(RTTNews) - Over 300 Indonesian Islamists, trying to attack a mosque being used by members of the minority Ahmadiyah sect, clashed Thursday with the police in the village of Manis Lor in Kuningan district of West Java.

The mob from Kuningan, Ciamis and Indramayu districts gathered at the village to protest the continued existence of the Ahmadiyah community, and pelted stones at the An-Nur mosque, prompting an hour-long confrontation with the police.

Meanwhile, 200 Ahmadiyah followers along with Kuningan police and local Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) office remained on guard against any possible attack on the mosque.

The Ahmadiyah sect, with 500,000 followers in Indonesia, believes that its founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the final prophet and not Mohammad, contrary to the central tenet of mainstream Islam, which says Mohammad is the last prophet.

Ahmad is claimed to be a reincarnation of Prophet Mohammad, a claim rejected by mainstream Muslim authorities and scholars. He is also claimed to be the Christian messiah. His sect believes that Jesus did not die on the cross, but moved to India where he died aged 120.

The Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI), the country's top Islamic body, in its fatwa in 2008 described the sect as "deviant."

Jakarta has banned the Ahmadiyahs from holding their rituals in public but has stopped short of banning it altogether after two previous attempts by local authorities and the police to close the mosque failed in the face of stiff resistance from the community.

The Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy recorded 33 cases of attacks on Ahmadiyahs last year and many other instances of religious discrimination of Christians.

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