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Frontdebeouf - now what were you saying about the Muslims slaughtering Christians please?
Thanks for the ping, the pictures are incredible. As for the history of islam in Aceh, suffice it for me to say that Aceh has been the seat of islamic fundamentalism for something like the last 25 years. Aceh joined Indonesia willingly but quickly became disillusioned...Indonesia wasn't islamic enough for them. I guess what they want is sharia law. Aceh was the first territory in the area to become converted to islam. It has oil. It also received financial ??? help from Lybia...(read terror instruction) and a fundamental faction that styles itself fighters for freedom, has rounded up and is holding captive, large numbers of people in 'refugee camps' that they have themselves created...for to bang the West over the head with and collect aid and weapons I guess...just the usual lovely islamic fairy tale. Reminds me a lot of East Timor, actually. If I find out more, I'll post it to you. Not that it matters much now, looks as if both the good and the bad of Aceh have other things to think about than rebellion or the establishment of an islamic state.
As for the Christians who may have lived in Aceh, I don't even want to think about them. But I'll say a prayer. The Aceh fanatics have had twenty five years or more to wreak their evil practices on them while the world slept.
Aceh was wiped out by the tsunami. And yes Bin Ladens guys were running rampant over the Christians there!
HERE:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=2432
"...Perhaps the highest profile area of conflict, however, is Aceh, which has seen decades of conflict between Islamist separatists and government forces. In the last decade, more than 6,000 people have been killed in fighting between the Free Aceh Movement and government forces. In January 2001, Indonesia finally granted Aceh autonomy to enforce Shari’a law, a move seen as placating the separatists. Since then, Aceh’s government has destroyed churches and forbade the practice of Christianity.
Asian intelligence sources have since asserted that the Free Aceh Movement works with al-Qa’ida, and that al-Qa’ida even considered moving to Aceh after the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom. Bin Laden's lieutenant, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, reportedly visited Aceh in June 2000...."
Just a few found with a simple "aceh""persecution" google search.
...PAPUA & ACEH, INDONESIA
Whilst tension builds, but relative peace holds, in the Malukus and Sulawesi, Laskar Jihad is sending its Islamic militants to the Indonesian provinces of Papua (Irian Jaya) and Aceh. Laskar Jihad volunteers in majority-Christian Papua (said to number anywhere from 200 – 3,000) are believed to be engaged in “propagating Islam”, education, preaching aggressive sermons, the circulation of provocative pamphlets and news-sheets, and the distribution of videotapes containing footage of the Jihad’s holy war against Christians in the Malukus. In the staunchly Islamic province of Aceh the group says it has come to “teach Muslims there to interpret Islam correctly”.
The more likely primary motive for the group’s presence in these two provinces at opposite ends of the Indonesian archipelago is to oppose local separatist movements. Laskar Jihad believes in a united Indonesia under Islamic Shari’ah law. Locals fear that the Indonesian army may use the group to fight against the Islamic separatist movement in Aceh and the ethnic Melanesian Christian independence movement in Papua in a similar way to its notorious use of militias in East Timor. Already there are reports that Laskar Jihad are training the pro-Indonesian Islamic militia Muri Putih in Papua, and on 17 April police announced that they had arrested two Laskar Jihad members in the province for carrying firearms. The group’s presence in Aceh and Papua has been utterly rejected by local Christians and other community leaders who have called for them to leave the provinces. Christians in Aceh are also facing additional pressure under Islamic Shari ’ ah law that was implemented as ! part of significant autonomy measures awarded as concessions to the province by the Indonesian authorities...
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/256.htm
ACEH: SHARI'A: THE ISLAMISATION OF ACEH
Date: Wednesday 23 October 2002
Subj: Aceh: Shari'a - the Islamisation of Acehnese Culture
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty E-mail Conference
From: Elizabeth Kendal, Conference Moderator eliz@alphalink.com.au
The oil- and gas-rich region of Aceh is located on the northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. Aceh has a population of 4.3 million and has historically been staunchly Islamic. On 1 January 2002, as part of a wide-ranging autonomy package that the Indonesian government hoped would appease separatists, Aceh was granted the right to adopt Islamic law.
On 3 January 2002 the Jakarta Post reported, "The Aceh or Nanggroe Aceh Darusallam administration has officially put the special autonomy law and syariah (Islamic law) into effect." The article went on to quote Teungku Sofyan Hamzah, an imam at the grand Baiturrahman Mosque. "Asked about feelings of anxiety by some non-Muslims in Aceh following the implementation of the Islamic law, he (Hamzah) said that the minority should not worry. 'The administration will use national law for them.'"
Well - an article appeared in the Jakarta Post on 28 September 2002, detailing how under shari'a law, caning or imprisonment would be the punishment for those who "propagated beliefs other than Islam to Muslims in the province."
I sent the article to Dr. Mark Durie, and asked him for a comment. The author of many articles and books on Acehnese language and culture, Dr. Mark Durie is a pastor at St. Hilarys Anglican Church Kew, Melbourne, Australia, and was formerly head of the Department of Linguistics and Language Studies at the University of Melbourne. His insights come from years of extensive research and experience of Acehnese culture.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Thanks for the ping!
Bumping.........