JAKARTA, Indonesia — Foreign governments and human rights groups say the relatively light sentences given to 12 men who participated in the brutal killings of three minority Muslim sect members sends a chilling message about growing religious intolerance in Indonesia.

The attack — captured on video and widely circulated on the Internet — showed a frenzied crowd of around 1,500 descending on members of Ahmadiyah with machetes, wooden clubs and rocks to try to prevent them from worshipping.