Indonesian hardliners attack minority sect

August 2, 2008

Muslim extremists have targeted the mosques of an offshoot sect, spurred, perhaps, by an official decree.

The Muslim hard-liners arrived just before midnight armed with stones, clubs and flammable liquid. Townspeople cowering in fear heard chants of "Destroy! Destroy!" and watched the mob set ablaze the mosque of an offshoot Islamic sect that the attackers view as heretical.

"This time they destroyed our property. If they come back, I'm afraid they will target us," said Rina Nurlinawati, a member of the Ahmadiyah sect who was among witnesses to the burning down of the group's mosque in Sukabumi, a quiet hillside town on Indonesia's main island of Java.