THREE CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BEHEADED
By Joy Junction (10/29/05)
Three Christian high school girls have been beheaded in Indonesia. Another girl was badly injured.
The BBC reported (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4387604.stm) that the girls were walking through a cocoa plantation near the city of Poso in central Sulawesi province when they were attacked.
Police say the heads were found some distance from the bodies, the BBC reported. The motive for the attack is unclear, the BBC said. However, the girls attended a private Christian school, and one of the heads was left outside a church. That led to speculation that there may have been a religious motive.
In a news release from International Christian Concern (www.persecution.org), the group stated this incident means that persecution against Christians has taken a serious turn for the worse.
ICC stated that the group has been reporting on the increase in persecution towards Christians in Indonesia over the last couple of months.
"Radical Islamists have been increasingly forcing churches to close with and without help from local authorities," the news release stated.
Things have deteriorated so much, ICC stated, that on Oct. 25 the Secretary of "Indonesian Churches Together" sent out an urgent plea to the world's Christians asking that they pray for Christians in Indonesia.
According to ICC, the region where the girls were attacked experienced a brutal wave of persecution from 1998 through 2002. During that time, hundreds of people were murdered and about 1,000 homes burned down. Then in 2003 through 2004, there was a series of assassinations of pastors and Christian leaders.
The background to this, ICC commented, "is the funding of radical Imams, mosques, and pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools) by Saudi Arabia. Although Muslims and Christians had good relations for hundreds of years, since the advent of Saudi influence in Indonesian Islam, there has been wave after wave of death and destruction. This same pattern is repeated in Pakistan. Now ... it has been found that the same influence is being spread in U.S. mosques."
ICC continued, "All this while the Saudi's spend millions of dollars each year in the U.S. trying to convince U.S. citizens on TV ads and through the efforts of Washington's top lobbyists of their undying friendship with the people of the U.S."
ICC said the organization is asking concerned individuals to contact the Indonesian Embassy, "to politely ask for the protection of Christians in Poso, as well as to end the pattern of church closings in West Java, Indonesia."
According to its web site (www.persecution.org/newsite/about.php?PHPSESSID=5770fcff2dab7aa7249b0de711b2bcf5), ICC assists Christians who are being persecuted for practicing their faith.
The Embassy of Indonesia, Washington D.C., Ambassador: Duta Besar, Minister: Andri Hadi, 2020 Massachusetts Ave N.W.,Washington D.C. 20036. Tel: 202-775-5200
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