Two Christian men were flogged by a Sharia law officer Monday for the criminalized offenses of drinking alcohol and gambling in Indonesia’s province of Aceh, the Christian Post reports. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia with the “legal right to apply Islamic law in full.”
Christian survivors of a massive earthquake in heavily Islamic Indonesia urgently need food, blankets, suitable tents, and other essentials, aid workers said Sunday.
Christians in a movement of former Muslims and other believers welcomed a decision by Indonesia’s government to ban an Islamist group that attacked churches and other targets.
Indonesian security forces have detained hardline Islamic leaders with suspected links to terrorism amid concerns among Christians about growing Islamic extremism.
At least four Christians were killed in a suspected Islamic terror attack on the Salvation Army church and service building in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, local Christians told Worthy News early Saturday.
Christians and moderate Muslims in Indonesia fear new tensions after a hardline Islamic cleric returned from exile and held a massive wedding despite the coronavirus pandemic.
A senior Indonesian expert has condemned authorities for removing a mobile phone application that enabled an Indonesian ethnic group to read the Bible in their language.
An American mission pilot flying much-needed coronavirus test kits to a remote village in Indonesia has died in a plane crash, her Christian aviation organization confirmed.
Indonesia’s hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) group broke up a house church meeting in the country’s West Java province, prompting an angry response from the governor. Video footage obtained by Worthy News showed two men bursting into a home Sunday in Cikarang, 48 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Jakarta, the nation’s capital.
Peter Tumbelaka wasn’t in a hurry to become the pastor of Jakarta’s largest Pentecostal churches where many Muslims convert to Christianity. “I thought I could remain an architect and an engineer. But God had different plans,” the 52-year-old preacher told BosNewsLife in Indonesia’s bustling capital.
The Indonesian Baptist Church of Tlogosari has resorted to legal action in fighting local opposition to the construction of its church house. Referring to pressure being placed on the government to block his church’s legitimate building work, Pastor Wahyudi told Beritasatu.com: “We will continue to fight for this, because if left unchecked it will set a bad precedent for freedom of religion and worship in Semarang.”
The married-father-of-three has come a long way since he nearly blew up a Protestant church in Jakarta. Author Ahmad Quraisy, which isn’t his family name, was a commander of the feared Islamic State of Indonesia (NII), an Indonesian militant group. But the former Islamic terrorist now leads an underground movement in Indonesia converting Muslims to Christianity or, in his words, ‘personal faith in Christ.’
Indonesia has seen 40 anti-Christian attacks in the first 5 months of 2019, a two-thirds jump from last year, and a quadrupling of the rate from 10 years ago.
A controversial government decree on the construction of places of worship has led to the closure of a Pentecostal church in Indonesia.
Wycliffe Associates is working to accelerate Bible translation in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world. Christians there face daily persecution, and many are still without the Bible in their language.
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization involving people in the advancement of Bible translation, wants to begin Bible translation in hundreds of languages in Indonesia in the next six months.
An Indonesian court sentenced a Protestant pastor to four years in prison and slapped him with a hefty fine on Monday simply because he shared his faith with a taxi driver.
Islamic extremists in Indonesia, including a family of suicide bombers that targeted three churches, launched multiple attacks yesterday and today that reportedly killed at least 12 people not including the assailants.
Indonesia reduced the sentences of over 9,000 Christian prisoners on Christmas day, including the sentence of a Christian governor jailed on blasphemy charges.
CSW’s new report on freedom of religion or belief in Indonesia warns that religious minorities are increasingly fearful of intolerance.