INDONESIA: The Red Mosque

Surabaya’s little Masdjid Rachmat is said to be the oldest Moslem mosque in East Java. It is so sacred that even the making of necessary repairs is considered a sacrilege. With his job rendered a sinecure by this taboo, the mosque’s slovenly caretaker, Pak Murah, devoted himself to a more personal responsibility: how to marry off his none-too-attractive daughter. Three years ago when a young member of the local Communist Party made tentative matrimonial advances. Potential Father-in-Law Murah unhesitatingly tossed aside all his religious scruples to promote the match. He joined the party himself and, in utter defiance of Moslem law, allowed his new pagan comrades to build three small houses and a coffee shop for their own use within the mosque’s walled grounds. The Moslem elders who had hired Pak Murah screamed “sacrilege.” Pak Murah only sneered. The Moslems took the case to court.

The case dragged on and on. One judge, intimidated by Communist threats, quitin mid-hearing. At the mosque the Moslem devout tried in vain to ignore the clangor of Red ribaldry outside as they prayed. Life-size pictures of Stalin, Voroshilov and Indonesia’s Red Boss D. N. Aidit were plastered on the mosque’s walls. Then came the final outrage. In the room behind the coffee shop, the Communists installed prostitutes, even let them wash up in the sacred pool reserved for ceremonial ablutions. “If this sickening thing is permitted to go on,” stormed one member of the Indonesian Parliament, ”the Communists will get even bolder.”

Last month a new court with a new judge convened for the 21st session of the case. But the Moslem faithful had waited for justice long enough. They stormed from the court into the mosque grounds, drove out the Reds and tore down most of the Red decorations with their bare hands. Even Allah seemed to be taking a hand in the matter: the Red lawyer was killed by a train when his taxi stalled on a railroad crossing. At long last the Indonesian court ruled hastily that Pak Murah and his Communists must vacate the premises forthwith. The Reds promptly filed an appeal. Last week both factions were sitting tight awaiting the final decision, but the prostitutes had gone, and the sacred pool had once again been restored to the service of Allah.