From our favorite “moderate” Muslim nation.

(RNW) — Indonesia admitted on Wednesday that soldiers had been entering mosques of a minority Islamic sect but said they had been protecting followers, escalating a debate about religious freedoms.

An Indonesian human rights group said however it had recorded 56 cases in West Java province in which soldiers forced Ahmadiyah followers to convert to mainstream Islam.

The government denies there have been any forced conversions, saying the military intervention was to protect the Ahmadiyah from more violence.

“As long as their intention is positive — that is to ensure Ahmadiyah followers do not become the target of violence — then that’s not a human rights violation,” said Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar.

“It’s not a harmful intervention,” Akbar told reporters.

But local rights group Imparsial disputed that, saying soldiers have entered mosques, gathered the sect followers and “forced them to repent and convert to Islam”.

There has been an international outcry over the treatment of Ahmadis after an amateur video showed hundreds of Muslim fanatics armed with machetes, sticks and rocks attacking Ahmadiyah followers, leaving three dead.