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NATIONAL Thu, 02/17/2011 6:17 PM

The government has found no links between several recent violent incidents involving religion, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto says.

“We are still investigating whether there were any connections between the cases,” Djoko said Thursday in Semarang, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

There were differences between the incidents that suggest they were unrelated, he said.

Over the last few weeks at least three separate violent incidents marred Indonesia’s image as a tolerant and pluralist country.

The incidents included a violent attack on an Ahmadiyah congregation in Pandeglang, Banten, which left three people dead; a series of mob attacks on three churches by a group that was disenchanted by a court verdict in a blasphemy hearing in Central Java; and an attack on an Islamic boarding school in East Java said to have teachings that had strayed from mainstream Islam.

Djoko said the boarding school had already faced similar attacks.

“In Pasuruan, similar incidents have already occurred several times, with one group attacking another,” he said.

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