The problems began shortly after Tajul Muluk, a Shiite cleric, opened a boarding school in 2004. The school, in a predominantly Sunni Muslim part of East Java, raised local tensions, and in 2006 it was attacked by thousands of villagers. When a mob set fire to the school and several homes last December, many Shiites saw it as just the latest episode in a simmering sectarian conflict \u201d\u201d one that they say has been ignored by the police and exploited by Islamists purporting to preserve the purity of the Muslim faith.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, the world\u2019s most populous Muslim-majority country, has long been considered a place where different religious and ethnic groups can live in harmony and where Islam can work with democracy.<\/p>\n
But that perception has been repeatedly brought into question lately. In East Java, Sunni leaders are pushing the provincial government to adopt a regulation limiting the spread of Shiite Islam. It would prevent the country\u2019s two major Shiite organizations from organizing prayer gatherings and sermons.<\/p>\n