Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2011

Muslims and Christians in Indonesia

Dozens of churches in Indonesia come under attack every year and the country's president is failing to take action to stop it - according to a leading Catholic peace activist who has produced a report setting out the scale of the problem. Since 2006, more than 200 attacks on churches have been recorded by the Indonesian committee on religion and peace under Theophilus Bela, president of the Jakarta Christian community forum. In a report submitted to Aid to the Church in Need, Mr Bela stated that in the first five months of this year there were 14 attacks on churches and 46 in 2010 as a whole. Mr Bela blamed Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his government for not doing enough to tackle Islamist anti-Christian violence. He said: "President Yudhoyono sleeps if there is an attack on Christian churches. If the president sleeps, so do the police." Mr Bela reported that since Mr Yudhoyono became president in May 2004, there have been 286 attacks on churches,