Barnabas Fund - International Headquarters River Street, Pewsey, Wilthire. Phone: +44 1672 565030 Latitude: 51 deg 23 min 18 sec N Longitude: 1 deg 45 min 48 sec W .
Home
News
Archives
Indonesian mayor blocks roads to church ...

Email:

Indonesian mayor blocks roads to church to stop service

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
 refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

Published: 11:00 GMT Standard Time - Friday 18 November 2011

Indonesian mayor blocks roads to church to stop service

Country/Region: Indonesia, South and East Asia

An under-fire mayor has carried out his threat to block all access roads to an Indonesian church in his latest effort to prevent the congregation from holding services.

The congregation of Yasmin Church (KGI) in Bogor were forced to meet in one of the member’s homes on Sunday (13 November) after they were denied access to their site by security forces and Muslim extremists.

Bogor-West-Java_4X3.jpg
A street scene from Bogor,
West Java, Indonesia
CC BY-NC 2.0 / Kent Kanouse

The church has been holding services on the street in front of its half-constructed church since its building permit was revoked in 2008. Bogor city chiefs, spearheaded by Mayor Diani Budiarto, have refused to comply with a Supreme Court order issued in December 2010 that the church be reopened.

On 9 October, the mayor sent security forces against the congregation after they gathered for their regular outdoor Sunday service. He warned the Christians that he would deny them access to the streets around the building to prevent them from meeting.

The church is also facing opposition from the Muslim Indonesia Communications Forum, whose extremist leader has claimed that KGI leaders falsified the signatures by residents on the application for its church building construction permit. This has been strongly denied by the church.

Mayor under fire

Mayor Budiarto is coming under mounting pressure over his refusal to uphold the court’s ruling in favour of the church. The nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP) has withdrawn its support from his administration and has not ruled out a vote of no confidence against him in the local legislative body.

Hamka Haw, head of the PDIP’s Religious Affairs Commission, said that Mayor Budiarto had violated the constitution and abused the rights of the members of the Yasmin Church, who had won their case in court and had a permit to practise their faith.

The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation has also intervened on behalf of the embattled church. Its president, Todung Mulya Lubis, has written to the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asking him to enforce the law.

He wrote:

Mr President, you are the last hope for the Yasmin Church to see its rights respected.

Muslim professor Azyumardi Azra, dean of the Ciputat State Islamic University (South Tangerang), has condemned the "inertia" of the government in pursuing the Mayor of Bogor, who, he says, should be put on trial over his treatment of the church.

Help us: Share this article

Email:

Indonesian mayor blocks roads to church to stop service

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
 refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

christian, persecution, charity, church, persecuted, sookhdeo, Islam

Other articles

No related articles found

Latest Emergency

/_images_files/content/article_files/Eritrea/201305/Eritrean-Christian-refugee-torture-wounds-4X3.jpg

Follow Barnabas

or

receive news & appeal emails as they are published

From Twitter

From Twitter_icon
Read more...

Daily prayer

Daily prayer_icon

  • On 20 January 2013 the Eritrean security police raided the homes of various Christians and arrested 50 people. One of them was a lady of 85, detained for hosting an underground church in her house. They joined hundreds of other believers currently held in Eritrean prisons, some of them in appalling conditions. Many more have fled the country to escape the persecution and have ended up in prison in Egypt, where they have been subjected to rape, beatings and starvation. Pray for all those Eritrean Christians suffering for their faith in their own country and beyond, that the Lord will be their help and shield (Psalm 33:20). Pray too for a prison ministry, supported by Barnabas, that visits and helps Eritrean Christians jailed in Egypt. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed 13 hours ago

  • Pray for the families of Abdoulaye and Abakachi, two converts from Islam to Christianity who were shot dead by Islamists in northern Cameroon. They were travelling with two other converts around Lake Chad on 19 February when their vehicle was stopped by four armed men who were looking for Abdoulaye. He was the leader of the converts from the Kotoko people group and had last year received a threat from militant Islamist group Boko Haram. The gunmen opened fire, killing Abakachi on the spot. Abdoulaye and another man were also shot; Abdoulaye later died of his injuries. He left a wife and 13 children; Abakachi left a wife and four children. Boko Haram had previously warned all Christian converts in northern Cameroon to return to Islam or “face Allah’s wrath”. Pray that the Lord will protect these vulnerable believers. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Thu, May 2013 00:00

  • Give thanks to the Lord for the courage and boldness of the Christians in North Korea who carry on witnessing for Christ despite the savage penalties imposed by the Communist regime. Those who share their faith or distribute Bibles risk torture and probable execution if they are caught, and their families may be dispatched to the country’s infamous labour camps to be starved or worked to death. Yet remarkably, the Church in North Korea is growing well, and some who have fled abroad and become Christians there have even gone back to share Christ with family and friends in their poverty and distress. Pray that God will keep His brave witnesses from harm and continue to add to their number (Acts 2:47). Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Wed, May 2013 00:00

  • Mohamed Ibaouene (36), a convert from Islam to Christianity, was convicted in July 2012 of “proselytising” in Algeria. The verdict was passed in his absence and without his knowledge. He was later sentenced to a year in prison and fined 50,000 dinars (£420; US$630). Mohamed challenged the conviction, and on 13 February 2013 the appeal court rescinded the jail term but doubled his fine. A Muslim colleague had brought the accusation against Mohamed after the latter refused to renounce Christ. Pray for justice for Mohamed and that the rights of Algerians to freedom of religion will be respected both by other citizens and by the law. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Tue, May 2013 00:00

  • The various measures recently taken against Christian churches and institutions by the government of Sudan add up to a ruthless campaign that may be intended to eradicate Christianity from the country altogether. They were launched by a media drive against alleged “Christianisation” and have focused in particular on those involved in Christian ministry. Numerous church buildings have been demolished, and Christian literature has been seized. President al-Bashir has declared his intention of making Sudan entirely Islamic and of strengthening the place of sharia. Pray that God will frustrate the plans of the authorities and that the churches of Sudan will remain faithful in the face of intimidation. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Mon, May 2013 00:00

Read more...

Quick navigation

© Barnabas Fund 1997 - 2013 All rights reserved.
Barnabas Fund & Barnabas Aid are registered trade marks