Christians in Indonesia’s West Java province were weighing their options Sunday after Muslims reportedly formed a human wall to block members of a Protestant church from reaching their Christmas worship service, in an incident that has underscored concerns about Islamic extremism in the Asian country.
Concerns are mounting about the future of Indonesia’s predominantly Christian Papua region, where the army claims to have recaptured a village in deadly clashes with separatist rebels amid reports of civilian suffering and long-standing grievances over Jakarta’s rule.
Christians and rights groups have expressed concern that Indonesia’s updated blasphemy law will favor Islam, the main religion in the world’s largest Muslim nation, at the expense of minority faiths.
Authorities in Indonesia’s Central Java Province have halted construction of a church and related tourism compound after pressure from local council members and Muslim groups amid rising anti-Christian incidents in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, sources confirmed Thursday.
Rights activists say local authorities in Indonesia’s West Java province have shut down a Christian prayer house and evicted its evangelist leader, underscoring broader concerns about religious freedom in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
Christians in Indonesia’s West Java province are reeling from mob attacks carried out by Muslim hardliners seeking to prevent church services and halt the construction of places of worship.
Despite a previously signed agreement by Christian leaders to avoid legal action, the governor of West Java has called for full prosecution of a violent June 27 mob attack on a Christian youth retreat, describing it as a “serious criminal matter” that must not go unpunished.
Dozens of residents, including Christians, have been rescued from a halfway house in Indonesia’s West Java province after local Muslims stormed the building because it had been used for church services, Christians told Worthy News.
An Indonesian house church organizer hopes a territorial dispute over four small islands in western Indonesia will not lead to war.
Indonesian police said Monday that they are questioning 20 witnesses over the death of a Christian schoolboy in a bullying case that has shocked the Christian community.
An 8-year-old Christian boy in Indonesia died from internal injuries after being brutally beaten by five older Muslim classmates, in what his family and church community say was a sustained campaign of religious bullying that turned deadly, International Christian Concern reported.
Over a dozen Christian graves at three cemeteries in Indonesia’s Special Region of Yogyakarta were reportedly vandalized from May 16 to 19 as part of a broader anti-Christian campaign in areas of the world’s largest Muslim nation.
Devoted Christians in Indonesia say several churches are facing growing opposition in the mainly Muslim nation as local leaders and residents are cracking down on Christian gatherings in at least three regions.
Christians in Indonesia asked “to pray for Asia” as an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale rocked Indonesia’s western Aceh province on Sunday.
Devoted Christians in an area of Indonesia’s South Sulawesi Province said Thursday they fear for their future after hardline local Muslims objected to their worship activities and construction of a church.
Despite reported protests from radical Muslims, thousands have heard the Gospel during Palu’s Friendship Festival and related evangelistic events in Indonesia, Worthy News learned Thursday.
Indonesian authorities in Palu felt compelled to cancel a planned interfaith festival and reorganize it into a Christian-only event after hundreds of Muslims protested the announcement that two evangelists would speak at the festival last month, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
Muslims have threatened massive protests against the construction of a Catholic church in Indonesia’s West Java Province in the latest standoff over Christian worship in the world’s largest Muslim country.
Hundreds of displaced Christian residents will likely celebrate Christmas outside their homes in an area of Indonesia’s conflict-stricken easternmost Papua province unless Indonesian security forces withdraw there, a bishop says.
A Christian choir in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province pondered Monday how to perform this Christmas after local Muslims objected to their rehearsal.