Posted on 08/08/2002 1:30:24 AM PDT by American in Israel
Islamic Jihad forces are preparing to strike an Indonesian town where more than 65,000 Christians reside, according to a group that monitors persecution of Christians.
The Christian community of Ranoncu Bridge on the island of Sulawesi told Washington, D.C.-based International Christian Concern yesterday that the Muslim militants are less than four miles from Tentena, a town that barely escaped an attack last November.
Last fall local Christians and the Indonesian military engaged in a six-hour battle at Ranoncu Bridge that prevented Laskar Jihad forces from advancing toward Tentena.
Laskar Jihad, a group that expresses allegiance to Osama bin Laden, has the stated aim of making Indonesia a strict Islamic nation. The group has escalated a conflict in Central Sulawesi that has taken more than 2,000 lives and waged a violent campaign against Christians in neighboring Maluku province, where at least 9,000 people have been killed since 1999. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, with more than 180 million. A minority supports the radical Islamic parties, analysts say.
A government military post was installed near Ranoncu Bridge in January, but a military officer said yesterday that they can do nothing now but "just wait for the attack and orders from their superiors."
"Up until now, the Christians have been unable to do anything," said a leader at the Christians' crisis center, which helps monitor the situation. "They have only been keeping watch and just waiting."
"There has been no effort made by the military so far to stop the advancing Jihad warriors," the leader said.
Many Christian men have come from Tentena with homemade weapons in an attempt to ward off what could be thousands of approaching Jihad warriors, according to a worker at the crisis center.
A Christian leader in Ranoncu Bridge, issuing an urgent appeal for prayer and help, said: "We can hear the jihad warriors very clearly shouting 'Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar' [Allah is great]."
We agree. The problem is the lack of leadership among both the Christians and Muslims. Ataturks don't grow on trees, neither do Mother Teresas, but the violence always does seem to originate on the so-called Muslim side. That is the biggest concern. Yes, there are over 1 billion Muslims and they come from all different directions. But the violence against other religions, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and of course Jewish, needs to be stopped. Otherwise, world-wide Islam may get lumped in a large grouping, and end up in the non-Muslim's version of Jihad, just as self-protection by other groups. And it will all be caused by radical wackjobs, spouting hatred..
Consider the so-called Muslims, occuping the Church of the Nativity in Bethleham. What about the Taliban, destroying that ancient Buddhist monument in Afghanistan? What about the Hindus, burned alive in that train (which sparked retaliation). Just imagine if any non-Muslim group went into Mecca. For some reason, that would be all wrong, but all other groups can take anything according to the imams and mullahs. This cannot continue.
Please realize that I have a very high regard for your intelligence, and am only trying to see things from other perspectives. Best regards
MARINA Rumakur had two choices: renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam or be killed. "They told us we must convert or they would cut our throats," recalled the shy 14-year-old. Like hundreds of other Christians she fled into the jungle when her village on the tiny Indonesian island of Kesui was attacked by Islamic militants.
The threat to Marina’s life was genuine. Two teachers from a neighbouring village had already been beheaded when they refused to convert. "So we knew we had no choice."
Worse, however, was to come. More than 900 Christian men, women and children from all over Kesui were forced to submit to ritual circumcision as part of a campaign to purge the island of its entire Christian population.
The brutal forced conversions mark a new low in the religious war that has raged through Indonesia’s Spice Islands for the past two years, claiming the lives of more than 5,000 civilians. Christians say the the attacks on the village were led by the feared Laskar Jihad, the self-styled "holy warriors" who arrived here from Java last year to take up arms on behalf of their beleaguered Muslim brothers. As they descended on Karlomin village, the white-robed warriors let out a cry of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great", the trademark battle cry of the Laskar Jihad.
After surrendering, Marina and the other villagers were marched to a mosque in the Muslim village of Amarlaud where they were ordered to wash in preparation for conversion. The few belongings they had brought with them were searched, and their Bibles and prayer books were taken away and burned. Marina fought back tears as a small gold cross, her confirmation gift, was ripped from her neck.
Outside the mosque, warriors stood guard with rifles and spears as the Christians knelt and recited the simple prayer marking a convert’s entrance into the Islamic faith. Glancing up, some saw the barrel of a gun aimed straight at them as they stumbled through the unfamiliar words.
For the next week they were kept prisoner in the mosque as the imam observed them praying five times a day.
Despite that, they were told their performance had not been satisfactory and that they would have to undergo a further ceremony. No one dared ask what it entailed. Men and women were separated and led away to a curtained area at the side of the mosque. When Marina’s turn came, she was told to remove her lower clothing and made to sit in the lap of one Muslim woman while another performed the circumcision.
The rusty razor blade she used had already been used on several other women without being disinfected.
"The razor was covered in blood," Marina recounted. "I was trembling and crying so they told me to close my eyes." The women told her that the cut would be "no more painful that an ant bite." That turned out to be a lie.
"The blade was so blunt that they had to cut again and again. It was so painful that I cried out," said Marina softly, hiding her face with her hands. Her six-year-old sister, Emiliana, was the youngest to be circumcised. "It was worst for her because she is so little. She cried and cried from the pain."
Indonesia, home of Clinton's #1 foreign supporter Riady.
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