Posted on 05/05/2002 3:09:53 PM PDT by knighthawk
AMBON, Indonesia: Hundreds of Christians in Indonesia's eastern port city of Ambon were sheltering in police stations and religious institutions Sunday after a mortar attack on their neighbourhood killed two.
Other residents were believed to be hiding in the hills overlooking the capital of the Maluku Islands, which has seen three years of bloody fighting between Muslims and Christians.
Up to 9,000 people have been killed in the archipelago, 2,600 km east of Jakarta, since sectarian violence started in 1999. A peace deal signed in February has all but collapsed in recent weeks.
Witnesses said 19 mortar shells were lobbed into a Christian neighbourhood in Ambon on Saturday. Eleven exploded, killing two Christians and injuring at least eight others.
It was unclear who fired the mortars. The shells bore the mark of PT Pindad, a state-run munitions factory.
"The explosions happened when we were eating. When the police said they were mortars, we ran," said Ros Farfar, 45, who was taking refuge in the offices of a local bishop a day after the attacks.
The city, which is divided into Christian and Muslims sections, was quiet Sunday. Some Christians left their homes to attend church services.
Tensions in the city were high Saturday following news that the leader of a Muslim paramilitary group active in the region had been arrested in the Javanese city of Surabaya. Jafar Umar Thalib, leader of the Laskar Jihad group, is being held at police headquarters in Jakarta.
Police said that Thalib was suspected of inciting the recent upsurge in violence, specifically an attack that killed 13 Christians last Sunday on the outskirts of Ambon.
Local Christian leaders have long accused Thalib and his followers of stirring up the bloodshed.
The paramilitary group enjoys strong support in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. It denies targeting Christians. Christian youth in Ambon have also formed militia groups and are believed to possess sophisticated weaponry.
Fighting intensified in 2000 when armed Laskar Jihad fighters arrived in Maluku, also known as the Spice Islands. The group has rejected the February peace deal and is refusing to hand in its weapons.
Some analysts have accused Laskar Jihad of having links to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, something that it and Indonesian officials deny.
In Maluku - which has a population of about two million people -the balance between Christians and Muslims is almost even. Several parts of Indonesia have been racked by separatist, ethnic and religious violence for years.
In Aceh province, government troops shot and killed five separatist rebels in a clash close to the provincial capital early on Sunday, the military said. More than 10,000 have died in Aceh during 26 years' of conflict between guerillas wanting independence and security forces.
The problem is American and European Liberals who are paralyzed by their Liberal paradigm and cannot--or will not--see the reality of the situation.
Muslim organizations clearly intend to make Indonesia into a Muslim state--and not only Indonesia--North America, Europe, India, the Phillipines, and the entire world.
Militant Islam intends to conquer all of the people of the world and to subject them to Islam, the sharia, and perhaps the taliban. Its advocates declare this. They will use whatever means are available--clearly including terror, murder, ethnic cleansing--whatever.
The warning alarms are blaring! Does the civilized world hear them?
The first and most important step in defending against this evil must be the removal of its enablers from power in North America and Europe. This means the repudiation of Liberalism and the "Liberal paradigms", the defeat of Liberal political candidates--Democrats in the U.S.--and the removal of them from office.
Those who are tempted to vote for Liberal/Democrat candidates must realize that a vote for them is a vote for America's enemies, for the destruction of the U.S., and for the end of liberty and justice in North America--and the rest of the world as well.
The world faces an enemy every bit as dangerous as The Third Reich--perhaps more fanatical and more dangerous. The civilized people of the world--especially in the U.S. must defend themselves. It will not be easy. They cannot afford to do otherwise.
A JIHAD ELSEWHEREAMBON, Indonesia-- To be sure, peace is desperately needed here. A large, makeshift cross in Ambon marks the spot where a church once stood. The vacant lot is now part of no man's land separating the Christian and Muslim parts of town. Nearby lie several blocks of ruined buildings filled with the debris of war.
Living with militant Muslims isn't just a problem in the Middle East.
BY DOUG BANDOW
The Wall Street Journal
Friday, May 3, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT
Religious tensions date back to colonial times, when...the then-majority Christians (resented) the influx of Muslim immigrants.
(Today) Christians...are only 10% of Indonesia's population. (They) have borne the greater weight of persecution and suffering.
Robert Lesnussa, a Bible teacher in Jakarta, says that successful missionary efforts by Christians have fueled the anxiety and anger of Muslims. "They feel Christians are threatening their religion." In late 1999, a Muslim mob descended on the seminary where Mr. Lesnussa once taught. Only rubble remains.
Far worse is the situation in the Moluccas, where some 6,000 fighters of the Laskar Jihad, or Holy Warrior Troops, have flocked to combat the islands' Christians. Hundreds of churches have been destroyed. Human casualties include not only the dead and wounded but, in another sense, the Christians who have been forced to convert to Islam, the price of being allowed to stay in their villages.
************************************************************
Last year, Agus Wattimena, the head of a Christian militia fighting the Laskar Jihad, told me: "Go back to America and tell Christians that they must help us here." He was killed shortly afterward.
(Bold mine--SB)
Islam is not compatible with democracy. It is a trojan horse where it is a minority.
I realize that Turkey is an exception. But it requires undemocratic means to prevent an Islamic government from coming to power, i.e. Islamic parties are outlawed.
Certainly some of the constraint is that Turkey desires to remain in NATO and join the EU. This is not to say that I don't admire Turkey for the task it has undertaken.
But I have said for some time that the Islamic mosques and centers in this country should be under the same type of watch that extremist political groups have always been under.
Freedom of religion is one thing, but those who abuse that freedom to undertake sedition against the country should not have that protection.
If more Muslims in this country would be forthcoming, the entire religion would not be suspect.
The Islamic holocaust could dwarf the Nazi holocaust.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.