Indonesia

Authorities in Indonesia opened fire on a peaceful meeting in Timika, West Papua, as thousands of protesters gathered to pray for an independence referendum on April 5.

Hundreds of Indonesian Muslims in Java’s North Bekasi District have protested the construction of a church for the district’s Catholic community.

Official church closures have not stopped the growth of Christianity in Indonesia.

Last week, a mob of about 750 Muslims armed with axes set fire to a church in Indonesia’s Aceh province that Muslims alleged lacked the proper building permits.

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.

Under pressure from Islamic extremist movements authorities in West Java, have ordered the closure of seven Protestant churches for ‘alleged irregularities in building permits’ according to AsiaNews.

On Friday, hundreds of armed Islamists led by local Muslim leaders forcibly occupied a two-acre plot owned by the Indonesian Christian community of Huria Kristen Batak in the village of Talang Kelapa, South Sumatra, according to Asia News.

Church closures in Indonesia that peaked during the Christmas holidays have spilled over into January as Islamist groups continue to target Christian congregations, according to International Christian Concern.

The Ulema Advisory Council of Banda Aceh has instructed its Muslim community not to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s.

Extremists from the Islamic Defenders Front have disrupted the Sunday services of the Tandemn Huria Kristen Batak Protestant community of Binjai in the Indonesian province of Sumatra.

Islamists in Indonesia are demanding the removal of a new political appointee in a Muslim-majority region of West Java because she’s a Christian, according to Barnabas Aid.