.... Although though the bylaw is still under deliberation, the city has already begun phasing it in for municipal employees, who are currently required to attend public Friday prayers once per month.
Mukhlis said that the city government was still deciding whether those who failed to comply would face sanctions.
Bengkulu is not the only place to experiment with prayer requirements: Nineteen untenured employees of Riau’s Rokan Hulu district government were fired in November of 2013 because they did not show up to 5 am prayers – a mandatory religious programme put in place by the local government – in what the Home Affairs Ministry’s Director General for Regional Autonomy Djohermanyah Djohan called a “strange ruling.” [The Freethinker] Read more
