Illustrating their personal testimony with photographs and
horrific video images, American workers and Indonesian atrocity victims recently
recounted a systematic butchering of Christian civilians by Islamic warriors
in Indonesias Moluccan islands.
Illustrating their personal testimony with photographs and
horrific video images, American workers and Indonesian atrocity victims recently
recounted a systematic butchering of Christian civilians by Islamic warriors
in Indonesias Moluccan islands.
“Christians I met with on the Moluccan islands witnessed
their loved ones being hacked to pieces by jihad warriors,”
Steven Snyder said during a recent press conference. Snyder is president of
International Christian Concern, a religious liberty organization. He recently
returned from a fact-finding visit to Indonesia.
“Children watched their mothers and fathers being killed
in front of them,” he reported.
Most of the 2 million inhabitants of about 1,000 Moluccan islands
are Muslims who dwelt in harmony with their minority Christian neighbors until
hostilities broke out in early 1999, a report from CNSNews.com said. Since then,
an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 people have died in conflicts between the two communities.
In North Molucca, 168 churches have been destroyed, as well
as 34 mosques destroyed in counter attacks, Snyder reported. In the same period,
more than 500,000 Christian and Muslim people have been forced to flee their
homes.
During his trip, Snyder was taken into custody by Indonesian
security forces and forcibly deported out of the area. Later, he read accounts
in Jakarta newspapers of foreigners being deported for spying on the Indonesian
military. However, Snyder said he previously had cleared all of his travel plans
with security forces.
Snyder managed to smuggle out a compact disk used by the jihad
movement to solicit young Muslim recruits in their effort to launch attacks
on Christians.
The disk shows marching jihad warriors, getting into boats
and heading in mass for the islands. “This supports many reports from Christians
who said jihad warriors came by the thousands in boats and invaded
their islands and attacked their villages and showed no mercy,” Snyder
said.
During the news conference, Snyder showed photos of a Christian
family of six, each of whom was forcibly circumcised by Muslim militants; of
beheadings; of burned churches; and of an elderly Christian woman who survived
after her face was shot away by Muslim gunmen.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom held
hearings on the violence in February, which Snyder and others say stems from
past government policies, economic tensions and power struggles between the
military and supporters of ousted President Suharto.
Attempts to move toward more democratic forms of government
have been seen by Muslims as attacks on Islam and as secularizing Indonesia.
The groups have been pressing for Islamic law. They also are taking advantage
of the ethnic clashes that took place in neighboring area, Snyder said. “The
militants want to turn it into a religious war.”
Clashes intensified when the democratic government tried to
enact policies to relocate Muslims from overcrowded areas to less-crowded, predominantly
Christian islands. “Some of the jihad groups saw this as an opportunity
to destabilize the government and push forward their program for conversion
to Islam for all Indonesia,” Snyder said.
International Christian Concern and civil rights group Christian
Aid have launched a campaign to rescue more than 7,000 villagers under threat
from the jihad. One rescue operation has been carried out by boat, with others
planned.
The situation is alarming, Snyder reported. The Indonesian
security forces have participated alongside “jihad warriors,” he said.
Indeed, in some areas, the security forces actually are serving as security
for the jihad, who have surrounded Christian communities, Snyder and others
say.
“The Indonesian government has not been able to control
their own military,” Snyder said. “The local police, on the other
hand, have tried to protect the Christians.”
During his visit to the island nation, Snyder said he heard
many testimonies of excellent neighborly relations between Muslims and Christians,
including instances of when Muslims helped Christians build churches and Christians
helped Muslims build mosques.
“(However) Many Muslims were afraid that if they didnt side with
the jihad extremists, theyd be seen as sympathizers and would themselves
fall victim,” Snyder said. (BP)
