaching is it?

Do those people who commit the burning down, vandalism, destruction, assault, and murder still deserve to be called faithful?

To our Government who assumes the mandate of the people, please immediately take firm and concrete action to uphold justice and law in this country!

To those people who take delight in burning down, vandalising, destructing, assaulting, and murdering on behalf of religions, please repent and return to the righteous path! For I believe that there is no religion which justifies or allows such acts of violence.

If there are legal issues, please act upon them according to the law of this nation and not with violence!

Thank you.

18th October 2015.

Peace from an ordinary person,

Rev. Rinaldy Damanik

rd4peace@gmail.com