Wednesday, July 13, 2005
COURT PROCEEDINGS
CONTINUE
FOR
INDONESIAN SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS
By Jeremy
Reynalds
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ANS) -- Court
proceedings involving three Indonesian Christian women arrested under
“Child Protection” laws for using so-called deception to entice
Indonesian youngsters to convert to Christianity continued last week.
According to a news release from International Christian Concern (ICC),
an organization that helps those persecuted for their faith, the
children denied being given money to convert to Christianity.
It was also made clear, ICC reported, that each Muslim child who
attended the Sunday school classes had their parents' permission, and
when the three Christian women took the children on field trips, the
children were accompanied by their Muslim parents.
These court proceedings were a result of legislation that targets
religious minorities in the once tolerant nation of Indonesia. ICC
reported the law states, “Any person who purposely uses deception, lies
or enticement to make a child choose another religion not of his own
free will . . . (will) be prosecuted by imprisonment for five years
and/or a fine of Rp.100.000.000" (one hundred million Rupiah).
As the proceedings were about to begin, a group of radical Islamists
went to the courthouse and gathered outside. When the three women
arrived for their trial, ICC reported that police officers had to hold
back the mob from attacking the women, as they shouted “Allahu akbar!
(God is great!) Dr. Rebekah is evil, hang them...Shoot her!”
ICC said it not immediately clear who organized the demonstration, but
experts believe members of the now disbanded radical Islamic group,
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), were involved.
“Whoever was behind the protests,” ICC said, “they were obviously
designed to strike fear into judicial authorities as well as the
Christian population.”
As the trial began, ICC said, the protesters took over the seats in the
courtroom and reacted loudly to everything said. When the leader of the
investigative team of the Indonesian Council of Islamic Preachers
reportedly shouted at the women, “Stop the terror you are committing,”
the protesters reportedly responded by shouting, “Allahu-Akbar,” and
“shoot them!”
Several children were called to testify along with their parents, ICC
said, but all of the children were frightened by the radical Islamic
sympathizers in the courtroom and had to be taken outside to recover.
The parents were not the ones bringing the charges in the case, ICC
reported. It was the Muslim principal of the local elementary school,
Ali Nurdin. He reportedly brought the charges after he heard his
students singing Christian songs while walking the hallways of school.
In Indonesian state-run schools, ICC said, students are only taught
about Islam. Christian parents involved in the case responded to
Islamic courses being forced on their children in the public schools by
saying, ICC reported, “We are tired of all the religious intolerance
that exists. If our children better understand their (Muslim) faith and
if they better understand ours (Christianity), then maybe the next
generation will not be as intolerant as ours.”
So far, according to ICC, there are no indications that the women
running the Sunday school classes forced any child to do anything.
However, ICC commented, the court proceedings appear “staged and are a
shameful mark on the world's largest Muslim nation.”
Speaking in a news release, an ICC spokesman added the organization
requests “that all concerned individuals who think the world has seen
enough destruction and hatred due to religious intolerance (should)
contact their Indonesian embassy to urge the Indonesian government to
intervene in this court case, so that it will not become a precedent
for further persecution and oppression of religious minorities.”
For information about ICC go to www.persecution.org
To contact the Indonesia Embassy, write to: Indonesian Embassy US, 2020
Massachusetts Ave. N.W.,Washington, D.C. 20036, USA. Tel. (202) 775 -
5200 or go to www.embassyofindonesia.org.
| Jeremy Reynalds is a
freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New
Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction.
He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New
Mexico and is a candidate for the Ph.D. in intercultural education at
Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and
lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy
Reynalds at jgreynalds@aol.com.
Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A black and white JPEG
picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com. |
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