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.”
ULAWESI ISLAND, INDONESIA (ANS) — Over 50,000 Christians are in grave jeopardy as they are surrounded by jihad terrorists in central Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.
The gifts and prayers of Christians worldwide made quite a difference for Indonesian Christians under attack by Laskar Jihad extremists, says Jeff Hammond, Australian missionary directing a relief effort among 54,000 displaced believers in Sulawesi and Halmahera islands.
Filipino Christians, Danilo de Guzman, 38, and Benjamin Diaz, 40, were deported to the Philippines last Saturday after spending more than a month in prison.
In a shocking turn of events, the radical Laskar Jihad has been banned from the Moluccas and its combative leader placed under arrest.
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.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Organization, VHP) is secretly conducting large-scale conversion drives in India’s Marxist-ruled state of West Bengal. More than 16 tribal Christians were forced to re-convert to Hinduism on April 22 at a purification ceremony in Chopra village in the Malda district about 300 kilometers from Calcutta, NGO sources said. Ten other animist tribals were also converted to Hinduism in the village.
A three-day Baptist convention for 100,000 people, which was due to be held in Burma, has been cancelled on the orders of the junta.
A Presbyterian church close to the Kashmir border was attacked by a group of Islamic extremists on Sunday April 7.
Two well-known Baptist ministers from Dagon North Township were arrested by the military junta on 5th April. They are currently detained in Burma’s notorious Insein prison.
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.
A refugee camp on the Thailand/Burma border has been overrun by troops sent by the Burmese military junta.
Christian Aid’s contact in Indonesia has just returned from a visit to the Poso and Tentena area and shares the following update on the current situation.–John Lindner, Editor
The Miracle of Answered Prayer
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.
Over 50,000 Christians are in grave jeopardy as they are surrounded by jihad terrorists in central Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.
A further six Christian men have been arrested in the coastal city of Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, as the crackdown on believers in the city escalates, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
“A politics of community can be strengthened when we are not afraid to make the connections between spirituality and politics.”[2] Al Gore who also touted faith-based partnerships. Senator again urges expanded role for religion in social service programs
“Bush and his aides moved to downplay the religious component, emphasizing the proposal’s overall purpose: boosting communities and civil society.”[3] Bush Unveils ‘Faith-Based’ Initiative
New legislation awaiting agreement by the Kazakhstan authorities looks set to undermine religious freedom.
The Keston Institute reports that if adopted, the law will require all missionaries to be registered and allow unregistered religious groups to be banned.
Members of the Word of Life Pentecostal Church, human rights activists and some politicians have complained about the failure of the police or prosecutor’s office to take any action so far in the wake of last month’s attack on a Word of Life service in a cinema in the centre of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The mob raid – the latest in a long series of attacks on minority religious communities dating back to 1999 – was led by Basil Mkalavishvili, a defrocked priest of the Orthodox Church who enjoys de facto immunity from prosecution for his violent raids. (see KNS 26 September 2001) “We have not arrested Mkalavishvili,” the duty police officer at the Mtatsminda-Krtsanisi district police told Keston News Service on 11 January. “Why should we?” His boss, district police chief Togo Gogua, confirmed later in the day that his officers had not arrested anyone in the wake of the latest attack. “I’m not the procurator and I’m not the judge. An investigation is underway,” Gogua declared. “They must be arrested,” the church’s pastor insisted to Keston. “It’s not a question of religious freedom but of hooliganism. Such hooligan gangs should not be allowed to exist.”
Indian Christian, Prabhu Isaac, is due to be deported from Jiddah tonight after spending more than six months in Saudi prisons in connection with his Christian faith.