Indonesia

"I personally ask for Christians' forgiveness for what I have done to them," Umar Patek al Hisyam bin Ali Zein said. "I am sorry for my misdeed."

Wong summarized his concerns over the intimidation, threats and attacks against the HKBP Filadelfia church in Jejalen Raya village in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta. The most recent attack was on May 20, when several residents threw stones, bags of urine and rotten eggs at members of the church’s congregation. Reverend Palti Panjaitan from the church also reported a death threat made against him to the National Police. 

 “According to the Constitution, the government is obliged to provide security and protection,” Abdul Mufti, secretary of Muhammadiyah’s youth wing, said on Saturday. “If there is a citizen, whatever the religion is, who does not feel safe or cannot worship, including building houses of worship, the government should try harder to uphold the law in this nation.” 

Among the fundamentalist group there were not only men but also women and children. After the threats came blows. The crowd began to throw water, sewage, used oil, mud, rotten eggs, sticks and other blunt objects. A "brutal" attack aggravated by the presence of a swarm of "infiltrators" who has passed the cordon of officers and attacked the faithful of the Christian community the "from within".

When asked whether the State Department would consider including Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) on religious freedom, Posner said the U.S. plans to evaluate the country on a continuing basis. “Our impression is … in terms of religious freedom the situation has not gotten better, but it’s at a sort of steady stage,” he said. “It is an open process and we can make a judgment at any time … We are looking at it on an ongoing basis.” 

This week, an hour's drive south of Jakarta, the capital city, Indonesian churches invited more than 9,000 Christians to take part in the World Prayer Assembly 2012. Such a large Christian event has never been held in this majority Muslim country. 

“The only way [to solve the GKI Yasmin saga] is to ‘impeach’ the mayor who has not obeyed the court’s ruling,” he told reporters, adding that Diani’s refusal to reopen the Yasmin church, despite the Supreme Court’s decision in 2010 that went against him and ordered him to reopen the church, was a clear violation of the law. 

Between 1999 and 2001 a bloody war between Christians and Muslims was fought in the Moluccas. There were thousands of victims, hundreds of churches and mosques destroyed, thousands of homes destroyed, and almost half a million refugees.

The small Protestant church is the only Christian place of worship in the area. Local authorities do not understand why it was the target of an arson attack. However, some residents blame Islamists coming from outside the area. 

Recently arrested terrorists connected with a suicide bombing attack against a church in Indonesia last September apparently hacked into an investment website and stole nearly $25,000 to fund their operation. 

"The man who made “the police are not responsible if anything happens” as standard procedure must have been regarded highly by the radicals. The same warning has been given to different groups who are threatened when they seek the police’s protection. The police said the same to the congregation of the GKI Yasmin. They told that to the Ahmadi members and also the Shia. They told that to the church members of HKBP Filadelfia."

The 16 buildings, called “undung-undung” in Aceh, were located across four subdistricts in Aceh Singkil district. Different from churches, undung-undungs are smaller in size and have no cross on their exterior. 

Police arrested seven suspected terrorists in Central Jakarta on May 3, four in North Sumatra on May 4 and another in South Sumatra on May 5, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said.

After the three Christian churches - two Catholic and one Protestant - were forcibly closed in Java in recent days the attention of Indonesian Islamic extremists has now shifted to the shrine of Lady Mary in Sengon Kerep, Sampang sub-district in Gedangsari in Gunung Kidul regency in Yogyakarta (Central Java province). Sunday, May 6th a mob of a thousand fanatics tried to seal off the building, but the intervention of soldiers and police foiled the attack. 

Saor Siagian, the Filadelfia HKBP church lawyer, said that the FPI’s radical action when trying to disrupt the sermon had frightened many worshippers. “Until now, some of our worshippers are still a bit traumatized by the incident,” he said. Saor said that the church members had been intimidated on a continuous basis over the previous weeks, but the last incident was worse than ever. “The violence is now physical,” he said. 

After repeated protests by hard-line Muslim groups in the Indonesian province of Aceh, Asia News reports that authorities have shut down three churches, two Protestant and one Catholic. The authorities cited a lack of building permits as the reason for the closure, despite the fact that one of the churches was opened 38 years ago. The province of Aceh has more Muslims proportionally than any other province in Indonesia, and Sharia law is implemented at the regional level. 

Bogor's administration sealed the church in April of 2010, forcing the beleaguered 300-member congregation to hold mass in front of the church or, at times, in private. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the church in 2010, but Diani ignored the ruling, leaving the congregation without a house of worship. 

He pointed out that while largely mute on the Yasmin case, the Religious Affairs Ministry has been drumming up support for its draft of the Interfaith Harmony Bill, which many activists believed as detrimental to religious freedom. 

"About 100 members of the Filadelfia congregation of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) arrived at their church on Sunday morning but were blocked from entering by members of Karawang public order (Satpol PP) officials and police officers. Instead, the church members were told to use a member’s house to hold the Mass."