TEMANGGUNG, Indonesia, Feb 8, (AFP): Indonesian Muslims burned churches and battled police Tuesday as as the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation struggled with a wave of religious violence. Two days after a Muslim lynch mob killed three members of a minority Islamic sect, crowds of furious Muslims set two churches alight and ransacked a third in the Central Java town of Temanggung, police said. They were demanding the death penalty for Antonius Bawengan, 58, a Christian man who was sentenced to the maximum five years in jail for distributing leaflets insulting Islam. “Today was the climax of the trial... The mob shouted that he should receive the death sentence or be handed over to the public,” Central Java province police spokesman Djihartono told AFP.

The protesters chanted “kill, kill” outside the court and “burn, burn” as they set upon the churches, in an area of Java where Muslims and Christians normally mix peacefully. A Catholic school was also vandalised. About 1,500 protesters threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas and warning shots. One police vehicle was set ablaze in the mayhem, which erupted inside the court and spilled into the streets. The latest outbreak of religious violence in Indonesia — often cited as a bastion of pluralism — came as pressure mounted on the government to tackle extremism and demonstrate its oft-touted commitment to diversity. Indonesia’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion but rights groups say violence against minorities including Christians and Ahmadis has been escalating since 2008.

International human rights activists condemned Sunday’s bloody onslaught on the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect in West Java and demanded an immediate investigation into why police failed to stop the lynch mob. They joined the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an autonomous board that advises the US government, in calling for a review of regulations seen as persecuting minorities, such as the 1965 blasphemy law. “Indonesia is a tolerant country that should be more intolerant of extremist groups,” commission chair Leonard Leo said in Washington in response to Sunday’s violence. The unrest comes less than three months since US President Barack Obama praised Indonesia’s “spirit of religious tolerance” as an “example to the world” during a visit to Jakarta in November. US Ambassador Scot Marciel issued a statement on Tuesday “deploring the violence”. “We encourage the Indonesian government to continue to foster tolerance and protect the rights of all communities,” he said.