Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 119 | Wed 03 Aug 2011

By Elizabeth Kendal

China is not landlocked, but it might as well be. China’s coast does not
open to the Pacific Ocean (where the US Navy is supreme) but opens to the
Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
To get to the Pacific Ocean, Chinese ships must navigate through
archipelagos controlled by various US allies: Japan, the Philippines,
Malaysia and Indonesia. Indonesia is especially strategic, straddling the
Pacific and Indian Oceans and controlling some of the world’s busiest
shipping lanes. Indonesia’s geo- strategic value is rising in line with
China’s economic and military ascendancy. Because Beijing is aggressively
courting Jakarta, the US is reluctant to challenge Indonesia over
declining religious liberty. Because President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is
dependent on Islamist support in parliament, he is reluctant to challenge
Islamists over escalating and increasingly violent Islamic intolerance.
All this leaves Indonesia’s Christian minority increasingly vulnerable.

On 24 January an Indonesian court sentenced three soldiers to eight, nine
and ten months imprisonment for insubordination after video footage
emerged showing the soldiers torturing Papuan civilians — beating,
burning, knifing and suffocating them. Whilst the US expressed regret over
the leniency of the sentences, they praised the fact that the soldiers
were tried at all, hailing it as ‘progress’.   (Without the trial, the US
would have been obliged by its own laws to withhold military aid.) On 6
February a 1500-strong Muslim mob attacked a house in Cikeusik village,
Banten Province, West Java, where a small number of Ahmaddiya Muslims —
regarded as heretical by mainstream Muslims — were meeting for worship.
Video footage posted on Youtube and broadcast worldwide shows Muslims
hacking and bludgeoning the ‘infidels’ to death as the assailants’
supporters cheer and shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ (Allah is great). Three
Ahmadiyya were killed and five were seriously wounded, and Ahmaddiya
property was torched. On Thursday 28 July Serang District Court in Java
sentenced 12 of the instigators and killers to prison for between three
and six months. As the deputy director for Asia of Human Rights Watch,
Elaine Pearson, notes: ‘The Cikeusik trial sends the chilling message that
attacks on minorities like the Ahmadiyya will be treated lightly by the
legal system.’

Religious liberty is seriously threatened in Indonesia and Christian
security is increasingly tenuous. West Java is a hotbed of militant
Islamic fundamentalism where Christians are less than two percent of the
population. As tensions escalate and protection diminishes, Christians in
West Java and restive Papua become increasingly vulnerable. Last year the
second Bekasi Islamic Congress was held in Al-Azhar Mosque, Bekasi, West
Java. Muslims there were instructed on 27 June 2010 to form Islamic
paramilitaries in readiness for a war against Christians.
[See ‘Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia: Dhimmitude or death’ (12 July 2010)
http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com/2010/07/bekasi-west-java-indonesia-
dhimmitude.html ]

On 23 July 2011 Fides [Catholic] News Service reported they had received
an ‘SOS’ appeal from The Indonesian Christian Church (Gereja Kristen
Indonesia — GKI), a Protestant denomination. This warned of such tension
that ‘the Christian faithful are at risk of mass persecution’. The GKI
cites impunity as a major factor fuelling the Islamic fundamentalist trend
towards violence. In Bogor and Bekasi, suburbs of Jakarta, West Java,
local authorities are defying the law (including Supreme Court rulings) at
the expense of Christians to appease belligerent Islamic fundamentalists.
At a recent City Council meeting in Bogor, authorities threatened ‘mass
mobilisation’ against ‘the Christians of the GKI’. In other words: submit
in silence or risk suffering and death! Islamic zeal and belligerence will
escalate as Ramadan progresses during August. These are dangerous days for
the vulnerable Christians of West Java and restive Papua. Though the
world’s powers abandon them, our supreme and sovereign God never will.

THEREFORE, LET US PRAY THAT GOD WILL:

* draw his people into prayerful dependence, that they might ‘wait for
him’ (Isaiah 30:18) and see his salvation; through it all, may the
Indonesian Church — in grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit — be
light, salt and yeast for the glory of God.

* intervene for the protection of his people and the advance of the
gospel in Indonesia.

* expose the intolerance of Islam, while frustrating the schemes of the
wicked (Psalm 146:9).

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SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE

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DANGEROUS DAYS FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA

Because President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono depends on Islamist support in
parliament, he is reluctant to challenge the issue of increasingly violent
Islamic intolerance. Because the ascendant China is courting Indonesia,
the US is reluctant to challenge Indonesia over its serious decline in
religious liberty. West Java is a hotbed of militant Islamic
fundamentalism where Christians are less than two percent of the
population. Last year Muslims there were called to form Islamic
paramilitary forces in readiness for jihad. As tensions grow and
protection diminishes, Christians in West Java and Papua become
increasingly vulnerable. Islamic zeal and belligerence will escalate as
Ramadan progresses during August. A city council has threatened ‘mass
mobilisation’ against the Christian population, for whom these are
dangerous days. Please pray for God’s intervention and for divine
protection.

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We suggest that churches and fellowships using the above Summary might
also provide a copy of the listed prayer points to be used in their
worship by people who are leading in prayer.

For more information, updates and helpful links see Elizabeth Kendal’s
blog ‘Religious Liberty Monitoring’ <http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com>.

Previous RLPBs may be viewed at <http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/>.

This RLPB was written for the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious
Liberty Commission (AEA RLC) by Elizabeth Kendal, an international
religious liberty analyst and advocate, and a member of the AEA RLC team.

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