Islamization in Papua
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
JAKARTA (Worthy News)– Christians in Indonesia’s most eastern province are facing an Islamization program that is changing the demographics of the formerly Christian-majority region, according to Barnabas Aid.
Papua’s Christian children are being trafficked into Islamic boarding schools in Jakarta as part of a growing program of Islamization; these impoverished minors are often lured from their families with promises of a free education, but instead they are only taught lessons from the Quran.
However, Quranic re-education is not the only tactic to Islamize the region. Through the government’s long-term transmigration program, millions of Indonesians have been forced to move to Papua to obtain work; these jobs — along with education, food and housing — have encouraged many Papuans to convert to Islam.
Further, Islam’s tolerance of polygamy has also made it attractive to Papuans, even though Papuan churches strongly oppose it.
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