Church burning in Malaysia , Could they be the work of illegal Indonesian migrants here ?

Imagine a 14 year old Indonesian maid who bluff her age that she was 18 and about to be sent back to Indonesia set fire to the employers house !

As I wrote in my previous article , we should wait for the police to do their work before we start accusing others of being arsonists !

Please pray for persecuted Christians in Indonesia

Brain Sihotang has sent us information about the horrendous persecution of Christians in his country. He says, "Many church burned together with their congregation (people inside). Christian witnesses who went there couldn't describe it because too many had been killed."

This picture shows the inside of one of the torched churches with its victims. Please join us in prayer for these brothers and sisters in Christ. I know God wants His people to stand together in this battle.

Indonesia: Muslims burn Christian church, riot

Indonesia? -- that paradigm of Muslim tolerance and moderation? And the reason? A school teacher somehow or other -- it's often easily and unwittingly done -- "insulted" Islam, and was thus deemed a "blasphemer." But surely these enraged Muslims were among that "minority" of "misinterpreters" of Islam? Nope: it was Indonesia's ulema who "mobilized" the 500-strong Muslim throng, to "protest."

"Muslims burn Christian church in Indonesia," from Spero News, December 11:

Violence ensued when Muslims accused a teacher of blasphemy. Police attempted to restore order in the Moluccan Islands of Indonesia, while stores and offices are closed.

A group of 500 Muslims wreaked havoc and spread panic in Masohi, in the Moluccan Islands, during clashes with police and local Christians. As a result, 45 homes, a church and a village hall were set alight. The spark that set off the violence is an incident in which a teacher allegedly insulted Islam in front of some Muslim students.

Once the story spread, the local Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) mobilised, rallying some 500 people in front of the Central Maluku Education Agency. For more than an hour they protested, accusing the teacher of blasphemy and calling for his dismissal. Afterwards, the protesters marched to police headquarters near the school. When they were told that the police chief was out of town, most of the demonstrators left but a group remained to confront the police. The violence spread and resulted in the burning of Christian homes and a church.

News about the incident in Masohi spread across Seram Island and rekindled memories of the Moluccan War of 1999-2000 when Muslims and Christians clashed, with thousands of deaths. Police are on a heightened state of alert while stores and offices are closed as a precautionary measure. Law enforcement authorities have identified those responsible for the clashes. For his part the teacher who sparked the incident is currently in police custody.

IRWAN FIRDAUS Associated Press Writer
AP Online
12-06-1998
UJUNGPANDANG, Indonesia (AP) _ Guarded by riot police, about 600 Roman Catholics read the Bible at a Sunday service in front of an Indonesian church that was attacked and burned by Muslims.

Several worshippers wept, and three Christian soldiers joined the congregation in the city of Ujungpandang on Sulawesi island, 840 miles east of the capital, Jakarta.

The attack Friday was the latest religious violence to hit Indonesia in recent weeks. Rioters smashed windows and set fire to the Kare Catholic church, burning pews and prayer books and destroying statues and other holy ornaments.

During the past two weeks, at least 25 ...

Five people die in attacks on Indonesian churches
JAKARTA, Oct 11 (Reuter) - Five people died when a mob burned nine churches, four Christian schools and a convent in the Indonesian town of Situbondo, a policeman in the town said on Friday.

"It is true the churches were burnt" on Thursday, the policeman told Reuters by telephone from the town on Java island 800 km (500 miles) east of the capital Jakarta.

"The five died inside a church," he said before the phone was cut off. He said the crowd also destroyed a court building and cars and caused other damage during the violence around 1 p.m. on Thursday.

Indonesia's nearly 200 million population on the archipelago of 17,500 islands is more than 85 percent Moslem, but the state ideology preaches religious tolerance and recognises the five main religions.

Situbondo is about 160 km (100 miles) east of Indonesia's second city, Surabaya, where a number of attacks on churches were reported in June. The reason for these attacks was not clear.

The policeman said it wasn't yet known what had cause the Sitobondo riot or whether it had been organised. A number of people had been detained and investigations were continuing, he added.

A Surabaya-based journalist who went to Situbondo said the riot apparently broke out after a hearing in the court into a case of alleged blasphemy against Islam.

He said several thousand people outside the court during the third hearing into the cased called for the accused to be sentenced immediately or handed over to the crowd. He said another church was also burnt in the neighbouring town of Panarukan.

A hall being used by Roman Catholics as a church in a village in east Jakarta was burned down in mid-September. Catholics in the area attributed the attack to religious antagonism towards their presence.