The mournful horn echoes in the still air at 4 a.m. The call
to prayer resounds off bullet-pocked walls and empty buildings. The Christian
remnant in this Indonesian village awakens to cry out to God for peace.
The mournful horn echoes in the still air at 4 a.m. The call
to prayer resounds off bullet-pocked walls and empty buildings. The Christian
remnant in this Indonesian village awakens to cry out to God for peace.
The Christian call to prayer has been sounding every night
since the conflict between Muslims and Christians erupted in Indonesias
Maluku Islands in January 1999. More than 4,000 people have been killed and
as many as 500,000 people displaced in this religious and political war.
Jim Brown recently traveled to the Maluku Islands. He is human
needs consultant for the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. While
in Indonesia, his team tried to assess how Southern Baptists can help refugees
– and gather evidence that the fighting in the island nation is being fueled
by an outside group.
“Our ambassador said the only way the international community
would do anything would be if they were able to prove outside influence with
this jihad war,” he said.
A breakthrough for Christians came last month when Indonesian
President Abdurrahman Wahid acknowledged the influence of Islamic extremists
and condemned the fighting. “There is an effort by Islamic extremists to
convert Christians to Islam in the Malukus,” Wahid said during a speech
at a mosque in Jakarta. “This is not right.”
The Laskar Jihad paramilitary group has taken most of the responsibility
for the violence. They maintain a website designed to recruit Islamic extremists
who are willing to force Muslim villages in the Malukus to attack Christians.
In areas where Christians and Muslims have peacefully lived
side by side for decades, jihad warriors demand Muslim villages join in the
fight or risk being attacked.
“This jihad is setting friends against friends and neighbors
against neighbors,” Brown said. “Their whole philosophy is to eradicate
Christians from Indonesia – to kill them all or get them to convert.”
People are responding to the plight.
The Indonesian military is present on the island of Ambon –
and humanitarian groups like Mercy Corps and Doctors Without Borders are providing
water and food for both Christians and Muslims. The Southern Baptist International
Mission Board also is partnering with other Great Commission Christians to begin
construction of temporary housing for the thousands of refugees.
“I was real encouraged with the church community in Ambon
and how they were tackling this problem of refugees,” Brown said. “They
accepted the refugees as if they were part of their own family.”
The temporary housing will be constructed on Ceram Island,
where 11,000 people have taken refuge. A team of volunteers from California
will build barracks during the day and show the “Jesus” film in the
evenings.
“Some churches wont touch this project because the
risk is too high,” team leader Chris Cole said. “But we go because
the love of Christ compels us.”
The International Mission Board will underwrite the costs for
the barracks using money from its general relief fund. The board also will use
Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund resources to meet critical food needs and
provide agricultural assistance.
Baptists are combining efforts to assist in every possible
circumstance in the island nation.
Stanley is a 27-year-old Indonesian Baptist who was innocently
struck by mortar shrapnel when Muslims attacked his village. Pieces of the shrapnel
became lodged in his brain, and Indonesian doctors gave him six months to live.
However, a Baptist surgeon in Singapore is reviewing Stanleys case for
treatment and possible surgery. If medical help cannot be secured in Singapore,
an appeal will be made to the United States for a humanitarian visa.
Brown compared the religious cleansing taking place in the
Malukus to the ethnic cleansing that occurred in Kosovo.
“In Kosovo, there was no outside influence pushing Serbian
leaders to do this (cleansing),” he said. “And (in the Malukus), the
U.S. Embassy keeps telling us we need to make sure its an outside influence
that is initiating all this.
“I keep thinking, Why? Its taking place right
now. It has been going on for at least two years. And evidence of it exists
all throughout the Malukus.
“It is only going to stop when either the international
community says enough is enough, or when the Laskar Jihad finally accomplishes
its main objective of ridding the Malukus of all Christians.”
Christians can help ensure that it is the former alternative
that occurs, observers insist.
Indeed, Christian leaders around the world are urging persons
to encourage media and government representatives to give attention to the plight
of innocent civilians who are being killed or forced to convert to Islam.
Among the questions they encourage persons to ask is –
if this were a cleansing affecting other ethnic and religious groups, such as
Kosovars or Rwandans, would the international community be silent? (BP)
(For more information about conditions in Indonesia, persons may contact the
International Mission Board at 804-219-1675. financial contributions may be
sent to: International Mission Board, General Relief Fund-Ambon, P.O. Box 6767,
Richmaond, VA 23230. Persons also may contact their congressional representatives
with “Find Your Reps” at http://congress.org.
They may encourage media coverage of the situation by e-mailing feedback@cnn.com.
They may encourage diplomats to act by contacting the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta
by e-mailing jakconsul@state.gov or
by faxing 62-21-386-2259. They may contact the Indonesian Embassy in Washington,
D.C. by e-mailing poldivikbriwash@erolds.com
or by faxing
202-775-5365.)