A Christian human rights group urged Indonesia’s government Tuesday, October 4, to immediately halt the activities of known Islamic militants who it claims have closed dozens of churches, threaten pastors and other believers, and promote the abduction of Westerners “in cooperation” with local authorities.
Three women accused of “Christianization” have appealed the conviction handed down by an Indonesian court on September 1.
Indonesian judges sentenced three women to three years in prison Thursday, September 1, for “attempting to convert” Muslim children by allowing them to a Christian Sunday School program, a Christian news agency reported.
The family of the Rev. Jokran Ratu, kidnapped four months ago on a remote Indonesian island, still does not know whether he is dead or alive. No ransom demand has been received and police have not apprehended the kidnappers.
Police in Indonesia pledged today to provide tighter security for churches during Christmas and New Year celebrations, after one of their own was arrested in connection with the murder of a Christian village chief on the island of Sulawesi.
Assailants simultaneously attacked two churches in the town of Palu, Central Sulawesi, during church services on Sunday night, injuring at least three people.
Villagers on a small Indonesian island who recently joined a search for their missing pastor found only a red T-shirt with three bullet holes in it, lying on the beach near his home.
Local authorities recently ordered 12 churches in the sub-district of Rancaekek, Bandung, Indonesia, to close their doors. The order came after Muslim clerics protested that the churches were meeting illegally.
Protestant ministers in the United States generally believe that religious persecution is a major problem in today’s world, and they believe the U.S. should impose sanctions against countries where this is occurring. These findings have just been released from a research study conducted among Protestant clergy in America.
Sectarian violence has erupted again in Ambon, South Moluccas, Indonesia, dealing a blow to the tentative Muslim-Christian dialogue that brought relative peace to the area in February this year.
Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, a pastor who many believe was framed on false charges of illegal weapons possession, has finally received permission to travel to Jakarta for urgent medical treatment. Damanik has been in and out of the Salvation Army hospital in Palu since mid-April, suffering from severe kidney problems. Doctors believe he needs urgent surgery, the facilities for which are only available in Jakarta.
DUBLIN, December 22 (Compass) — Police in Indonesia pledged today to provide tighter security for churches during Christmas and New Year celebrations, after one of their own was arrested in connection with the murder of a Christian village chief on the island of Sulawesi.
The Indonesian Central government has sent an additional 1,000 police officers to Poso,in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, after the latest incident of violence against Christians.
Christians in Indonesia are outraged over the arrest of one of their leaders, Renaldy Damanik, General Secretary of the Christian Synod in Central Sulawesi and a hard-working, long-time peace advocate.
SOUTH SULAWESI, INDONESIA (ANS) — A mob has destroyed a church in the predominantly Muslim city of Makassar in South Sulawesi, according to a report from The Barnabas Fund.
Christians in the Maluku provincial capital of Ambon are appealing to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to send peacekeeping forces in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.
Sources of the The Voice of the Martyrs in Indonesia say members of the militant Islamic group Laskar Jihad are likely responsible for a bus bomb blast near Poso on Wednesday. VOM has learned more details about the attack that killed at least four people and injured 17 others.
LONDON (Compass) — A “second Ambon” is brewing in Indonesia according to Christian leaders as a 3,000-strong Muslim jihad force closes in on 28,000 Christians in Tentena, Central Sulawesi. Ambon refers to an area in eastern Indonesia where thousands have died in Muslim-Christian conflicts.
Radical Islamic warriors are continuing their rain of terror on the Christians of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. A VOM source has confirmed that 21 Christian villages in the Poso coastal area have been burned and destroyed and at least 7 people have been killed within the past week.
The events in Central Sulawesi are finally beginning to get the attention of major newspapers. An article in the New York Times December 1 said, “Thousands of Christian villagers on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are fleeing attacks by armed Muslim paramilitary forces.” The article quoted a Roman Catholic priest, “Thousands have fled…What could they do? Their houses have been burned. The police came yesterday, but it was too late.”