By Ed Davies

JAKARTA, July 7 (Reuters) - Indonesian government policy has been hijacked by radical Islamic groups, as shown by a decree last month to restrict the Ahmadiyya sect, the International Crisis Group said in a report on Monday.

The government issued a ministerial decree last month prohibiting Ahmadiyya, whose followers have lived peacefully in Indonesia since around 1925, from spreading their teaching.

The report said the government had acted after systematic lobbying by radical elements over the sect, which has been branded heretical by some Muslims because its teachings are felt to deviate from fundamental Islamic tenets.

John Virgoe, Southeast Asia project director at the International Crisis Group, said there was a danger that unrest fomented by hardline groups could increase after the decree.

"Having won this victory they'll look for others," he said.

The decree stops short of banning the sect, but the report noted its ambiguous wording and warned it could be an "invitation to vigilantism" by opponents of Ahmadiyya.

While Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country, its constitution protects freedom of religion and it has sizeable Christian, Hindu and Buddhist communities.

But the government's resolve to defend freedom of belief has been put to the test over Ahmadiyya, whose followers, property and mosques have come under attack by hardline Muslim groups.

Hardline Islamic groups pressing for a ban, include Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, working within a broader coalition, Forum Ummat Islam, the report said.

The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a militant group known for attacks on bars and nightclubs as well as on 'unauthorised' Christian churches and Ahmadiyya mosques and schools, had provided "muscle power" at rallies, it said.

The report criticised the "unthinking support" given by the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to institutions such as the Ulema Council, Indonesia's Islamic authority, which had branded Ahmadiyya as "deviant".

"It is all the more perplexing why the government would issue a decree which so clearly violates a fundamental civil right and which gives it the right to intervene in matters of interpretation of religious doctrine," it said.

The report links the decree to political manoeuvring ahead of elections next year, pointing to Yudhoyono's desire to maintain support from a coalition of Islamic parties that helped him get into power in 2004.

It also said some local politicians were using the issue to attract votes during regional elections.

(Editing by David Fox)

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