A  Catholic priest in Indonesia has been prevented from celebrating mass by the authorities after a group of Muslims challenged the legal status of Christ’s Peace Church in South Duri, West Jakarta.

The pressure by Muslim extremists led the officials of Tambura Sub-district to ban the activities of the church in a bid to avoid supposed “social tensions”.

A few weeks ago a Muslim group called the Cooperation Forum for Mosque, Prayer Rooms and Koranic Group of Duri Selatan, challenged the legal status of the church, saying that they do not have the correct permits needed for places of worship.

Indonesian security forces have prevented an attack by about 50 Muslim militants on the troubled Pasundan Christian Church in West Java Province, the second act of violence against the Protestant congregation in two weeks.

Netherlands-based Open Doors, which supports Christians allegedly persecuted for their faith, said two trucks of police officers arrived December 2, just several hours earlier than the planned attack to protect the building against suspected members of the Anti Apostasy Movement Alliance' (AAMA).

The latest incident came after some 250 radical Muslims of AAMA forced their way into the Pasundan Christian Church on November 18.

Although the church already exists over five decades, the municipality authorities have refused to give official permission to use the building for worship services apparently under pressure of Islamic leaders and militants, several sources have said.

A group of 500 Indonesian 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 in 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.

For his part the teacher who sparked the incident is currently in police custody.

Update: Rebuilding

22nd December 2008. See article from compassdirect.org

Government officials in Central Maluku, Indonesia, have now promised to reconstruct before Christmas two church buildings and a number of houses set ablaze last week during sectarian rioting in Letwaru village, Masohi district.

Police have named Asmara Wasahua, Muhammad Patty – and Holle, the schoolteacher – as suspects in the riot. According to local media reports, police have accused Wasahua, a local candidate of the Islamic Justice and Welfare Party, of distributing hate flyers and mobilizing the protestors.

Hundreds rallied in Indonesia's capital city, Jakarta, on Sunday, urging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to stop attacks by radical Islamists on Christian churches. Related

Carrying several Indonesian flags at half-mast, the mostly Christian group demanded that the president punish hardline Muslim groups that attack minority faiths.

Protesters accused the president and the government of violating constitutional rights of minority groups to freely practice their religion.

This year, between January and July, there were reportedly 28 cases of religious freedom violations in Indonesia. In 2009, there were only 18 reported for the whole year. In 2008, there were only 17.

Indonesian rights groups say the violations, mostly by radical Muslim groups, include the forced closure of churches and attacks such as torching.

Three men who took part in an attack on members of a minority Muslim group in Indonesia have been sentenced to between three and six months in jail.

Three Ahmadiyah members were bludgeoned to death in west Java in February.

Human rights activists said the court had sent a chilling message that attacks on minorities would be treated lightly by the legal system.

The US embassy in Jakarta expressed disappointment at the disproportionately light sentences: The United States encourages Indonesia to defend its tradition of tolerance for all religions, a tradition praised by President Obama in his November 2010 visit to Jakarta.

Update: Victim Convicted

20th August 2011. See article from religionnewsblog.com

An Indonesian man wounded when Muslim hard-liners attacked members of his minority Islamic sect has been sentenced to six months in jail, more than some of the actual attackers who were caught on video.

The Associate Press reports that the Serang District Court said Deden Sudjana -- whose hand was nearly severed by a machete -- resisted police orders to leave the scene and then attacked one of the leaders of the mob that killed three members of the Ahmadiyah sect. [...]

So far, 12 members of the mob have been convicted. Their relatively lenient sentences of just three to six months set a chilling message about growing religious intolerance in Indonesia, said Andreas Harsono from Human Rights Watch.

A second brutal mob attack on Indonesia's Ahmadiyya last week, as well as the harsh sentencing of an Ahmadi victim in a previous attack, are further proof of a troubling downward spiral in religious freedom in Indonesia. Freedom House calls on the Indonesian government to step up its efforts to protect its minority faith communities through effective law enforcement, appropriate and unbiased application of the law, and an active role in promoting religious tolerance at all levels.

On August 13, a mob of 30 members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) attacked the Indonesian Ahmadiyyah Congregation (JAI) secretariat in Makassar, South Sulawesi, injuring three people and damaging JAI property, including its mosque. Although police detained an FPI leader, a riot squad was sent to disperse the mob only after the attacks on the JAI had already taken place.

Religious freedom forms a cornerstone of a vibrant democracy and is crucial in ensuring that a variety of other human rights are respected ---especially in a country as diverse as Indonesia, said president of Freedom House, David J. Kramer. The appalling treatment of the Ahmadiyya community by Indonesian authorities is completely unacceptable, especially in light of the country's leadership on democracy and human rights issues in the region.

In a test case of religious intolerance, an Indonesian mayor is defying court rulings by pushing for a decree to block Christians from opening churches on streets with Islamic names.

Members of the Taman Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church in the West Java town of Bogor are, after three years, still forced to worship on the sidewalk outside their building, protected by police.

The administration of Bogor mayor Diani Budiarto revoked the church's building permit and sealed the building as the street had an Islamic name.

Local Muslim cleric Muhammad Mustofa, whose father is the street's namesake, has publicly stated that he has no objection to the church. Islam in Indonesia ... has always interacted with Buddhism, and Christianity. We are ready to live side by side with anyone, he told the Al Jazeera news network.

At least one person has been killed and several injured by a suicide bombing at a church in Central Java, Indonesia.

Witnesses said the terrorist struck as people were leaving the Bethel Injil Sepuluh church in Keputon, Solo after a Sunday service.

Militant Islamic groups have carried out a number of deadly attacks in recent years.

Indonesia's security minister Djoko Suyanto said two people had been killed - one at the church and one who died of their injuries in hospital. It is unclear if the two included the bomber.  Earlier, Suyanto told El Shinta radio that nothing could justify the inhuman attack: It is the task of everybody to overcome this act of terrorism.

A hospital official said 20 people had been injured, three seriously, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Update: Another Bomb

1st October 2011. See article from christianpost.com

The day after the suicide bomb attack wounded 28 at a church in Indonesia, affiliated with Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback megachurch, explosives were found in front of another church in a different district, exposing the magnitude of the threat to minority Christians.

This is in a series of bombs that we found there [in Ambon], the Jakarta Globe newspaper quoted National Police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam as saying. All are homemade bombs, they are all similar. So the maker is the same.

Ambon Island in East Indonesia has been religiously tense since Sept. 11 when a clash between Muslims and Christians erupted over rumors that a Muslim motorcycle taxi driver who suffered a fatal traffic accident was killed by Christians. The ensuing violence left at least eight people, three Christians and five Muslims, dead.

It is being suspected that Sunday's attack on the church in Central Java was an act of revenge for the latest spate of violence in Ambon, which has witnessed several deadly sectarian clashes for over a decade. Over 9,000 people have died in those clashes.