Muslim protestors blocked worship services from taking place at two separate churches in northern Indonesia earlier this month, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. While Christianity is legal under the Indonesian Constitution, the Muslim-majority country ranks 33rd on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
Although Indonesia’s Constitution specifically protects religious freedom, a church in East Jakarta has come under pressure to close, after Islamic government authorities threatened to permanently deny the congregation a permit to meet and worship in their own building, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Indonesian Christians said Tuesday that several church congregations have been “disbanded” by angry Muslim protesters and local authorities. “In one of them, my children worship,” a concerned Christian told Worthy News.
A Christian congregation in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia, had its worship service disrupted by Muslim protestors for the second time in two months on July 2, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
In a positive move for religious minorities in Indonesia, the country’s Minister of Religion has announced a plan to ease the burdensome permit regulations for houses of worship by allowing approval with only one recommendation, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Authorities in Indonesia’s East Jakarta city have reopened a church building three months after they closed it as part of a broader crackdown on devoted congregations in the world’s largest Muslim nation, Christians confirmed Thursday.
Muslims in Indonesia disrupted Christian Sunday services at a house church in West Java Province and at a church site in Central Java Province on 18 June, arguing that such worship is illegal and should be prohibited, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
The mayor of Indonesia’s central city of Medan has allowed an evangelical congregation to worship in his office after angry Muslims and local officials prevented gatherings at a mall.
Following a large protest by members of the Indonesian Muslim Alliance (AUI), a church in Medan, Indonesia has been prevented from holding worship services in a room it rented at a shopping mall for this purpose, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Christians on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island were recently prevented from worshiping when mobs of Muslim extremists disrupted two separate services in Binjai, North Sumatra Province, and in Riau, Pekanbaru Province in southern Sumatra, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
An official on western Indonesia’s Sumatra Island has been criminally charged with “intrusion” after he entered a church service and illegally ordered the worship to cease, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
After 13 years of legal proceedings, a church in Indonesia has finally been granted a permit and allowed to reopen after being shut down by government authorities in 2010, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Indonesia’s government says it will facilitate a place of worship for Protestant Christians in West Java after the forced closure of their church by authorities provoked an international outcry.
Amid an ongoing spate of government-sponsored church closures in Indonesia, the Purwakarta Simalungun Protestant Christian Church (GKPS) was forced to give up worshiping and building a sanctuary in Cigelam Village because the Purwakarta Regency Government in West Java refused to issue the requisite permit and de facto shut the church down, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Despite their constitutional right to freedom of religion, Christians in Muslim-majority Indonesia face an uphill struggle in obtaining the required permits to build churches: both the government and local Muslims oppose them.
In a remarkable piece of good news for persecuted Indonesian Christians, a church in Bandar Lampung has been allowed to reopen after local Muslim village authorities and residents interrupted a worship service and forced it to close down last month, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. The Kemah Daud Christian Church had been in the middle of a Sunday service on February 19 when the disruption and subsequent closure occurred.
Authorities in Indonesia prohibited a building-less congregation from holding their 2022 Christmas services in a local shop as Christians continue to face uphill struggles in obtaining permits for church buildings, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
A group of Indonesian Christian churches and organizations rushed to assist their countrymen in the wake of a powerful and deadly earthquake that hit Indonesia’s Java island last week, Christianity Today (CT) reports.
In an apparent violation of Indonesia’s constitutional protection of religious freedom, two local officials in Java Island joined forces with Islamist organizations to block the construction of a Christian church building, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
Authorities in Indonesia’s province of Banten have denied the Protestant Batak Society Christian Church (HKBP) a permit to build a church, in a move described as going against the country’s 1945 constitution guaranteeing religious freedom, the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA) reports.