The bloody Muslim persecution of Christians in Indonesia is nota new story, but it's not one you hear much about in the West, not from our media. This from a National Review piece I wrote four years ago, about the indifference of the West to the intense persecution of Christians in the Muslim world:
An Indonesian man with a lined, anxious face hands me a photograph from a magazine report on events in his homeland. I am looking at a photograph of the burned and decapitated corpse of a Christian man who was murdered in a Christmas Eve pogrom in his village. His killers were members of Laskar Jihad, a heavily armed Islamist terror group. "They cut off his genitals too," the Indonesian man explains. "He died at his church."
My informant, a Christian human-rights activist who refused to be identified, in order to protect his family, has photographs of Christian villages burned to the ground by Laskar Jihad. Numerous sources say the group has killed as many as 10,000 Indonesian Christians, forcibly converted thousands more, and demolished hundreds of churches. Activists say the Jakarta regime has only sporadically shown an interest in protecting the nation's Christian minority, and some accuse elements of the government and military of sympathy with the jihadists.
"I was in Indonesia when 9/11 happened, and I followed the statements of Muslim political leaders," says my informant. "They were encouraging Muslims to help Osama bin Laden. I was crying in my heart for New York, but I'm telling you, 9/11 happened once in New York, but it's happening every day to Christian villages in Indonesia."
[snip]
You try going over there and facing these Christians, like I did recently in Indonesia, and answering them when they ask, 'You're supposed to be our brother Christians, why aren't you doing anything? Why are you letting them kill us?'" says [Ann]Buwalda[ director of the DC-based human rights group Jubilee Campaign USA]. "You can see how angry and upset they are, and they're right to be. They say they just hope September 11 wakes us up to what they have to live with every day."
Three Christian farmers are going to be murdered by the government of Indonesia tomorrow to pacify Islamists. If you can, take time out of your preparation for Friday's planned "Day of Rage" across the Muslim world, set to protest the Pope's mentioning of a Byzantine emperor's judgment of Islam's peacefulness, to give these poor souls, and all those persecuted by Islamic rule, a thought.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Mr. Moore,
What does Guantanamo have to do with Christian villages in Indonesia? What about burning down Orthodox Christian churches to protest what the leader of the rival church said in a speech?
Threatening Europe with "the Real Holocaust" because a newspaper in Denmark publishes cartoons that you don't like? If by Karma you mean that violence is a self-perpetuating cycle that sweeps millions of innocents into it's path, yes.
But stop using the "moral equivalence" argument to justify every evil action committed by Muslims. That's also incredibly condescending to Muslims.>
"It's interesting to note that the protesters don't claim that the three Christian men are innocent, only that they did not receive a fair trial."
Fair trial and due process are prettty important, huh? Even if people are accused of terrorism. This discussion seems familiar.
Gleen Greenwald acutely demonstrates the cruel satire of this situation.>
In Indonesia, suspected terrorists can be convicted in a trial in which they are not allowed to see the evidence against them, are not allowed to present witnesses for the defense, and can be executed without appeal. As much as we would like to deny it, this does sound very much like the procedures that President Bush wants to use against terrorism here.
Do you remember why the JAG corpsmen initially protested Bush's proposal? They were worried about reciprocity: if we use such biased courts here, then other countries will do the same to us. And, equally importantly, we will lose any moral standing to protest such things overseas.
God help Sens. McCain, Graham, and Warner as they fight to prevent this from happening.>
Karen, I wasn't arguing for the use of torture at Guantanamo.
Rod, villages in Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon have also been burnt to the ground.
Alicia, agree that violence is self-perpetuating.
also torture (see biography of Qutb for example).
also injustice (how's habeas corpus doing in our anti-terror gulag?)--Rod's the one who brought up kangaroo courts.>
Those three men appealed, and had their appeals denied, they also appealed for clemency to the president, but were turned down. Within the logic of the Indonesian legal system there is little that can be done - now. Also remember that they were convicted of taking part in a massacre of 70? or 120? or 200? people, the number is always different in each report.
Nevertheless it is a great injustice that three ordinary men, who were likely initially thinking mainly of defending their homes and families, and then got caught up in something very bad later, suffer a fate that the people who were pulling the strings behind all the violence in Sulawesi will never have to.>
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.