they will protect Christian churches during the Christmas season after warnings that Islamic militants may attack during that period.
Indonesia’s intelligence agency warned recently that information indicated extremists may be planning attacks over the Christmas-New Year period in large cities across the sprawling archipelago, including the capital Jakarta, BosNewsLife learned.
Members of Banser, a group of youths who wear military-style uniforms and are affiliated with the organization Nahdlatu Ulama (NU) "will be posted to churches nationwide to guard against extremist attacks" said NU Deputy Chair Madar Masudi in a statement.
"It is our tradition. It is our obligation to protect one another as members of the nation," he added. He did not say how many volunteers would be deployed in the world’s largest Muslim-populated nation of over 225-million people, but said Banser had about 4,000 members nationwide who could help.
The support from moderate Muslims was expected to be welcomed by human rights groups who have complained about increased Islamic violence against Christians and churches. In one of the latest incidents last month, masked gunmen shot and wounded a Christian couple in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi, police and hospital sources confirmed.
PALU SHOOTING
45-year old Pudji Laksono, a lecturer at the state Tadulako University, and his wife Novlin Pallinggi, 37, were shot November 19, while on their way home a church service in the provincial capital Palu, said the city’s Police Chief Guntur Widodo.
That shooting came a day after unidentified assailants reportedly shot three teenage girls in Palu, killing one of them. Catholic news agency AsiaNews reported that another 22-year old girl, identified only as Yanti, died after being wounded Friday, November 18, in the neck by a machete.
The violence followed the October 29 beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls and the shooting on November 8 of two girls in Poso, about 150 kilometers (about 94 miles) from the provincial capital. In addition hundreds of churches, including dozens of churches this summer, have been forced to close down in Indonesia by Muslim militants and local authorities, several human rights investigators have said.
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
There is also concern about limitations on Christian education after three Indonesian Sunday school teachers who were jailed for allegedly forcing Muslim children to lost an appeal last month.
US-based religious rights group Christian Freedom International (CFI) said it learned that Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun, who serve a three year prison since September in the Indramayu district of West Java province "lost an important appeal" last week, November 22, "to have their sentences reduced or overturned" by a higher court.
The central Indonesian government has promised it will crackdown on Muslim extremism, but religious rights workers say more has to be done to avoid escalating religious violence. (With with additional reporting by BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos at BosNewsLife News Center).
